Ford v. State

Roy Ford was charged by indictment with aggravated battery, criminal damage to property and cruelty to children in the second degree. He pled not guilty to the charges and was tried before a jury. At trial, the state presented evidence showing that Shonte Johnson was holding her four-month-old child when Ford approached her and punched her in the face, breaking her nose. He then broke the windows of Johnson’s car and fled from the scene. The jury found Ford guilty of all charges. The trial judge imposed concurrent sentences of 20 years for the aggravated battery, five years for the criminal damage to property and 12 months for the cruelty to children. Ford moved for a new trial, claiming, among other things, ineffective assistance of trial counsel. The trial court denied the motion. Ford appeals, contending his trial attorney was ineffective in failing to interview the state’s witnesses before trial and in failing to call a particular defense witness. The arguments are without merit, and we thus affirm Ford’s conviction.

To establish a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, a defendant must show both that his trial counsel’s performance was deficient and that the deficiency so prejudiced his defense that a reasonable probability exists that but for the deficiency the result of the trial would have been different.1 “A trial court’s finding that a defendant has been afforded effective assistance of counsel must be upheld unless that finding is clearly erroneous.”2