Freed killer returns to S.C. to serve remainder of prison term

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCSC) - The convicted killer who was captured more than two months after the South Carolina Supreme Court reversed his early release from prison is back in custody at the state’s Department of Corrections.

Jeroid John Price was brought back to the Palmetto State by corrections agents and agents with the State Law Enforcement Division from Rikers Island in New York.

Price was convicted in the 2002 shooting death of college football player and Charleston native Carl Smalls Jr. in Columbia.

Price was released from prison on March 15 after a judge reduced his 35-year sentence to 19 years. But the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned that order on April 26. The following day, when Price had not surrendered to law enforcement, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott labeled him a fugitive and a search began nationwide. He was arrested on the morning of July 10 in the Bronx.

Price’s attorney, Todd Rutherford, who is also the South Carolina House Minority Leader, argued to the court that in 2017 his client called to tell him inmate Jimmy Causey had been missing for two days and state prison officials had not figured out he was gone. Causey was serving a life sentence for tying up his lawyer and family because he was unhappy about his attorney’s work. Rutherford argued before the high court that the release was given because Price had helped the corrections department by providing information about the escape.

He also said Price saved the lives of corrections officers by breaking up fights in prison.

The state’s high court’s justices said they didn’t like that the deal was kept secret, including from the parents of the man Price killed. The high court also noted that no formal hearing was held before Price walked out of prison.

Rutherford said he asked the motion to reduce his sentence be kept secret to protect Price’s safety both inside the prison and after his release, fearing he would be attacked for cooperating with authorities.

Price, 43, is being housed in a single cell in the state’s most secure prison unit, where he will remain while the agency determines the best maximum security prison for him to spend the rest of his sentence.

Any concerns about his safety will be addressed during the evaluation process, a t release from SLED and the state’s Department of Corrections states.

Price was being held at the Kirkland Reception and Evaluation Center in Columbia.

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