Reese, Judge.A jury found Kenneth Blackwell guilty of aggravated child molestation, aggravated sexual battery, and statutory rape.[1] The trial court sentenced Blackwell to life plus 20 years’ imprisonment. Blackwell appeals from the denial of his amended motion for new trial, arguing, inter alia, that his trial counsel was ineffective in failing to object to the improper admission of child hearsay evidence. For the reasons set forth, infra, we affirm. Viewed in the light most favorable to the jury’s verdict,[2] the evidence presented at trial showed the following facts. In 2006, when the victim, K. S. was about seven years old, Blackwell began dating K. S.’s mother. At the time, K. S. and her family lived in Ohio. According to K. S., Blackwell “started to touch” her around that time, using his fingers to touch her breasts and her vagina. Two or three years later, when K. S. was nine or ten years old, Blackwell began having sexual intercourse with her.In 2010, when K. S. was ten or eleven years old, her family and Blackwell moved to Gwinnett County, where the sexual intercourse and fondling continued. In addition, Blackwell began to force her to perform oral sex on him. According to K. S., the sexual abuse happened “[a] lot,” but she did not tell her mother because she thought her mother would not believe her.Then, in July 2012, when K. S. was 13 years old, Blackwell impregnated her, and she had to undergo a second-trimester abortion. According to K. S., she did not tell her mother that Blackwell was the man who had impregnated her, and her mother did not ask her who it had been. Blackwell, however, told K. S.’s mother that she had been raped by someone in the neighborhood. It is undisputed that neither K. S.’s mother nor Blackwell called the police to report the alleged rape. Following the abortion, Blackwell continued to have sexual intercourse and oral sex with K. S. repeatedly until early May 2014, when she was 15 years old. About two weeks after the last time Blackwell sexually assaulted her, K. S. ran away from home and went to a friend’s house seeking a place to spend the night. According to K. S., she ran away because she was afraid for her own safety and that of her little sister, who was five or six years old at the time.The friend’s mother testified that K. S. told her “about the things [Blackwell was] doing to her” and that she had told her mother about the abuse several times, but her mother did not believe her. The friend’s mother testified that K. S. had “told [her that] ever since she was [nine years old, Blackwell] had been touching her and he ha[d] sex with her and . . . made her perform oral sex on him and that she [had become] pregnant by him . . . when she was . . . 13 or 14 — and that the child . . . was . . . aborted[.]” The friend’s mother, who was a police officer, called K. S.’s mother, who arrived shortly thereafter, and the police.The Gwinnett County police officer who responded to the call, Angelica Grissom, testified at trial that she spoke briefly with K. S. at the friend’s home. K. S. told Grissom that Blackwell started touching her when she was about [seven] years old and that he actually started inserting his penis or penetrating her when she was about [ten]. [K. S.] initially told [Grissom] that in the summer of 2013 she had an abortion. [H]er mom [told Grissom, however,] that she paid for an abortion in the summer of 2012. [K. S.] stated [that Blackwell] would normally come into her bedroom late at night when her mom was asleep. She stated that many times she was actually asleep herself and [Blackwell would] wake her up. [K. S. stated that the sexual abuse] happened for several years. [T]heir last encounter was about two weeks prior to th[e] report being filed with the police [in May 2014].
