Mother testifies in murder trial

COEUR d’ALENE — When Dacia Cheyney returned home from the Best Avenue vape store to find her 17-month-old son lying motionless and rigid on the floor, she felt a large bump on the back of his head. Then she tore away a blanket that covered him, revealing his stiff arms and legs.

That is when she screamed to her husband, Joseph J. Davis, to call authorities, and heard Davis relay something to a dispatcher that Cheyney hadn’t shared with him.

On Monday, the fifth day of testimony in Davis’ murder trial in the state’s 2nd District Court, a soft-spoken Cheyney answered tersely and quietly as prosecutors questioned her about her son, Maliki, and the minutes leading up to his being ushered away in an ambulance on a Friday evening last summer.

Davis, 31, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of Maliki who allegedly died from injuries sustained while in Davis’ care. The toddler was transported to Kootenai Health Aug. 26, and later flown to Sacred Heart in Spokane, where he died two days later.

Wearing a gray shirt, her hair in a ponytail, Cheyney told jurors she had retrieved Maliki from the daycare after she got off work that Friday afternoon. When Davis got home from his job, the small family went to eat at the Top of China Buffet on west Appleway Avenue in Coeur d’Alene.

It was the first time Maliki had eaten shrimp, and he had a big appetite.

He so heartily ate his meal that noodles ended up in his hair, Cheyney said, dabbing her eyes with a tissue as she spoke.

Davis paid for the meal and the family drove home.

When the couple returned to their apartment, Cheyney grabbed her keys and billfold, and leaving Maliki alone with Davis, drove to a vapor cigarette store near the couple’s apartment at 815 Fifth St. for some spearmint oil because she was trying to quit cigarettes.

When she got home minutes later, she found the boy on the floor and Davis appeared to be coming out of the bathroom.

There was no odor associated with anyone using the restroom in the small basement apartment, Cheyney told prosecutors in response to questioning.

And when Davis spoke with a 911 dispatcher, relaying that Maliki had a large bump on the back of his head, Cheyney wondered how he knew.

“It looks like he fell real hard on the floor,” Davis told the dispatcher. “He’s got a bump … behind his head by his ear.”

She had not told Davis about the bump she felt as she tried to lift her son from the floor, according to testimony.

Davis also repeated that his wife said the boy had fallen on concrete during the day, but, according to Cheyney, she had not mentioned a fall on concrete.

To her knowledge, Maliki had not fallen during the day, according to Cheyney’s testimony.

In addition to playing the 911 tape for the jury at Monday’s hearing, prosecutors called as witnesses the Coeur d’Alene police detectives assigned to the case, and showed video footage of Davis being questioned by Detective Steve Harris at the Coeur d’Alene Police Department.

The video shows that after listening to Davis’ story, Harris said he didn’t believe Davis’ version of the events leading up to Maliki’s traumatic injuries.

“It doesn’t add up,” Harris said.

“I understand that,” Davis replied. “I told you everything I know. I don’t know anything else. I really don’t.”

Monday’s trial started with a motion by defense attorney Jeanne M. Howe for a mistrial based on a newspaper article drawing attention to a reported investigation of the Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Howe said because the office, which completed Maliki’s autopsy, was under investigation, it cast a pall over the previous day’s testimony by Dr. John Howard, a forensic pathologist employed by the examiner’s office.

District Judge Scott Wayman, however, found the motion by the defense did not meet the threshold necessary for a mistrial.

The trial court resumes today at 9 a.m. on the second floor of the old federal building in downtown Coeur d’Alene.