The confessed killer of Oakland journalist Chauncey Bailey took the stand today in the trial of Your Black Muslim Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV and his associate Antoine Mackey. The two defendants are on trial for three murders, two of which Bey is said to have ordered and one of which Mackey is said to have committed.

Today's witness, Devaughndre Broussard, age 23, would have been about 19 or 20 when he committed the murder of Bailey. He had been recruited into the bakery — which was really more of a militant black separatist cult if you don't know the background — after meeting one of its members behind bars. When he got out of prison, he was told he could get a job with Bey at the bakery, as a "soldier." As the Chron reports, "Broussard said he understood that the term 'soldier' referred to a 'person who was dedicated to the bakery,' and that he had contacted Bey for a job because 'he needed more soldiers.'" Before long, he was sent out with an SKS assault rifle to kille Odell Robertson in retribution for her uncle having killed Bey's brother — Robertson was chosen as a target because her uncle was behind bars — and then sent with a shotgun to kill Bailey on August 2, 2007, because Bailey was writing an investigative piece about the bakery's ailing finances. The third murder, of Michael Willis, was said to have been committed spontaneously by Mackey one night while he and Bey were driving along discussing the Zebra killings of "white devils" in the SF in the 70s.

The trial began on Monday with a jury of twelve with five alternates (narrowed down from 109). Watch CBS's initial coverage below. The Contra Costa Times also wrote up some coverage of opening statements, including a detail about a videotape that is part of the evidence against Bey, found in a VCR in Bey's bedroom (he still had one of those in 2007?) of Bey's father's funeral. Chauncey Bailey is seen on the video, and the prosecution says that Bey blamed Bailey for the death of his father -- who died of cancer in 2003 -- and showed Broussard the video, "stopping the tape to point out the journalist and say,'That's the (expletive) that killed my dad.'

PREVIOUSLY: The Chauncey Bailey Murder Trial Will Not Move Out of Oakland
Your Black Muslim Bakery Pretrial Hearing Already Getting Interesting
Gang-Style Killing of an Oakland Journalist