Where In The World Is Jeroid J. Price?

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Local, state and federal law enforcement agencies are continuing their collaborative efforts to locate and apprehend convicted killer Jeroid J. Price – who was illegally and unconstitutionally released from the custody of the S.C. Department of Corrections (SCDC) on March 15, 2023 by retiring judge Casey Manning.

Progress is being made in that manhunt, we are told … although as of this writing Price, a powerful leader in the Bloods gang, continues to elude law enforcement.

Manning’s illegitimate order – granted at the request of powerful lawyer-legislator Todd Rutherford – was first exposed by this news outlet on April 17, 2023. In the intervening days, Price’s story took the Palmetto State by storm – reviving calls for reform of South Carolina’s badly broken judicial system.

This week it’s been crickets, though … as Price has managed to avoid being captured despite law enforcement reportedly being “close” to apprehending him on several occasions.

Make no mistake: This situation is 100 percent the fault of South Carolina’s judiciary – which, as I noted in the most recent edition of our Week In Review, is nothing but a “political annex of a corrupt legislative branch of government.”

So just to be clear any blood spilled in connection with this fiasco is on their hands …

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In addition to illegally and unconstitutionally springing Price from prison, South Carolina’s judicial system proved to be of absolutely zero help to prosecutors and politicians as they worked overtime to try and get him back behind bars. Last week, the S.C. supreme court voided Manning’s order by a narrower-than-expected 3-2 margin – but not before missing an opportunity to apprehend the dangerous gang leader.

Days before this hearing, S.C. chief justice Donald Beatty was expressly warned Price was a flight risk and declined to have him taken into custody – at a time when law enforcement knew his whereabouts.

Now Price is “in the wind.”

Even worse, Beatty attempted turn the onus for this fiasco back on the state’s chief prosecutor – S.C. attorney general Alan Wilson – even though Wilson’s office had no role in Price’s release and has actually been leading the charge to have it voided.

“That’s a mess that y’all made and you’re asking us to clean it up,” Beatty chided Wilson last week.

Really? Last time I checked the order to free Price was issued by a judge. Meaning this is, definitionally, Beatty’s mess.

To recap: Price was convicted in 2003 of murdering University of North Carolina football player Carl Smalls following a gang-related dispute at Club Voodoo in Columbia, S.C. Price is a leader in the Bloods gang – having been described as “Godfather of the G Shine Bloods” within the state correctional system. At the time of the Club Voodoo shooting, Price was referred to as a “superior” in the criminal organization – leading a chapter referred to as the “GKB,” or “Gangster Killer Bloods.” Smalls was affiliated with the Crips gang.

Price’s son – 23-year-old Jewayne M. Price – is also a gang leader. He was charged last year in connection with a gang-related shooting at Columbiana Mall in northwest Columbia, S.C. that left nine people wounded. He is currently incarcerated at the Alvin S. Glenn detention center in Richland County, S.C.

S.C. first circuit solicitor David Pascoe – the prosecutor who put Price in prison for Smalls’ murder - referred to him as “one of the most dangerous individuals I have ever put in prison.” During Price's period of incarceration, he is alleged to have called in threats against not one but two SCDC wardens.

While efforts are undertaken to apprehend Price, I have called for a criminal investigation into Manning - who has a history of aiding and abetting judicial corruption in South Carolina. No word yet on whether prosecutors are moving forward on that front ... but they need to.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR ...

Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven children.

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