COEUR d’ALENE — Joseph J. Davis, the Coeur d’Alene man accused of killing his 17-month-old stepson last year, said he and the boy had a good relationship and he did not know how the toddler died.

A recorded conversation between Davis and a friend was used as evidence Thursday by prosecutors.

On the third day of Davis’ murder trial in First District Court in Coeur d’Alene, prosecutors played for the jury the audio recording that was difficult to understand in the vast, high-ceiling courtroom of the old federal court building on Fourth Street. The recording’s jumping decibels were interrupted only by the turning of pages, in unison, as 14 jurors followed along using a transcript of the recording provided by prosecutors Arthur Verharen and Laura McClinton.

“The kid loved me,” Davis told longtime friend Amanda Bowen, in the telephone conversation that took place shortly after toddler Maliki Wilburn suffered brain-damaging injuries. “He was always excited to see me coming and play with me.”

Davis, 31, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of Maliki, who allegedly died from injuries sustained while in Davis’ care. The toddler was transported to Kootenai Health Aug. 26, and later flown to Sacred Heart in Spokane, where he died two days later.

Because of the audio recording’s inflections, audience members in the gallery leaned forward as they strained to hear Bowen question Davis, offer advice and impart pieces of conversation she heard regarding the case.

“Everything (in the news) makes you look like some kind of monster,” Bowen told Davis, who was calm throughout the conversation.

The boy’s mother, Dacia Cheyney, was implicating Davis, Bowen explained.

“I can’t believe she would think I would do something like that,” Davis replied.

According to police, Cheyney left the child alone with Davis for about 15 minutes as she went to buy e-cigarette liquid at a vape store on Best Avenue. When she returned she reportedly found her son lying on the floor of the couple’s basement apartment.

Throughout the 30-minute telephone conversation, Davis maintained his innocence, pointing to scenarios that could have caused the massive lump on the child’s head and loss of consciousness.

“He could have fallen backwards on the concrete staircase,” Davis said.

During the conversation, he repeatedly told Bowen he did not witness what happened to the boy, and that he feared being made a scapegoat.

“My feeling is I am going to get f****d all the way around,” Davis told Bowen. “No matter what I do, I’m going to get f****d ... the jury is going to be sympathetic to her and I’ll be done.”

The audio was played for the jury before the court adjourned around 5 p.m.

Witnesses called by prosecutors earlier in the day, many of them medical professionals who had examined the boy as part of routine check-ups, repeatedly agreed that Maliki had been healthy. The boy was at or above the average development expected for a toddler his age, and he was happy and not prone to injury, according to testimony.

He could run and jump and he had good coordination, said Sara Gillespie, a babysitter and friend of the family.

She made videos of the boy days before his death.

The video and still images, shown to the court, were pictures of a blond boy wearing a Batman shirt, mugging for the camera and giggling while jumping on a sofa.

In an effort to establish that Maliki was healthy leading up to the fatal day, and that the child suffered from no pre-existing conditions, McClinton repeated the same questions to several of the boy’s babysitters and health care providers that she laid out for Gillespie.

“Did you observe any broken bones?” she asked. “Any excessive bruising? Frequent bleeding? Any health concerns at all?”

To each of the questions Gillespie answered — as the others had answered — “No.”

“He was very happy all the time,” Gillespie said.

The trial in District Judge Scott Wayman’s court resumes today at 9 a.m. on the second floor of the old federal building, now the Juvenile Justice Building, on Fourth Street in downtown Coeur d’Alene. Davis is represented by public defender Jeanne M. Howe.