Northern Idaho man gets life sentence for killing toddler

COEUR D’ALENE – A northern Idaho man who killed his 17-month-old stepson has been sentenced to life in prison.

Thirty-two-year-old Joseph Davis received the sentence Thursday in 1st District Court and must serve 15 years before becoming eligible for parole.

A jury in May convicted Davis of first-degree murder after a doctor testified that the injuries sustained by Maliki Wilburn did not occur by accident.

Davis was alone in an apartment with the boy in Coeur d’Alene and has told authorities he doesn’t know how the child was injured.

Davis says he found the toddler on the floor crying and that he suspected Maliki had fallen off a coffee table.

The boy died Aug. 28, two days after being brought to a Spokane hospital with head trauma.