Following a jury trial, Corey Page was convicted of molesting his fourteen-year-old daughter, J. J. The trial court sentenced Page to twenty years, with ten to be served in confinement and the balance on probation. Page appeals from the denial of his motion for a new trial, contending that he received ineffective assistance of counsel. We affirm. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence reveals that on April 9, 2006, while J. J. was spending spring break with Page’s mother, Ventrice Page Thomas, Page came over and asked J. J. to spend the night at his house. She agreed. J. J. testified that when she returned to Page’s apartment later that evening, Page began talking “really crazy about somebody at his job telling him that if he wanted to gain J. J.’s trust, to ask her to get in the tub with him.” J. J. became scared and nervous, but decided “not to make a big deal of it” and get ready for bed. J. J. went into the bathroom but could not lock the door. She waited a few minutes to see if Page would come into the bathroom and when he did not, J. J. got into the shower. J. J. then heard the bathroom door open and observed Page enter the room. J. J. testified that she could see Page through the “see-through” shower curtain. He was naked and proceeded to get in the shower with J. J. Page picked up a bar of soap and began washing J. J.’s body, including her arms, breasts, back, and “butt” and then tried to get J. J. to wash his body. Page finally got out of the tub and left the bathroom. When J. J. got out a short time later, she discovered that Page had taken her towel and clothes into the bedroom. J. J. went to get her clothes and Page was in the bedroom, laughing. As J. J. was putting on her underwear, Page “grabbed her ankles saying, How would you like if I be your first And he was talking about he wanted to see was J. J. really still a virgin.” J. J. was able to fight Page off, and she spent the night in the living room. The following morning, Page apologized, saying he was drunk and did not mean it. He asked J. J. not to say anything to anyone. Page took J. J. to her grandmother’s house to get the rest of her clothes and then home to her mother. J. J. did not tell her mother what happened until June, when her mother became concerned because J. J. said she wanted to kill herself.
In his sole enumeration of error, Page contends that counsel performed deficiently by failing to object when the state placed Page’s character in issue by attempting to elicit testimony about Page’s violent propensities from his mother, Thomas, and from his former girlfriend, Jennifer Scott. In order to prove his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, Page must establish both prongs of the test set out in Strickland v. Washington :1 1 that his trial counsel’s performance was deficient and 2 that counsel’s inadequate performance so prejudiced his defense that a reasonable probability exists that the result of the trial would have been different but for that deficiency.2 “A reasonable probability is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome.”3 Failure to satisfy either prong of the two-part Strickland test is fatal to an ineffective assistance claim.4 “A trial court’s finding that a defendant has been afforded effective assistance of counsel will be affirmed on appeal unless clearly erroneous.”5 We conduct a de novo review of the lower court’s legal conclusions.6
