Appellant David Sanders was convicted of malice murder, felony murder, and possession of a knife during the commission of a crime in connection with the homicide of his wife, Sheila Newton, who died as a result of multiple stab wounds.1 Sanders contends on appeal he was denied his right to effective assistance of counsel and asserts the evidence was not sufficient to authorize a conviction of cruelty to a child in the first degree. 1. The State presented evidence that appellant and the victim became involved in a heated verbal argument in their home. The victim’s teen-aged daughter was awakened by her mother running into her room and screaming to her to call the police. The daughter saw her mother fall and lay on the floor on her back, and saw appellant straddle the victim, bend over her, and make punching motions at her. A police officer who responded to the emergency call for assistance found the deceased victim on the floor of the daughter’s bedroom, and blood in several rooms of the apartment. A bloody serrated knife was found in the master bedroom. Appellant had lacerations on his arms, legs, and hands that required sutures. A forensic investigator testified appellant’s hand wound could have been an offensive or a defensive wound, and the victim’s palm wounds were more commonly seen as defensive wounds. The forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy on the victim testified she died as a result of stab wounds that punctured her liver and one of her lungs.
Appellant testified the victim lunged at him with a butcher knife and the two “tussled” for possession of the knife. He stated the victim lost consciousness and fell to the floor, whereupon appellant gained possession of the knife and stabbed the victim in the stomach. Appellant testified he had used a butcher knife, not the bloody serrated knife found in the apartment, and asserted that someone else had inflicted the stab wound that had punctured the victim’s lung. Also admitted was evidence of a prior difficulty between appellant and the victim in Colorado in November 2001, which resulted in appellant’s arrest for threats of violence against the victim.
