COLUMBIA, S.C. — Jeriod Price, the South Carolina inmate whose early release ignited controversy, has been arrested in New York.
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division confirmed Price was taken into custody by FBI agents and officers from the New York Police Department. The FBI and NYPD were acting of a tip that came from South Carolina authorities.
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson clarified that Price was found at an apartment in the Bronx and was taken into custody without incident.
Once he's brought back to South Carolina, Price will be taken to Kirkland Reception and Evaluation Center in Columbia, where he will be until the prisons system determines which facility he will go to next.
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 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.
"When I told the Smalls family that their son’s killer was back in custody, they yelled with joy," Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said in a statement following Price's capture. "The Smalls family has endured enough pain and they don’t want anymore victims to go through what they have."
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.
Price's attorney said he was glad his client was found safe, but worried about his future.
Now he has to worry about those in government who continue to heap harm on him," Rutherford said. "While serving in prison, he helped the people of South Carolina -- and his reward has been to have his life endangered by people seeking political gain."
South Carolina Department of Corrections Director Bryan Stirling said Price will be in a cell by himself and will get protection once he's returned, since other inmates likely know he had cooperated with law enforcement.
Before his release, Price had been serving his sentence at a New Mexico prison.