COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina convicted murderer whose early release ignited controversy is now back behind bars at a state prison.
The South Carolina Department of Corrections and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division confirmed late Monday afternoon that Jeriod Price had been taken from the Rikers Island facility in New York City to Kirkland Correctional Institution in Columbia. Price had been arrested in New York last week after months of being a fugitive. He had been awaiting extradition back to the state.
Price, 43, will now be evaluated at the intake center at Kirkland for several weeks before he's transferred to a maximum security prison. He is being held in a single cell in the agency's most secure unit.
Price was considered a fugitive from justice after being released from prison in March 2023 after serving only 19 years of a 35 years-to-life sentence for the murder of Carl Smalls Jr. at a Columbia nightclub in 2002. At the end of last year, Democratic state Rep. Todd Rutherford, who is Price's lawyer, and prosecutor Byron Gipson agreed to ask a judge to cut Price's sentence because he reported an escaped inmate serving a life sentence before the prisoner was missed and kept two guards from serious injuries during attacks. That is the only way a murder sentence can be reduced in South Carolina. Documents regarding Price's early release had been sealed in December after being signed by Circuit Judge Casey Manning, who's now retired.
After word of his early release reached South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, the Attorney General's Office raised objections about the process for his release. Small's family was also outraged, and said the release was unfair.
The South Carolina Supreme Court unsealed the records and issued an order calling for Price to be returned to prison to serve the remainder of his original sentence on April 26.
On June 7, a federal arrest warrant was issued for Price in the US District Court of South Carolina for the Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution. The FBI warrant was in direct response to the SC Supreme Court's bench warrant issued in April.
In documents released last week, the FBI claimed Price had been in South Carolina in April around the time of his Supreme Court hearing. Agents claim he went to North Carolina, then Georgia, then New Mexico before they lost the ability to track him. A tip from someone in South Carolina ultimately led authorities to an apartment in the Bronx where he was captured.