A jury found Dexter Gary guilty of burglary and hindering a law enforcement officer. Viewed in favor of the verdict,1 evidence presented at trial shows that on April 4, 2005, at 4:41 a.m., two police officers responded to an alarm at a car wash in the city of Cartersville. When they arrived at the scene, one of the officers saw a man coming out of the front door of the car wash building. The officer ordered the man to stop, but he ran from the building. The officer ran after the man, repeatedly ordering him to stop. The officer eventually caught and arrested the man, who was later identified as Gary. Inside the building, the officers found screwdrivers, a pry bar and a sledgehammer lying near a coin machine. Based on damage to the machine in several places, including marks near the locks, the officers believed there had been an attempt to break open the machine with the nearby tools. Gary later told an investigator that he had found an unlocked door at the car wash, entered the building and attempted to break into a coin machine to get money to buy crack cocaine. Gary appeals from the judgment of conviction entered on the verdict. 1. Gary contends that his trial counsel was ineffective a in failing to properly investigate the case and consult with him about trial strategy, and b in introducing evidence of similar burglaries after the trial court had prohibited the state from introducing such evidence. To establish ineffective assistance of counsel, a criminal defendant must prove both that his trial counsel’s performance was deficient and that the deficient performance so prejudiced his defense that there exists a reasonable probability the result would have been different but for the deficiency.2 We will not reverse a trial court’s ruling on either prong of an ineffective assistance claim unless clearly erroneous.3
a Gary was represented at trial by attorney Christopher Paul, who was assisted by attorney Samir Patel. At the motion for new trial hearing, Patel testified that he began preparing for Gary’s trial in September 2005, some two months before the trial held on November 15, 2005. He went through the discovery that had already been compiled by another attorney, and he also reviewed the state’s file on the case, including the audiotape of Gary’s statement to the investigator. Patel met with Gary at least three or four times at the jail and also talked with him on several occasions in an inmate holding area, presumably at the courthouse. During the meetings, they discussed the facts of the case, trial preparation and Gary’s concerns about the case. Patel further testified that he kept attorney Paul apprised of the case, and met with him on at least five or six occasions to discuss the merits of the case.
