Following a jury trial, Annie Ling was convicted of cruelty to a child. She appeals the denial of her motion for new trial in a single enumeration of error, arguing that her trial counsel provided ineffective assistance of counsel by failing to secure an interpreter for her both before and during the trial. We affirm, for reasons that follow. Viewed in favor of the verdict,1 the record shows that the Spalding County Department of Family and Children Services “DFCS” received a referral alleging that Ling had physically abused her children, Catherine and Christopher Ling. In January 2007, Sharon Gilmore, a social services worker for DFCS, interviewed Ling and her husband, Dennis Ling, at the restaurant where they worked. Somer Bales, an investigator for the Griffin Police Department, and Jeff Mason, who was also with the Griffin Police Department, were present as well. With the Lings’s permission, Gilmore and Bales went to their home to see the children, accompanied by Bales, a juvenile investigator with the City of Griffin Police Department. When the two women arrived at the Ling residence, the children’s grandmother, who did not speak English, initially denied them entry into the house, but she ultimately allowed them to come in after she spoke with Ling on the telephone.
Ling, who had subsequently arrived home, permitted Gilmore and Bales to inspect Catherine, who was sleeping in a locked room. Gilmore and Bales observed that the child who was 22 months old had visible bruising on both sides of her face, the bridge of her nose, the backs of her legs, her ankles, her feet, and her back. Catherine also had burns on both of her hands, was very thin, and appeared unhealthy. In the presence of Gilmore and Bales, Ling “took Catherine by her arm and snatched her up to a standing position” and then “took the child’s bangs and forced them back on top of her head very forcibly, very harsh, and then placed her hands on Catherine’s cheeks and jerked her from side to side. . . . It appeared to be very painful.” Ling also picked Catherine up by one arm and “kind of tossed her” onto a bed in the room.
