Bakery Leader Laughs About Bailey's Murder In Court Video
OAKLAND (CBS 5) -- A secretly-recorded police video of former Your Black Muslim Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV laughing about the shooting death of Oakland journalist Chauncey Bailey was played in court Monday.
In the video, Bey IV, 25, said, "Pow, pow, poof!" apparently mimicking the three shotgun blasts that claimed Bailey's life in downtown Oakland on Aug. 2, 2007.
When Bey IV's half-brother, Joshua Bey asked where Bailey, 57, was shot, Bey IV laughed and said, "In the head."
However, jurors in the trial -- of Bey IV and bakery associate Antoine Mackey, 25, on three counts of murder for the deaths of Bailey and two other men in Oakland in the summer of 2007 -- were not in court when the video was played because prosecutor Melissa Krum and attorneys for Bey IV and Mackey have been clashing over how much of the tape they should see.
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Thomas Reardon, who is presiding over the case, previously ruled that the video is admissible but the attorneys for Bey and Mackey want to limit how much of it jurors see.
The matter will be discussed at a hearing outside the presence of jurors on Tuesday afternoon, and it is anticipated that the video will be shown to jurors sometime on Wednesday.
After court adjourned for the day Monday, Bey IV's lawyer, Gene Peretti, admitted that the video "is not flattering" to Bey IV and "the jury won't like it."
Krum wants to show about 90 minutes of the video but Peretti said he thinks "it can be pared down to 15 or 20 minutes."
Peretti said the video "is very inflammatory" but that he does not think it sheds much light on the key issue in the trial, which is whether Bey IV ordered that Bailey be killed.
Bey IV and Mackey have pleaded not guilty to the murder charges that stem from the deaths of Bailey and fellow victims Odell Roberson, 31, and Michael Wills, 36.
But former bakery handyman Devaughndre Broussard has testified that Bey IV ordered that Bailey be killed because Bey IV wanted to prevent Bailey from writing an article about the bakery's financial problems. The bakery was in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings at the time and eventually closed its doors in late 2007.
Broussard, 23, pleaded guilty in May 2009 to two counts of voluntary manslaughter for the deaths of Bailey and Roberson in a plea bargain in which prosecutors promised him a 25-year prison sentence in exchange for his testimony against Bey and Mackey.
The video of Bey IV, Joshua Bey and bakery colleague Tamon Halfin was recorded in a room at the San Leandro Police Department on Aug. 6, 2007 -- four days after Bailey was killed.
The three men had been arrested for a separate incident in which bakery members were charged with kidnapping and torturing two women in Oakland in May 2007 in an effort to extort money from them to help solve the bakery's financial woes.
Oakland police were transporting the men to a court hearing in the kidnapping case and created a ruse by saying that they had to stop at the San Leandro Police Department because their patrol car had a flight tire.
Peretti said Bey IV and the others did not know they were being recorded.
In the video, Bey IV, Joshua Bey and Halfin discussed the kidnapping incident and Bailey's shooting death.
Bey IV expressed relief in the video that the gun that was used to kill Bailey was not found in his bedroom closet.
Bey said the gun had been in his closet after Bailey was killed but he returned it to Broussard because he thought the FBI was watching the bakery and he did not want to get caught with the gun.
Peretti has previously said that he thinks that Broussard acted on his own when he killed Bailey.
Bey IV discussed specific details about Bailey's shooting death in the secret video, but Peretti said Monday that Bey IV knew about them because Broussard talked to him shortly after the shooting.
However, Peretti admitted that Bey IV "was not completely devastated" when he heard about Bailey's death because he was unhappy with articles that Bailey had written about his father, bakery founder Yusuf Bey, who faced multiple child molestation charges when he died in 2003.
Joshua Bey testified for about an hour Monday and will resume his testimony Tuesday morning.
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