SAN JOSE

Jurors deciding whether Richard Allen Davis deserves to die for killing Polly Klaas heard fond recollections of the young Davis on Wednesday: rambunctious, lovable, “the best little boy.” The defense, which hopes to persuade jurors that Davis was molded by forces beyond his control--a child cast adrift in a loveless, troubled household--began by calling his grandmother, Norma Watson Johnny, 91. Johnny, wearing a white bonnet tied under her chin, smiled and nodded as she recalled looking after Davis as a child. “Nice little boy,” she said. “I don’t know what he’s doing back there.” His grandmother, a Paiute Indian who lives in Nevada and said she never saw him much after he turned 10, said Davis changed after his father gained custody of the five children he had with her daughter Evelyn.