Paul Steven Wester filed this out-of-time appeal following his conviction on one count of theft by shoplifting.1 Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence showed that on December 10, 2002, Wester and his son went into a nutrition store where Melanie Allen, the store’s owner, was working. The Westers were looking for pills they hoped would “clean” marijuana out of the son’s “system,” so he could pass a drug test administered by his probation officer. Upon entering the shop, the Westers went to different parts of the store. Wester’s son went toward the back of the store, and Allen asked the elder Wester if she could help him, but he said he knew what he was looking for. Allen noticed that Wester’s son had disappeared from her view, squatting behind a shelf, and she began moving toward the back of the store. Wester stopped in front of her and began “dancing” around and asking her about cleansing products. During this period, he looked back at his son as if to see what he was doing. Wester could hear someone rattling nutrition supplements in the back of the store where she had last seen Wester’s son. Allen made her way around Wester to where his son was. She observed that the bottles on the shelf were disturbed and she could see the top of a bottle in the boy’s jacket. Allen confronted Wester’s son, telling him that she knew he had stolen something. At that point, Wester told his son to run. The son began running and Wester followed, running behind him, toward the parking lot.
Another customer, Sean Ellison, who was on medical leave from the Cherokee County Sheriff’s office, was in the store at that time and observed Allen speaking to Wester and his son. He also observed a bottle of pills in the son’s pants pocket. Ellison chased Wester and his son into the parking lot, but stopped when he saw what may have been a handgun in Wester’s pocket. He observed them drive off, but could not get a tag number because the car displayed only a used car tag, although he was able to get a date and the name of a used car lot.
