By John Monk
The State
RIDGEVILLE, S.C. — Fugitive killer Jeriod Price, whose secret release from prison 16 years early stunned South Carolina judicial and law enforcement officials, was returned to South Carolina Monday from New York City.
State prison officials said that Price is at Kirkland R&E Center and being evaluated “to determine what maximum-security prison is best suited to house him.”
Price, 43, had been at large, roaming from state to state for 77 days, while the FBI and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division hunted him.
Thanks to a tip or tips, Price was arrested without incident at a New York city apartment in the Bronx last week by a team of FBI agents and New York City police, officials said last week. Anyone providing tips that led to Price’s capture is eligible for all or part of the $60,000 in state and federal reward money offered for information leading to him, said S.C. Department of Corrections director Bryan Stirling.
On June 7, a federal magistrate judge in South Carolina, Paige Gossett, issued a sealed directive ordering Price’s arrest on a charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. That warrant gave the FBI jurisdiction to get actively involved in a multi-state manhunt.
While Price was out of prison, he obtained a South Carolina driver’s license. Documents in federal court said GPS surveillance of phones he was using put him in various places, including Fayetteville, Georgia, and Alburquerque, New Mexico.
Why Price was free
Price had served 19 years of a 35-year mandatory prison sentence when now-retired Judge Casey Manning issued a sealed directive last December ordering prison officials to release him for purportedly giving crucial aid to prison officials that might have saved lives. Under a little-known policy, judges — upon presentation of evidence by a solicitor about the inmate’s alleged help — can order a prisoner’s release.
Fifth Circuit Solicitor Byron Gipson had worked with Price’s attorney, state Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, to draw up a document to present to Manning, who signed the order late last December in his last days as an active judge. No public hearing was held, relatives of Price’s murder victim were not notified of his possible release and all records concerning the matter were sealed.
In mid-April, First Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe, who had prosecuted Price in his 2003 trial for murder, learned of Price’s secret release and notified news media. State Attorney General Alan Wilson filed motions with the state Supreme Court to order Price’s arrest.
On April 26, the Supreme Court, on a 3-2 vote, voided Manning’s secret order and ordered that Price be taken into custody. Hours earlier, in a hearing, justices expressed dismay at the large number of years lopped off Price’s prison sentence and that no public court record existed that reflected the killer had been released.
About that time the Supreme Court issued its order, Price vanished.
In 2003, a Richland County jury convicted Price of murder in the 2002 nightclub shooting death of Carl Smalls Jr., a former football player at the University of South Carolina and the University of North Carolina. Smalls was enrolled at UNC when he was killed by Price at a Columbia-area nightspot.
Pascoe’s disclosure that Price was out of prison triggered a wave of controversy and response from local and state officials, from Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, a Democrat, to Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican.
The secret release also raised questions about cozy relationships between judges and lawyer-legislators like Rutherford, who help select state judges.
Supreme Court justices on April 26 said they would issue an opinion about Price’s release and the issues it raised, but they have not yet done so.
Price’s lawyer, Rutherford, said Monday evening that he hoped prison officials would keep his client safe.
Rutherford stressed that Manning’s order was supposed to have been sealed for Price’s safety, since some people don’t like prison inmates who help authorities. Now that the order has been made public, Rutherford said, he hoped the name or names of whoever gets the $60,000 reward will be made public also.
“That (reward) is a secret deal, exactly like what they complained about in Jeriod Price’s case,” said Rutherford. “If we are going to abolish secrets in government, we should abolish them all.”
Rutherford also objected to calling Price a fugitive since he had been released from prison in mid-March under Manning’s order.
Nor had Price committed a crime while he was out, Rutherford said. “He wasn’t a fugitive from justice, he was someone who was out on a lawful order and the Supreme Court reversed that order through no fault of his own.”
Rutherford said he looks forward to meeting with Price, but doesn’t know when that will be.
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