A murderer who gunned down a student twenty years ago should be re-arrested after a retiring judge secretly freed him from prison.
Price, 43, was quietly freed from a New Mexico prison 16 years early on March 15, after serving only 19 years of his sentence
Jeroid Price, 43, was convicted in 2003 of shooting Carl Smalls and sentenced to 35 years in prison in South Carolina.
But Judge Casey Manning signed an order on December 30, on his last day before retiring, allowing Price to be quietly freed from a New Mexico prison 16 years early.
Documents were unsealed after the South Carolina Attorney General appealed to the Supreme Court to uncover the reason for the early-release order – which was signed with no notification of the Smalls family.
Attorney General Alan Wilson called for Price to be sent back to prison just an hour after the early-release order was made public on April 17.
The document claims that Price was released on March 15 for informing prison officials about the escape of a ‘dangerous inmate’ and aided two correctional officers during violent fights in 2006 and 2017.
Jeroid Price, 43, was convicted in 2003 of shooting Carl Smalls (pictured) and sentenced to 35 years in prison in South Carolina
He reportedly saved a correctional officer from an attack by multiple inmates on a wig at the Lieber correction institution, with a fellow inmate saying Price was ‘punished’ for saving the officer.
Price assisted another prison officer who was being attacked by an inmate, who was standing over her with a broomstick.
He reportedly ‘came out of nowhere and tackled’ the inmate and held him there until help arrived.
The report states that the corrections officer ‘stated several times that she wanted Inmate Price to receive an award, a time reduction, for saving her life.’
Price is also credited for notifying the DOC that Jimmy Lee Causey, had escaped from prison though it is unclear what year this was as Causey escaped at least twice.
Price only served 19 years of his 35-year sentence, with AG Wilson’s filing arguing that the ‘triggering mechanism’ under state law for a judge to reduce a prisoner’s sentence did not take place.
He argued that the order violated state law because convicted murderers must serve at least 30 years of a sentence.
It is not clear why the justices agreed to unseal the release order, which was signed by retired Jude Manning, or why the incidents warranted Price’s early release.
Attorney General Alan Wilson called for Price to be sent back to prison just an hour after the early-release order was made public on April 17
Solicitor Byron Gipson (pictured) agreed to file a motion in December to request to reduce Price’s sentence for providing undisclosed ‘substantial assistance to law enforcement’
He was required by state law to send the order to chief judge Clifton Newman, who presided over the Alex Murdaugh trial. Manning did not get the order signed by Newman.
Price’s attorney, Todd Rutherford, said he was not surprised that Wilson wants Price returned to jail ‘because this is when politics begin to play into it.’
Rutherford, the Democratic leader in the South Carolina House of Representatives, said: ‘I am certainly happy and my client is happy to know that the motion is now open.
‘And people can see that there was nothing untoward and nothing that is not normally done in a case of this magnitude.
‘Transparency and sunlight are always good, but in this case, I don’t know that they will be good for Mr. Price because by doing so, he’s put a target on his back.’
Price was part of the Bloods street gang, and was convicted of killing football player Carl Smalls, 22, at a Colombia nightclub.
The father-of-five shot dead Smalls because he was affiliated with a rival gang, the Crips, though police said at trial he was not a fully-fledged member.
Judge Casey Manning was required by state law to send the order to chief judge Clifton Newman, who presided over the Alex Murdaugh trial. Manning did not get the order signed by Newman
Smalls’s family found out about Price’s release through an automated call, with his family saying the decision is ‘not fair’
Price was part of the Bloods street gang, and was convicted of killing football player Carl Smalls, 22, at a Colombia nightclub
Solicitor Byron Gipson agreed to file a motion in December to request to reduce Price’s sentence for providing undisclosed ‘substantial assistance to law enforcement.’
But the motion was never filed because the order releasing Price was already signed and sealed from public view without a hearing where the victims’ relatives could attend.
Smalls’s family found out about Price’s release through an automated call, with his family saying the decision is ‘not fair’.
Andrianne Smalls, brother of Carl, told News19: ‘That kind leaves us in the upward because we don’t know where he’s at, what are his intentions. We don’t know anything.
‘We just celebrated 20 years of his death and a couple months afterward now we’re hearing that he’s free.
‘Just finish up your 16 years that you have and be done, and we’ll go from there. But this right here is not fair.’
The family is urging him to finish his time, after the AG requested a bench warrant for Price’s arrest.
Smalls’ father, Carl Jr, added: ‘I was just devastated. They weren’t going to say nothing; it was a done deal. ‘We’re the law, this is what we did and you folks deal with it.’
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