New details on man who confessed to killing editor / Oakland police don't think he acted alone; he was on probation for robbery-assault

DeVaughndre Broussard, a suspect in the murder of Oakland Post Editor Chaucey Bailey, is seen in this photo provided by The Oakland Police Department. Broussard will be charged with Bailey's murder in the next 24-36 hours, Assistant Police Chief Howard Jordan said. Broussard was one of seven people arrested in raids on Your Black Muslim Bakery and nearby houses on Friday. Aug. 3, 2007, and has confessed to fatally shooting 57-year-old Bailey. (AP Photo/Oakland Police Department via the Oakland Tribune) less DeVaughndre Broussard, a suspect in the murder of Oakland Post Editor Chaucey Bailey, is seen in this photo provided by The Oakland Police Department. Broussard will be charged with Bailey's murder in the next ... more Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close New details on man who confessed to killing editor / Oakland police don't think he acted alone; he was on probation for robbery-assault 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

A 19-year-old handyman who investigators say has confessed to killing Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey with a shotgun is not believed to have worked alone, police said Monday.

Police said Devaughndre Broussard, 19, admitted pulling the trigger in Thursday's ambush killing in downtown Oakland. However, "we don't believe he worked on his own, and I can't get into specifics," said Assistant Police Chief Howard Jordan. "We're still trying to investigate how the plan was developed and who was involved in the plan."

Broussard, who is being held without bail at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin on suspicion of murder, is expected to be charged today by Alameda County prosecutors, Jordan said.

The suspect was upset that Bailey had been investigating Your Black Muslim Bakery's finances, the assistant chief said.

The bakery, which is run by followers of the late Yusuf Bey who are not affiliated with the better-known Nation of Islam, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October in hope of reorganizing its business while protected from creditors. On Friday, a bankruptcy judge filed an order converting the bakery's case to a Chapter 7 liquidation, which would all but dismantle the business.

As police continued to investigate Bailey's slaying Monday, new details emerged about the prime suspect.

Broussard, who at age 15 won a contest for young entrepreneurs at UC Berkeley, was put on probation for robbing and assaulting Christopher Hall, a Municipal Railway passenger in San Francisco, on Halloween 2005. In an attack that was captured on a Muni security camera, Broussard and three juveniles stole Hall's money, iPod and wallet, according to court records reviewed Monday.

"He should have gone to state prison," said Hall's father, San Francisco attorney Christopher Hall, who expressed outrage after being told by The Chronicle that his son's attacker was now accused of killing Bailey. Hall blamed the office of San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris for allowing Broussard to be put on probation in February 2006.

"That's great," the elder Hall said. "Blame it on Kamala Harris.

"My kid suffered blurred vision and a fractured nose. You guys didn't see the video. I wanted to cry when I saw my son get viciously attacked. There was blood all over the place. It looked like a cattle bus. He was attacked for no damn reason."

Chief Assistant District Attorney Russ Giuntini said Monday that prosecutors agreed to probation because they couldn't precisely identify which of the four suspects committed which specific crime. Broussard was only 18 and a first-time offender at the time of the attack, factors that also figured in the probation decision, Giuntini said.

As recently as June 22, officials reported that Broussard was routinely reporting to his probation officer and was cooperating, Giuntini said. "We empathize with any parent whose child was hurt," said Debbie Mesloh, spokeswoman for Harris. "However, we prosecuted this case and convicted this defendant as a felon."

Broussard was one of seven people arrested a day after Bailey's slaying during law-enforcement raids at the bakery and three other locations. After Friday's raids, the business was shut by Alameda County health inspectors because of unsanitary conditions.

The state Department of Fish and Game is also investigating whether grease from the kitchen leaked into a storm drain, Lt. Sheree Christensen said Monday.

Also Monday, Jordan identified two other men arrested Friday in the raid. Joshua Bey, 19, and Tamon Halfin, 20, are accused of participating in an incident May 19 in which two people were kidnapped in East Oakland, at least one of whom was robbed and tortured.

They could be charged today in Alameda County Superior Court, authorities said. Both are being held without bail at Santa Rita Jail on suspicion of kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon.

Halfin is among a group of people associated with the bakery charged with vandalizing two Oakland liquor stores in 2005. Halfin pleaded no contest to one count of vandalism in 2006 and was placed on five years' probation.

Bailey, 57, was shot just before 7:30 a.m. Thursday on 14th Street near Alice Street as he was walking to work at the Oakland Post just blocks away.

Among those arrested Friday during raids at the bakery at 5832 San Pablo Ave. and three nearby homes was Yusuf Bey IV, 21, the son of the bakery's founder. The arrests were linked to Bailey's homicide, two other slayings in July and the May 19 kidnapping.

"In regard to Mr. Yusuf Bey IV, his involvement in these cases (is) still under investigation," Jordan said Monday.

Yusuf Bey IV - who is Joshua Bey's brother - took over the organization after his father died in 2003 while awaiting trial on charges of raping a minor.

Yusuf Bey IV is being held on a $375,000 warrant for assault with a deadly weapon out of San Francisco, where police said he used his BMW to run over a bouncer after being thrown out of a strip club in April 2006. Since then, he has missed court dates, prompting the warrant.

Bey and several other men are still awaiting the continuation of a preliminary hearing on Aug. 28 in the liquor-store vandalism case.

"I really can't give you any kind of statement," Bey's attorney in the vandalism case, Lorna Brown, said Monday.

Authorities say a group of men in suits and bow ties went into San Pablo Liquor and New York Market - whose owners are Muslims - and demanded that they stop selling liquor to African Americans.

Friday's raids were the culmination of an investigation into two slayings in July, the kidnapping and the December spraying of a car with bullets, police said. Also arrested Friday was J-Shawn Belser, 18, who was booked on suspicion of shooting at an unoccupied vehicle or building.

Deborah Oduwa, Bailey's fiancee, said Monday that she was still reliving the experience of seeing him in the funeral home. The shotgun blast had sheared away Bailey's face, said Oduwa, who had been engaged to Bailey since May, around the time they first started dating.

"He died a horrible death," said Oduwa, 41, a film student at San Francisco City College. "It's traumatic. I think it will damage me for the rest of my life."

A funeral Mass for Bailey will be said at 11 a.m. Wednesday at St. Benedict's Catholic Church at 2245 82nd Ave. in East Oakland.