A jury convicted Gebre Whitelock of aggravated child molestation, child molestation, and cruelty to children based on conduct involving his stepdaughter. He challenged the denial of his motion for new trial, arguing ineffective assistance, evidentiary error, and an invalid sentence. The Court of Appeals affirmed the convictions and most of the sentences but vacated the sentence for child molestation and remanded for resentencing. The court rejected Whitelock’s claims concerning counsel and excluded evidence, but held that the sentence did not comply with the governing sexual-offense sentencing law. The defect could not be cured by applying a later statutory amendment retroactively, and the separate cruelty-to-children sentence did not qualify as a consecutive sexual-offense sentence under the amended provision. The conviction therefore remained intact, while the trial court had to impose a lawful sentence on the child-molestation count.