Two Convicted of Murder in Shooting of Oakland Journalist

A jury Thursday convicted two men of first-degree murder in the slaying of Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey, who was gunned down on a downtown street in broad daylight nearly four years ago in an effort to thwart his investigation into the finances of a business run by one of the defendants.

Yusuf Bey IV, 25, was convicted of ordering the murder of the 57-year-old Bailey, the first U.S. journalist killed over a domestic story since Don Bolles of the Arizona Republic died in a car bombing in 1976.

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Bey IV was running Oakland’s Your Black Muslim Bakery, a once-prominent Bay Area institution founded by his father that gave jobs to former prisoners. The confessed triggerman in Bailey’s death was bakery handyman Devaughndre Brousard.

The jury Thursday also convicted Antoine Mackey, 25, on first-degree murder charges for killing Wills and helping Broussard kill Bailey. {snip}

Deputy Dist. Atty. Melissa Krum said she was pleased with the verdict, adding: “To not just kill a local reporter but to have it done in the middle of the day as he walked to work seemed to be an almost manically egotistical move” on Bey IV’s part.

The Oakland bakery was run for years by Yusuf Bey, who preached his own form of Islam and gained street credibility by hiring felons and teaching them discipline and self-worth.

Bey and his group earned political capital in Oakland, winning public financing that was never paid back and meting out street justice with their own army of followers, authorities have said. But Bey’s credibility frayed. At the time of his death in 2003, he faced child rape charges.

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