This is the second appearance of this case in this Court. In Louis F. Trauth’s first appeal, in which, as explained more fully below, Trauth was improperly forced to proceed pro se, this Court affirmed the trial court’s decision to deny Trauth’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea for malice murder. See Trauth v. State, 283 Ga. 141 657 SE2d 225 2008. New counsel began representing Trauth after his first appeal, and this new counsel filed a habeas petition on Trauth’s behalf on September 16, 2008. Following a hearing, the habeas court granted the petition on January 15, 2014, granting Trauth “an out-of-time direct appeal from the trial court’s denial of Trauth’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea.” See Roberts v. Caldwell, 230 Ga. 223 196 SE2d 444 1973 proper remedy for defendant who was improperly denied counsel and forced to proceed pro se in his first direct appeal was to allow him to pursue second, out-of-time, direct appeal. The habeas court also gave Trauth thirty days “to pursue post conviction remedies.” Trauth then filed a Notice of Out-of-Time Appeal on February 10, 2014, which placed this case before us for a second time. On appeal, he argues, among other things, that his trial counsel and post conviction counsel were ineffective. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.
The record reveals that Trauth pled guilty on August 2, 2006 to the malice murder of his wife. The facts at the guilty plea hearing revealed that, approximately two weeks before the murder, Trauth’s wife had told him that she was having an affair. On the day of the murder, Trauth recorded an audiotape. In the tape, he explained to his children that, by the time they found the tape, he would have killed himself and his wife. The recording then stops, and, when it starts again, Trauth explains that he has killed his wife and that he now intends to kill himself. However, rather than committing suicide, Trauth called one of his daughters who, in turn, alerted the police. When police arrived at the Trauths’ home, Trauth’s wife’s body was discovered in the garage. She had been shot twice in the head at close range. Police recovered a bullet from a couch cushion in an upstairs living room, and there was evidence that Trauth had tried to clean blood from the couch. A second bullet was found in the garage next to the body. At the guilty plea hearing, Trauth fully admitted to the murder of his wife.
