Truesee's Daily Wonder

An Orangeburg man will spend the next 10 years behind bars after a jury answered the question: “Where’s the beef?”

Mark Zachary, 51, of 1336 Weeping Willow Drive, was given the maximum sentence when jurors decided he was guilty of shoplifting, third offense or greater.

The Aug. 26 incident was actually Zachary’s ninth offense, said prosecuting Assistant Solicitor Glenn Justis. He feels the 10 years is justified.

“How many shopliftings do you have to have before you get the max?” he said.

Defense attorney Ash Chisolm reminded jurors in his opening statement that there’s two sides to a story. Chisolm pointed out the state had no video of the incident.

“All we’re going to ask is you pay close attention to the witnesses,” Chisolm said. “Pay close attention to the evidence you’re not given.”

The jury was deadlocked after two hours of deliberation on Tuesday. Circuit Court Judge James Williams then gave them a choice -- decide the matter on Wednesday or a mistrial would be declared, in effect leaving the job for another jury panel in another trial.

The jury spent two more hours debating on Wednesday before coming back with a guilty verdict.

The trial began on Tuesday with jurors hearing testimony from two employees of Reid’s grocery store of Orangeburg. The employees said they confronted Zachary Aug. 26 after noticing he had a large, bulky object underneath his shirt.

The incident began around 8:13 p.m. when an employee noticed Zachary carrying an $80 side of New York strip in his hands.

A few minutes later, he noticed the bread box-sized side of beef was gone and a large bulk had appeared on Zachary’s person, according to a police report.

The employee then reported Zachary’s actions to the store manager. Justis said the manager approached the man about the object underneath his shirt.

Zachary fled at that point, unwittingly into the arms of off-duty police officer, Kevin Dukes, who was entering the store.

On the stand, Zachary denied taking the side of meat, saying rather he was “massaging it,” Justis said.

“Where’s the beef? That was the famous tagline in the Wendy’s commercials back in the 1980s,” Justis said in his opening argument. “Well, I can tell you where it should not have been, it should not have been hidden in Mark Zachary’s shirt as he walked through Reid’s supermarket that evening.”