Trial begins in infant’s 2005 death

A 31-year-old man accused of killing his girlfriend's 5-month-old baby at a Primm casino sat alone Tuesday at the opening of his trial.

The defense table, which would typically be crowded on trial days with files, laptops and often more than one lawyer, held nothing but a clean legal pad.

Charged with murder by child abuse for the 2005 death of Russia Cheesecake Davis, Theodore Stevens is representing himself.

"I don't have any notes. This is all from the two and a half years I've been thinking about it every day," Stevens told the jury during his opening statement.

He said that although Russia was not his biological child, he considered her his daughter. He fed, clothed and cared for her, he said.

Stevens and Russia's mother, Duchess Davis, had been living at Buffalo Bill's Resort & Casino and, when they awoke March 23, 2005, they discovered that Russia had fallen off the bed, Stevens said.

The couple did initially tell police they found the infant face down on the floor, unresponsive and cold, according to their arrest report.

But Stevens later confessed to police in a taped interview that he dropped the child the night before her death and then punched her in the back of the head because she would not stop crying, prosecutor Brian Rutledge said.

"He said the baby was in the way. She cried too much. Maybe he was jealous," Rutledge said.

Stevens told the jury that the confession is "nothing more than a fabricated wholesale product of the Las Vegas police department."

Prosecutors have physical evidence in addition to the taped confession.

Doctors found that Russia's skull had been fractured from ear to ear, Rutledge said. They also noted other bruises and bite marks on her, he said.

"Russia Cheesecake Davis was beaten to death," Rutledge said.

Stevens and Davis also tried to flee the hotel, prosecutors said. The couple brought the dead baby in a car seat to the valet area where they tried to get their car, but the vehicle wouldn't start.

Stevens said he and Davis placed a 911 call in the hotel and when paramedics did not arrive, he and Davis decided to take Russia to a hospital.

But according to the police report, before they got to the valet, Davis, then 18, borrowed a cell phone in the lobby and called her father, Alex Davis, telling him the baby wasn't breathing, according to the police report. Alex Davis told police he told her to call 911, but his daughter told him Stevens wouldn't let her.

After Duchess Davis called her father, he alerted a cousin in Henderson, who called security at the hotel and told them about the dead baby.

Stevens has four prior convictions, including a 1998 conviction for child neglect in Broward County, Fla. His most recent conviction was in 2003 in Los Angeles County for making false financial statements, according to court documents.

Davis pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact in her daughter's death and received probation last year.

Prosecutors said she might be called to testify against Stevens.

Stevens said he chose to represent himself to assert his right to confront witnesses.

He apologized courteously after Mosley interrupted his opening statements three times to remind him not to argue the facts of the case until the end of the trial.

"I'm not a lawyer, just a regular person," he said.