Oakland man convicted of killing Black Muslim bakery leader

Oakland man convicted of killing Black Muslim bakery leader

(11-19) 11:30 PST OAKLAND - An Oakland man was convicted today of first-degree murder for fatally shooting the head of Your Black Muslim Bakery in 2005 during a failed carjacking.

Alfonza Phillips III, 22, smirked as the guilty verdict on the special-circumstances murder charge was read in an Oakland courtroom. Phillips faces life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing Antar Bey, 23, when he is sentenced Dec. 14 by Judge Jon Rolefson of Alameda County Superior Court.

The 10-man, two-woman jury deliberated about two days after a three-week trial. The panel also convicted Phillips on charges that he personally used and discharged a gun in the slaying.

Defense attorney Leonard Ulfelder had argued that Bey was killed by someone other than Phillips as a result of a power struggle within the Oakland bakery. He declined to discuss the verdict.

Phillips used a .44 Magnum revolver to shoot Bey in the back at a North Oakland gas station Oct. 25, 2005, in hopes of stealing the $5,000, 22-inch rims on his car, Deputy District Attorney Colleen McMahon told jurors during the trial.

She said Phillips had left a fingerprint on the car, boasted of the shooting to a friend who testified against him, admitted the slaying to his girlfriend and had been identified by a bystander as the killer.

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