Man sentenced in toddler death

COEUR d’ALENE — Two days after a plea for his acquittal and new trial were thrown out by a Coeur d’Alene judge, Joseph J. Davis was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for killing 17-month-old Maliki Wilburn.

Bearded, shackled and wearing red jail pajamas, Davis appeared with his attorneys Thursday in Courtroom 12 at the Kootenai County jail where First District Judge Scott Wayman sentenced the 32-year-old to a fixed 15-year prison sentence, with a maximum sentence of life in prison. That means if Davis is a model inmate he could be released after 15 years behind bars.

Davis was accused in 2016 of striking Maliki Wilburn leaving the toddler paralyzed and brain dead before the boy died at a Spokane hospital. He maintained his innocence, but was convicted in May by a Coeur d’Alene jury.

Davis was married to Dacia Cheyney and living in a basement apartment on Fifth Street with his wife and her son, Maliki, when the child sustained massive head trauma while in Davis’ care, according to witnesses.

Davis was originally charged with injury to a child, a felony, following the Aug. 26 incident. The charge was amended to murder when Maliki died of his injuries.

At Davis’ murder trial, deputy public defender Jeanne Howe argued for a mistrial because the Spokane Medical Examiner’s Office, whose forensic pathologist was called as a state’s witness, was under investigation by the Washington Department of Health for reported impropriety. Wayman denied the motion.

Howe and deputy public defender Tyler Naftz this week filed a motion for acquittal and a new trial regarding testimony and evidence related to the Spokane Medical Examiner’s Office.

Wayman again denied the motion, this time a day before sentencing Davis to prison.

The investigation into the Examiner’s Office cited by Howe was fueled by complaints from police and Spokane County prosecutors regarding a 2012 death that office pathologists had ruled a suicide despite injuries reportedly sustained by the victim which appeared to be defensive.