Bethel, Justice. Ricardo Sturkey was convicted of malice murder and other crimes in connection with the shooting death of Albert White.[1] On appeal, Sturkey raises two claims of trial court error and argues that his trial counsel rendered constitutionally ineffective assistance. For the reasons that follow, we affirm. 1. The evidence adduced at trial showed as follows. In February 2009, Sturkey was living at the home of Albert White. White was last seen alive on February 23, 2009. On February 24, several of White’s family members and friends stopped by to see him. When Willie James Odum, White’s brother-in-law, knocked on the door, Sturkey spoke to Odum through the door and claimed that White had gone somewhere with someone in a white truck. Sturkey refused to let another of White’s friends in the house. And when two other friends of White’s attempted to visit, they saw White’s truck outside the house and a fire burning in the yard, but when they knocked, no one came to the door. On February 25, several people went to the house to check on White, and they found him in bed with the covers pulled over him. Upon pulling the blankets back, they found White deceased with gunshot wounds to the neck and back of the head. Sturkey had walked ahead of the others and appeared to try to wake White, then tried to prevent them from uncovering White. After the discovery of White’s body, Sturkey did not seem surprised or upset about White’s death. It was later determined that White had been deceased for 36 to 48 hours before his body was discovered and that White was most likely killed in the kitchen before his body was moved to the bed. Near a burn pile in the backyard of White’s house, investigators found a blood-stained, partially burned shirt. The blood stain patterns on the shirt led investigators to believe it was worn by the person who moved White’s body. DNA testing matched the blood on the shirt to White; genetic material, likely sweat or skin cells, recovered from the neckband and armpit areas was matched to Sturkey. Investigators also located a large empty jar in White’s living room. They learned that the jar was typically filled with loose change, which was significant because Sturkey used “a bag full of change” to buy crack cocaine on the night of February 23, the day of White’s death. Investigators later located the revolver used to shoot White wrapped in a shirt and hidden in a cooler inside a shed on the property of Adreka Belvin, a neighbor of White’s. Belvin offered to let investigators search her property after hearing that the murder weapon was not recovered at the scene because, she said, Sturkey came to her house on the morning of February 25 asking for a cigarette, which Belvin found unusual because she had not seen Sturkey for several months. 2. In his first claim of error, Sturkey argues that, while questioning a witness at trial, the trial judge expressed an opinion as to Sturkey’s guilt, thereby violating OCGA § 17-8-57 (a) (1) (“It is error for any judge, during any phase of any criminal case, to express or intimate to the jury the judge’s opinion as to whether a fact at issue has or has not been proved or as to the guilt of the accused.”).[2]We are not persuaded. At trial, a forensic biologist testified regarding DNA testing of the blood-stained shirt and the estimated frequencies of the DNA profiles for the blood (one in ten quadrillion), the sample from the armpit area (one in twenty million), and the sample from the neckband (one in sixty million). Following cross-examination, the trial judge briefly questioned the witness “just to clarify a couple of things”as follows: Q.Apparently, you had plenty of blood, so you could get
really good samples? A.Yes. Q.And that’s why you had 1 in 16 [sic] quadrillion, or
