During a planned marijuana deal, Travis Ridley carried $26,000; witness Erica Shavers testified that Tavarez pulled a gun, demanded Ridley’s valuables, shot him, and an accomplice took the cash. Tavarez was convicted of malice murder and related crimes. He argued trial counsel was ineffective for not objecting sooner when a detective repeated Shavers’s account, and that leg shackles excluded him from bench conferences. The Supreme Court of Georgia assumed counsel’s earlier hearsay objection might have been deficient but found no Strickland prejudice because Shavers testified directly, surveillance and other evidence corroborated her, and Tavarez admitted shooting Ridley. The stand-alone shackling claim was unpreserved; his right-to-presence claim failed because he identified no conference at which his presence was required. The Court affirmed the convictions. Justice LaGrua concurred, warning that routine shackling is impermissible without case-specific, individualized findings.