SLED urges convicted murderer Price to turn himself in ‘immediately’
South Carolina law enforcement leaders are urging Jeriod Price, the convicted South Carolina murderer whose early prison release was voided this week by the S.C. Supreme Court, to turn himself in “immediately.”
In a news release early Thursday afternoon, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, SLED, urged anyone with information about Price’s whereabouts to call (803) 737-9000 or submit tips at tips@sled.sc.gov, or to contact Midlands CrimeStoppers through the Tips Hotline at 888-CRIME-SC, through the Free Mobile App P3TIPS or go to www.crimesc.com.
“He is a fugitive and we are looking for him,” said 1st Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe, who originally prosecuted Price in 2003 when he was an assistant solicitor in Richland County.
“He is on the run,” said Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott Thursday, who also called Price a “fugitive” and announced that the sheriff’s department was offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to Price’s arrest, in addition to reward money offered by Midlands Crimestoppers.
“Someone knows where Price is,” said Lott, whose department investigated the murder committed by Price back in 2002 and 2003. “He’s not going to turn himself in. We have to catch him... He’s a danger to the community.”
Teams of law agents who hunt fugitives from Lott’s department, SLED and the S.C. Department of Corrections are staging a coordinated search for Price, Lott said.
“For 45 days, he’s been enjoying life he did not deserve to enjoy,” Lott said of Price. “Yesterday, Price had the opportunity to turn himself in. He has not done that. He is a fugitive and we are actively looking for them.”
Lott spoke at a press conference, accompanied by the parents of murder victim Carl Smalls Jr., the 22-year-old college football player who was shot and killed by Price at a Columbia-area nightclub in 2002.
“You can’t imagine the pain that parents feel when something like that happens,” Lott said.
Smalls’ father, Carl Smalls Sr., 66, said that in 2002, he had been planning to buy his son a car when the family received the call “no parent wants to get.” He said he can still hear his wife’s screams of pain.
Learning that Price had been released 16 years ahead of schedule “turned everything upside down all over again,” Smalls said. “It’s like the spin cycle in the washing machine, going side to side. We get no sleep. We’re consumed with this....Our son would be 43 years old on Sept. 29.”
“Here we go again, dealing with Jeriod Price,” he said. Smalls said any young person contemplating a crime should remember a saying he heard when he was young: “You don’t want to make your mama cry.”
The state Attorney General’s Office said it would help law enforcement “in any way we can.”
“We always knew that Jeriod Price was a danger to the community and a flight risk. That’s why we asked the court for a bench warrant and subsequently sent a letter asking he be apprehended,” said Claire Brady, a spokesperson for the Attorney General.
While Price’s whereabouts are unknown, he did obtain a driver’s license on April 7 and gave an address in Florence, sources with knowledge previously told The State.
Price was quietly released from prison on March 15, but the public and law enforcement did not know he had been released until last week.
Lott said once the news broke, Price probably saw “the handwriting on the wall” and took steps not to be found.
”He could be anywhere in the world,” Lott said.
Following a 3-2 vote Wednesday, South Carolina’s highest court instructed law enforcement officials “to immediately take custody of the defendant” and return him to the state Department of Corrections to serve the remainder of his sentence.
Price, also referred to as Jeroid Price, was released after serving 19 years of a 35-year sentence for Smalls’ murder. Smalls, who played football at the University of South Carolina and the University of North Carolina, was shot and killed while lying on the ground at a Columbia-area nightclub where a fraternity and sorority were sponsoring a party.
Price’s early release, following a secret meeting between his defense attorney, state Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, and 5th Circuit Solicitor Byron Gipson, has brought scrutiny to South Carolina’s culture of so-called “lawyer-legislators.” Rutherford is a member of the legislature’s Judicial Merit Selection Commission, which reviews the qualifications of candidates being considered for judgeships.
When Price’s release came to light, it was opposed by the state Attorney General’s Office, which argued that proper procedures regarding a hearing and notification of the victim’s family had not been followed. Judge Casey Manning, who has since retired, approved the order releasing Price and ordered that it be sealed.
Smalls’ family was only notified of Price’s release on the mid-March morning he was set to be freed from prison. A victim’s advocate called to let the family know that their son’s killer was being freed, just hours before they received a robocall informing them that Price had been released.
Testifying before the Supreme Court justices Wednesday, Rutherford argued that Price was released because he provided substantial assistance to law enforcement that saved lives.
The main action Price took was getting word to prison authorities that a dangerous inmate, Jimmy Lee Causey, had escaped in 2017 without their knowledge and had been on the lam three days, Rutherford said.
That information led to Causey’s quick apprehension in Texas, where he was located with guns and nearly $50,000 in cash, he said. Rutherford also submitted statements by an inmate and a former security guard about how on two occasions Price had saved the lives of two corrections officers who were threatened by other inmates.
Following the court’s ruling, Rutherford expressed his disappointment with the decision. Rutherford had urged the justices to uphold the release of Price, saying his life will be in danger since Price will now be known as an informant if returned to prison.
Lott declined to go into details about what the fugitive teams are doing, but said, “I can tell you this — there’s not anything that needs doing that we’re not doing.”
Speed is important in apprehending Price, Lott said. “We don’t need him caught six months from now. We need him caught now.”
This is a breaking news story. Check back here for updates.
This story was originally published April 27, 2023 at 1:26 PM.