Stevens guilty in death of baby

A jury Friday found Theodore Stevens guilty of first-degree murder by child abuse.

Stevens was arrested March 23, 2005, as he was trying to leave Buffalo Bill's in Primm with his girlfriend, Duchess Davis, and the body of her 5-month-old daughter, Russia Cheesecake Davis.

Stevens told police that the child fell off the bed during the night and when they woke up she no longer was breathing.

However, he later confessed during a taped interview with police that, "All of it (the killing) was done at my hands."

The confession played to the jury during prosecutor Tom Carroll's closing arguments detailed the crime.

Stevens said he got up in the middle of the night, while Davis slept, and held the baby, who wriggled out of his arms.

"I dropped her and picked her up and punched her in the back of the head a couple of times," Stevens told police, adding later, "I didn't want her mother (Davis) to freak out, so I hit her in the back of the head" to quiet the baby.

By morning's light, Russia was dead.

A hysterical Davis called her father in California. He urged her to call 911. But Davis said she could not, because Stevens was afraid of going to prison and wouldn't let her.

Davis' father alerted a cousin in Clark County about the baby. The cousin then called 911 and hotel security.

The coroner testified the baby's skull was cracked from ear to ear, which is inconsistent with the injuries likely incurred from falling off a bed.

"There's not a big field of suspects; only two people were with the child that night, the mother and the mother's new boyfriend," prosecutor Brian Rutledge said.

During the trial, in which Stevens, 31, represented himself, Stevens claimed he had been threatened prior to the confession. An officer told him he could face the death penalty for murder by child abuse, he said.

Stevens blamed the murder on Davis -- who received probation last year after pleading guilty to accessory to murder after the fact -- for failing to seeking medical attention for her baby.

District Judge Donald Mosley and prosecutors helped Stevens maneuver through the trial, showing him how to work the projector, submit evidence and even bring witnesses he wanted to put on the stand, which he never did.

"We had to be very careful to make sure the jury knew he was getting a fair trial," Carroll said.

"He has plenty of experience in the legal system," Rutledge said.

Stevens has had four previous felony convictions, one of which he received for breaking a child's arm in Florida.

At one point during closing arguments, Stevens invoked the Almighty, saying that if God had not provided evidence to show that Stevens murdered the baby, then he must not have committed the crime.

"Don't you think he would have left you some kind of solid factual evidence to say, you know, my sons and daughters, that man killed that baby?" he said.

Stevens is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 30.

After the trial, jurors seemed irritated with Stevens' performance.

"I don't think he did that bad as a lawyer; however, he did too much," one juror said, explaining Stevens could have been more brief.

Another juror compared listening to Stevens to having an ice pick in his ear.

A third juror said she was "shocked" he represented himself in such a serious case.

"That should have never happened to that baby," she said. Heading toward the elevator, she called out to a reporter, "That baby's at rest now."