Following a jury trial in these consolidated cases, Sonya and Joseph Smith were found guilty of felony murder, involuntary manslaughter, cruelty to children, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and reckless conduct based on the couple’s treatment of their eight-year-old son, Josef, which led to the child’s death.1 In Case No. S10A1281, Sonya Smith claims, among other things, that the trial court erred in allowing the prosecutor to make an improper closing argument, and that her trial counsel was ineffective. In Case No. S10A1282, Joseph Smith claims that the evidence was insufficient to sustain his convictions; that his trial counsel was ineffective; and that the trial court erred by failing to merge his conviction for felony murder into his involuntary manslaughter conviction. For the reasons that follow, we affirm in both cases. Viewed in the light most favorable to the jury’s verdict, the record reveals that Joseph and Sonya Smith routinely disciplined their son, Josef, by beating him with glue sticks, belts, and heated coat hangers; locking him in confined spaces for extended periods of time; and tying his hands with rope. During the day on October 8, 2003, Joseph disciplined Josef several times, striking him repeatedly with a foot long glue stick. At one point, Josef began complaining of severe stomach pains and had urine that was brownish in color. Later, while Joseph was taking a shower, Sonya Smith beat Josef with a glue stick, drawing blood through Josef’s clothing. Sonya and the Smiths’ eldest son, Mykel Booth, then forced Josef into a wooden box, beating him about the head as they did so. Sonya and Mykel then tied the box shut with a cord. When Joseph later came out of the shower and removed Josef from the box, the child was barely breathing. Emergency services personnel were called to the Smiths’ residence with an unresponsive child complaint, and Josef was taken to the hospital, where he later died. Numerous medical experts examined the extensive bruising throughout Josef’s body and to Josef’s head, and testified that the cause of Josef’s death was either blunt force trauma or asphyxiation.
S10A1281
