Oakland, California - Devaughndre Broussard, the man accused of slaying journalist Chauncey Bailey in August 2007, said he came to believe that Your Black Muslim Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV engaged in "propaganda" and "brainwashing," according newly released details from the statement he gave to the Alameda County District Attorney's Office.
The Chauncey Bailey Project, in partnership with KTVU, has learned Broussard, 21, also told Deputy District Attorney Chris Lamiero in a lengthy interview on March 23 and 24 that worked for Your Black Muslim Bakery in Oakland because he couldn't get a job elsewhere and he thought it could help him "accomplish something in life."
Broussard also said he worked "slave hours from sun up to sun down" for very little money.
Broussard's statement about his involvement in the shooting death of journalist Chauncey Bailey in 2007 provides a rare insider's account of the bakery's operations.
Yusuf Bey, the father of Yusuf Bey IV, founded the bakery in Santa Barbara in 1968 and moved it to Oakland in 1971, where it became an institution supported by many Oakland and Alameda County officials until it closed its doors in 2007 after it developed financial problems and went bankrupt.
The business, which was headquartered at 5832 San Pablo Ave. in Oakland, sold baked goods, but to many people it also represented black economic self-sufficiency and empowerment.
Bey appeared regularly on the "Soul Beat" cable television program in Oakland and ran for mayor in 1994, but only received 5 percent of the vote.
Bey, who was charged with raping and molesting underage girls, died of cancer in October 2003 at the age of 67 before his case went to trial.
Yusuf Bey IV, now 23, ultimately took over the bakery following a long power struggle that claimed the lives of several other potential successors.
In his statement to the district attorney's office, Broussard, a former handyman at the bakery, admitted that he fatally shot Bailey, 57, as he walked to his job as editor of the Oakland Post but said he "just followed orders" issued by Bey.
Broussard, 21, said Bey wanted to have Bailey killed because the journalist was planning to write an article about the bakery's financial problems and also was angry about articles that Bailey had written about his father.
According to his attorney, LeRue Grim, Broussard testified to an Alameda County grand jury last week about killing Bailey and also admitted that he killed 31-year-old Odell Roberson Jr. on July 8, 2007, but asserted that Bey ordered that killing as well.
In addition, Grim said Broussard testified that Bey ordered another associate, Antoine Mackey, to kill a third man, 36-year-old Michael Wills, on July 12, 2007. He said Broussard wasn't involved in Wills' death but heard Mackey and Bey talk about it immediately afterward.
Broussard currently is charged with murder for Bailey's death but isn't charged in connection with Roberson's death.
Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff and Deputy District Attorney Chris Lamiero, who is prosecuting Broussard, have declined to talk about the grand jury proceeding.
Grim said the grand jury will consider indicting Bey and Mackey, but no announcements have been made at this point.
Broussard has signed an agreement with the Alameda County District Attorney's Office that calls for him to plead guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter for the deaths of Bailey and Roberson and be sentenced to 25 years in state prison, according to Grim.
Bey hasn't been charged in connection with Bailey's death or the deaths of Roberson and Wills but he and several co-defendants were arrested and charged for allegedly kidnapping and torturing two women in Oakland on May 17, 2007, in an effort to get money from them.
Bey also faces several other criminal cases throughout the Bay Area.
Broussard said in his statement that he joined the bakery in July 2006 after he was released from the San Francisco County Jail, where he had served a one-year term for robbing and assaulting a man on a San Francisco Municipal Railway bus in 2005.
According to a transcript of his statement, Broussard told Lamiero, "I ran into like a (Bey) family member" who asked, "What you gonna do when you get out of jail?"
Broussard, who was raised in San Francisco's Western Addition and in Richmond, said he told the family member he would "go back to the hood" but the family member said, "I can give you a job."
Broussard, who is black, as is Yusuf Bey IV, said the family member told him that the bakery is "hirin' all the time" and "they hirin' black people, too."
The family member told Broussard, "There's gonna be a chance for you to get your life on track," according to the transcript.
Broussard said after he worked for the bakery for two weeks, washing dishes, running errands and performing a variety of other jobs, he asked "do I get paid today" but Bey laughed at him and "he looked at me like I was wrong for asking about a paycheck."
Broussard said that when he complained that "I'm working for free, f--- that," Bey told him to calm down, took him aside and said he'd pay him under the table.
But Broussard said he was still unhappy because Bey only paid him $300 for two weeks of work.
He said Bey told him, "We always say this is not just a job it's more than a job."
Broussard said Bey told him that the bakery was going through hard times but "you gotta stay strong for us, you gotta stay strong for the bakery."
According to Broussard, Bey said, "We need soldiers like you that's willin' to sacrifice for the bakery."
In the summer of 2007, according to Broussard, Bey admitted that the bakery was in bankruptcy proceedings but he still needed people to sacrifice for him.
Broussard said he complained to Bey that "we got holes in our shoes" but Bey had fancy Jordan shoes, as well as luxury houses and cars.
However, Bey said "we need some brothers to sacrifice a little while longer" while the bakery's loans were paid off because "we got this white man trying to take away this bakery," according to the statement.
According to Broussard, Bey said, "This bakery houses people, this bakery feeds people, this bakery put money in people pockets."
Broussard said he came to view the bakery as "a little cult" but he also believed that "we was doing right" because it tried to help people before they became homeless and get people off drugs.
"Besides the people that was hurt in the process, a lot of people was helped," Broussard said.
Broussard, Bey and other bakery members were arrested when police from multiple agencies staged a massive raid at the bakery the morning after Bailey was killed.
Broussard said he had hoped that he would only face a charge for illegal possession of a gun and he was stunned when Sgt. Derwin Longmire of the Oakland Police Department informed him that Bey had told police that he was the one who had shot and killed Bailey.
Broussard said, "I started cryin."'
He said, "It was overwhelming, like I'm about to lose my life. I'm 19 years old. I haven't accomplished what I needed to do yet."
However, Broussard said he ultimately decided to admit to police that he shot Bailey because he believed Bey's assurances that he would get him a good lawyer who would get him out of prison after only a few years and he would be "taken care of" after he got out.
Broussard said he was showing Bey that "I'm a true believer in Islam."
