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An Albuquerque man accused of raping a 3-year-old girl took the stand in his own defense and described a boozy Memorial Day weekend that was shattered by the startling accusation.

Rodney Davis, 27, insisted Friday that he had not touched or even seen much of the girl, a visiting niece at her uncle's Southeast Heights apartment and one of six small children among a group of adults who Davis said were either drinking, drunk or asleep.

"I would never do that to a child," a somber, soft-spoken Davis said of the incident May 29, 2006, involving a girl he hadn't even seen the day she was found panty-less with blood between her legs.

Davis' testimony was the culmination of a three-day trial in state District Court in Albuquerque. Jurors were expected to begin deliberating after closing arguments Monday.

Davis, the son of occasional Albuquerque politician Harold Davis de Garcia, told jurors Friday he had been invited to the apartment, part of a four-plex on Rhode Island Street Southeast, about 9 p.m. May 28, 2006. He said he and three others drank vodka outside for several hours until he went inside the apartment and fell asleep on the couch. About 11 the next morning, he said he was awakened and asked to go with several others to purchase two bottles of rum. The group began drinking the rum in the vehicle and continued to drink at the apartment, he said.

Sometime that day, he said he was confronted outside the apartment about the girl, but he could not recall who had done the confronting.

"I was pretty intoxicated," he said.

Aside from one visit the night before to the apartment bathroom, Davis said he never used the bathroom again during the hours of drinking.

That assertion could be key because the bathroom is located next to the bedroom where the children had been watching television.

The girl did not testify, and her accusations were heard only through Sylvia Chavez, who testified Friday that she first saw the bleeding girl coming from the hallway of the apartment.

"`That man hurt me down there,'" Chavez said the girl told her as she pointed to Davis in the hallway.

Chavez, who said she had been visiting a resident of the four-plex, admitted she did not disclose the girl's words to an Albuquerque police detective but said she was scared at the time.

"I thought they were going to arrest me," Chavez said.

Davis' attorney, Raul Lopez, had hoped to call Chavez's aunt to the stand to refute her testimony on the girl's disclosure. But in a critical misstep, Lopez failed to question Chavez while she was on the stand about a conversation with the aunt.

The aunt, described as a "trusted relative," reportedly was to testify that days after the incident Chavez still insisted she knew nothing about what had happened to the girl. But the aunt was not allowed to testify because Chavez was not asked about their conversation.

Lopez also did not ask Chavez about how well she understood the girl. Albuquerque police Detective Gerri Sanders testified Thursday that the girl's verbal skills were poor.

Sanders also testified that Chavez and the others she interviewed at the apartment that day were intoxicated.

Testimony during the trial showed a fourth man, described as the girl's grandfather, left before police arrived and was never interviewed.

Both sides stipulated that Davis' DNA was not found on the girl or her clothing.