Thomas

CODRINGTON J.

*1066 I

INTRODUCTION 1

Defendant Edward Lewis Thomas repeatedly molested his daughter for 10 years, beginning when she was four or five years old. He admitted his conduct in a pretextual telephone call with his daughter and in a letter to her mother. A jury convicted defendant of nine counts of aggravated sexual assault on a child. 2 The court sentenced him to a total indeterminate sentence of 135 years to life.

On appeal, defendant argues that there is no substantial evidence that he committed his crimes by means of force, fear, menace, or duress. He further argues that his counsel's failure to object to the detective's testimony about the timeline of the oral copulation constituted ineffective assistance of counsel. Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the judgment, we hold that substantial evidence supports a finding of aggravated sexual crimes because of defendant's ongoing physical violence against the victim. Defendant's claim of ineffective assistance of *474 counsel fails on the merits. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment.

II

STATEMENT OF FACTS

Defendant was born in 1962. Defendant married Lucy, Jane Doe's mother, in 1989. Jane Doe was…