Jeroid Price, the South Carolina murderer at the center of a controversy surrounding Fifth Circuit Judge Casey Manning is in custody today after he was arrested in New York on July 12, 2023 by officers with the FBI and the NYPD. Authorities in South Carolina learned he was in New York following a tip, according to a press release from SCDC.
Jeroid John Price was convicted for the 2002 murder of Carl Smalls Jr at a Columbia nightclub and sentenced to 35 years in prison. In April 2023, word got out that Price was released from prison in March, just 19 years into his sentence. The release came after Manning signed a sentence reduction order on Dec. 28, 2022, his last day on the bench before retiring.
In April, the South Carolina Supreme Court voided that order and issued a warrant for Price’s arrest. He has been on the lam since and a $30,000 reward was offered for information about his whereabouts.
South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division Chief, Mark Keel, called the arrest a positive example of community and police collaboration.
“The arrest of Jeriod Price demonstrates the strength of law enforcement partnerships nationwide. This is yet another example that when law enforcement and the community work together, fugitives cannot and will not escape justice. I continue to encourage the public to come forward with tips in cases like this one to bring justice to victims of violent crime in South Carolina,” he said Wednesday afternoon.
When Price is returned to South Carolina, he will be processed into the South Carolina Department of Corrections Custody at Kirkland Correctional Institution before receiving his permanent housing assignment.
Price’s attorney lawyer-legislator Todd Rutherford made the following statement via text message regarding the arrest of Jeroid Price:
“It is good to know Jeroid Price is safe from those outside who seek to do him harm. Now he has to worry about those in government who continue to heap harm on him.
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.”
We have also reached out to the NYPD, the FBI, and SLED for further comment.
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Beth Braden
Beth Braden is an award-winning journalist with experience covering government, education and crime and courts for more than 10 years. In addition to following breaking news and writing feature stories about life in her home state of Tennessee, her by-line appears on several internationally known websites.
Beth is passionate about communicating complex information in an easy-to-understand manner and she loves to pore over public records and court documents as she seeks out patterns and context to share with her audience. In her spare time, she enjoys quilting, strange museums, and good cups of coffee.
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