The man charged with killing an Oakland newspaper editor will plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter and testify against others in the journalist's death and two unsolved slayings, his lawyer said Thursday.
Devaughndre Broussard will be sentenced to no more than 25 years in prison for being the gunman in two of three slayings, defense attorney LeRue Grim said. He said his client is scheduled to testify before a grand jury next week.
Deputy District Attorney Chris Lamiero said Broussard's trial in the death of Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey still was scheduled to start next month. The prosecutor said he could not comment on Grim's description of a plea agreement.
Although he is only charged with killing Bailey, Broussard agreed to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter for shooting Bailey in August 2007 and another man a month earlier on orders from Yusuf Bey IV, the 23-year-old leader of a Black Muslim organization, Grim said.
"He would go to prison for 50 years to life if convicted" of murdering Bailey, Grim said. "For a 21-year-old guy, that is a long time, life, so there were a couple other murders the police had been unable to solve and he knew who did those and so he made a statement to the DA and the police."
Murdered on the way to work
Broussard was working as the handyman for Your Black Muslim Bakery when Bailey, 57, was shot while walking to work. His newspaper serves the Bay Area's black community, and Bailey was reporting a series of articles on the decades-old, politically well-connected group that operated the business.
Grim said Broussard plans to tell the grand jury that he and another bakery follower carried out the three slayings because Bey, the son of the bakery's late founder, promised to reward them financially if they did.
Grim said the second man was driving when Broussard shot Bailey and was the gunman in a July 2007 slaying. In the third case, Broussard killed a relative of someone who allegedly killed Bey's uncle, Grim said.
Bey is jailed in an unrelated kidnapping and torture case. His lawyer, Anne Beles, did not immediately return a call seeking comment on Grim's statements.
