Opinion ID: 2390272
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: failure to prepare defendant for trial

Text: Finally, Appellant argues that trial counsel was ineffective in failing to prepare him adequately for trial. The chief complaint is that if trial counsel had spent enough time with Appellant, he would not have made various damaging admissions and statements when he testified. The PCRA court rejected this claim, noting that Appellant was very familiar with the criminal justice system and there was extensive preparation of Appellant for this trial. Under such circumstances, we agree that counsel cannot be blamed for Appellant's voluntary decision to expand his prepared testimony and make damaging remarks. Accordingly, all of Appellant's claims of ineffective assistance of counsel are baseless and the order of the trial court denying PCRA relief is affirmed. [2] LARSEN, J., did not participate in the consideration or decision of this case. McDERMOTT, J., did not participate in the decision of this case.