P. v. Knowles
A jury found defendant and appellant Anthony Knowles (defendant) guilty of, inter alia, second degree robbery and false imprisonment, and the trial court sentenced him to 103 years, four months, to life in prison. On appeal, defendant contends that the trial court abused its discretion when it relieved his appointed counsel of choice and instead appointed counsel from an indigent criminal defense panel. Defendant also contends that he received ineffective assistance of counsel because his trial counsel, after successfully excluding gang evidence, elicited answers from a witness during impeachment that “opened the door†to the prosecution’s introduction of prejudicial gang evidence.
We hold that because the record does not affirmatively show that the trial court abused its discretion when it entered the order relieving defendant’s appointed counsel of choice, we affirm that order. We further hold that counsel’s apparent tactical choice to impeach a key prosecution witness with inconsistent statements did not constitute ineffective assistance of counsel. We therefore affirm the judgment of conviction.
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