When Coeur d’Alene paramedic John Morrison made his way through the basement of a Fifth Street apartment one evening last summer, he was met with a sight he had not seen before.

The former Coeur d’Alene Fire battalion chief saw a small boy wearing pull-up diapers and lying on clothing fellow medics had cut from his body. The boy was rigid, his arms and feet spread out, his feet pointed downward with the toes curled. The child was unconscious and his head listed tensely to one side.

Morrison had a word for it. “Decerebrate posturing,” he told the court Wednesday on the first day in the murder trial of Joseph John Davis.

“I don’t recall seeing it in any other case,” Morrison said. “The cause is typically something to do with the brain, such as a head injury.”

Morrison was among five witnesses called by prosecutors Arthur Verharen and Laura McClinton in almost five hours of testimony in First District Court before Judge Scott Wayman.

Davis, 31, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of 17-month-old Maliki Wilburn, whom medics transported to Kootenai Health, Aug. 26, after responding to a call of a boy having difficulty breathing. Maliki was later flown to Sacred Heart in Spokane, and Davis, the boy’s stepfather, was arrested and charged for injuring the child. The charges were upgraded after Maliki died two days later.

Davis told investigators he did not know how Maliki was injured. He said he was in the bathroom when he heard Maliki “screaming.” When he checked on the boy the toddler was on the floor with his blanket, crying, but he appeared to be dozing off. Davis said he suspected Maliki had fallen from a piece of furniture.

But Dr. Rick Whitehead, a pediatric opthamologist, who testified for the prosecution, said he was certain the child’s injuries, which included a fractured skull and severe inner eye damage, were caused by extensive head trauma.

“Shaking an infant will cause it,” Whitehead said. “Fatal motor vehicle accidents are known to cause this, fatal crushing is known to cause it, violent shaking or very significant impacts.”

The impact suffered by Maliki was so severe, Whitehead said, that it damaged three layers of the boy’s retinas.

“The list of things causing bleeding in all three layers is very small,” Whitehead said. “Most of the time it is thought to be caused by abusive head trauma.”

Whitehead said, when the boy arrived at Sacred Heart, “he was brain-dead.”

Public defender Jeanne M. Howe asked Whitehead if he could pinpoint when the trauma occurred.

“It can be difficult to determine the date and time when exactly it occurred,” Whitehead said. “It appears to be recent and for sure within a few days.”

The injuries are alleged to have occurred in a short span, when the boy’s mother, Dacia Cheyney, left the child alone with Davis for about 15 minutes as she went to buy liquid for her e-cigarette at a vape store on Best Avenue. When she returned, Davis told her Maliki “fell or something.” She told police she felt a large lump on the base of Maliki’s head. Morrison also testified to a large lump Wednesday he described as being a 3-inch hematoma.

Davis, who is being held without bond in the Kootenai County jail, appeared in court Wednesday wearing a black suit. He was accompanied by security guards who unlocked his hand shackles when the defendant was in court and replaced the shackles before escorting Davis from the room.

His trial resumes today at 9 a.m. in the Juvenile Justice Building in downtown Coeur d’Alene.