Davis takes stand, faces pointed questions in murder trial

COEUR d’ALENE ­­— Joseph J. Davis, the man accused of killing his 17-month old stepson last summer, told friends he did not like to be alone with the child because he was afraid something could happen.

On Wednesday, the seventh day of testimony in Davis’ murder trial in First District Court, prosecutor Art Verharen shot barbs at Davis, who spent most of the day deflecting the sharply- angled questions.

In one exchange Verharen asked about a telephone conversation in which Davis reportedly told a friend he avoided contact with Maliki Wilburn, his stepson.

“I never felt like I wanted to be alone with him,” Davis said. “That’s why I was always sure he was in daycare and stuff.”

“You don’t like toddlers, do you?” Verharen asked. “You called them screaming brats.”

“They can be,” Davis said.

“You ever call them that?”

“Not that I recall.”

Davis, 32, who has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, was arrested Aug. 26, 2016, after Maliki suffered serious injury while in his care, and later died.

In a telephone conversation after his arrest, Davis reportedly told a friend that before the incident Maliki already had signs of previous injuries, contrary to testimony throughout the trial.

Verharen asked Davis why he had lied to his friend.

“Didn’t you tell (a friend) that (Maliki) had scrapes and all kinds of stuff?” Verharen asked.

“That’s what I was told, but I didn’t tell him that’s what I was told,” Davis replied.

“But you knew that was not true,” Verharen said.

“I didn’t know if it was true or not,” Davis said.

“I am asking you about your visual analysis,” Verharen said. He recounted how Davis, Maliki, and the boy’s mother, Dacia Cheyney, had gone to eat supper at Top of China Buffet in Coeur d’Alene before the incident.

“You saw the boy in summer. He’s wearing a onesie in the restaurant. That’s because it was hot, right?”

“I don’t know why.”

“You saw the boy. You knew he didn’t have scrapes and all kinds of stuff, right?”

“I don’t know.”

Verharen, gaunt and wearing a black suit with a white shirt and striped tie, his glasses tipped toward the end of his nose, repeatedly raised his voice as he accused Davis of lying to police detectives.

“You can see where your ‘I don’t knows,’ don’t make any sense,” he said.

He accused Davis of telling detectives he and Maliki’s mom were friends for several years before the couple was married, when in fact, he said, Davis was in a sexual relationship with Cheyney when she was 16, pregnant with Maliki and living with the boy’s birth-father.

Davis, who wore a blue suit and tie, his short hair spiked, denied it, but Verharen brought the matter up again — didn’t Davis persuade Cheyney to have a paternity test?

“Not for me,” Davis said. “She didn’t know whose baby it was.”

Verharen accused the defendant of being deceptive, then outlined a series of incidents to attempt to back the claim. Davis had taken the ignition chip out of his pickup truck so Cheyney could not use it, telling her it would not start, because he did not want to “deal with her nagging at me.”

“You were deceiving her,” Verharen said. “Rather than tell her, you decided to be sneaky.”

Davis disagreed.

“It’s not lying when you don’t tell the whole truth,” Davis said.

He asked Davis why he “fake cried.”

“(Cheyney) would be angry at me and I would start to tear up to her,” Davis explained.

“You’re deceiving her,” Verharen countered.

“I would cry to show her I was hurt,” Davis explained. “I was showing my feelings the best I could at the time.”

Verharen attempted to place into evidence a protection order Davis’ first wife — not Cheyney — had filed against him six years ago.

“She is getting a protection order for herself and her children,” Verharen said.

“I don’t know,” Davis replied. “I’ve never seen it.”

Verharen expounded. The protection order has no expiration date, he said. "She is protecting her and her children against you,” the prosecutor said.

Davis’ attorney, public defender Jeanne M. Howe, walked her client through the events of the day Maliki was injured. Howe repeated the prosecution’s questions, allowing Davis to answer more thoroughly.

“Did you intentionally hurt Maliki?” Howe asked.

No, Davis said.

She asked if Davis had pushed, hit the boy in the head, slammed him into a wall, thrown him onto the floor or against a coffee table. Had Davis seen what happened to Maliki?

“Did you do anything to intentionally hurt Maliki?” Howe asked the defendant.

“No,” Davis said.

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