COLUMBIA, S.C. — A criminal complaint filed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) documents the path agents say Jeriod Price took as a fugitive trying to avoid custody before his arrest Thursday in New York City.
The document was filed in the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina on June 7, 2023, by FBI Special Agent Kevin Conroy to obtain a warrant for Price's arrest. The request of the Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution warrant was required for the FBI or US Marshals Service to arrest Price.
Price is currently being held at a jail facility on Riker's Island in New York. His next court date is set for July 31.
Price had been convicted and sentenced to 35 years in prison for the murder of Carl Smalls Jr. in 2003. While he had initially begun serving his time in a South Carolina prison, Price was eventually transferred to a prison facility in New Mexico.
In December 2022, Price's attorney Todd Rutherford and prosecutor Byron Gipson agreed to ask Judge Casey Manning to reduce Price's sentence because he reported an escaped inmate serving a life sentence and kept two guards from serious injury during separate attacks. Judge Manning signed the early release order before retiring from the bench.
After South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson discovered the deal, he and the Smalls family were outraged. Wilson successfully petitioned the South Carolina Supreme Court to unseal the records in the case. He issued an order calling for Price to be returned to prison to serve out his remaining sentence.
The criminal complaint says the FBI was called by South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) in April to assist in the investigation as many of Price's family and friends that needed to be interviewed reside out of state. Price has relatives in North Carolina, Georgia, and New York, where he was finally located.
SLED had used cell phone data to track Price, determining he was briefly in South Carolina on April 25th and 26th. As it turned out, the 26th was the day the Supreme Court took up Price's case and issued its ruling. The FBI says he headed to Fayetteville, North Carolina, where he allegedly boarded a bus to Atlanta. From there, the FBI says he returned to New Mexico, specifically the Albuquerque area.
During this time, SLED ($30,000) and the FBI ($30,000) offered rewards for information about Price's whereabouts and his lawyer, along with law enforcement, held press conferences asking Price to turn himself in.
Based on a tip from South Carolina authorities, Price was eventually found in a townhouse in the Bronx, New York, and was arrested without incident by investigators with the FBI and New York Police Department.
South Carolina Department of Corrections Director Bryan Stirling said once he has been extradited to the state, Price will be placed in a cell by himself and protected since other inmates likely know he had cooperated with law enforcement.