Ex-NFL player Wendell Smallwood Jr. has been granted an early release from prison to spend time with his 8-year-old daughter, Mila, who is dying from cancer.
Gloucester County Superior Court Judge Renard Scott withdrew Smallwood’s guilty plea in a New Jersey gun possession case on Friday, August 7, the Delaware News Journal reported. The judge ruled that Smallwood’s daughter’s illness is a valid reason for the decision.
The athlete’s early release was also influenced by his federal prison record and participation in rehabilitation programs, according to the outlet.
Smallwood, 32, a former running back for the Philadelphia Eagles, pleaded guilty in September 2024 to fraud charges after he was accused of defrauding the federal government’s COVID-19 relief programs of over $645,000. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison in September 2025.
Smallwood had also been serving a concurrent three-year state prison sentence after he pled guilty to second-degree possession of an assault firearm in New Jersey in an unrelated case. In July, an appeals court decision found New Jersey’s assault weapons ban unconstitutional, allowing Smallwood to withdraw his plea.
Mila was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, News Journal reported. Doctors say she may have only days or weeks to live after her chemotherapy treatments failed.
“They can’t do anything except make her comfortable now. This is not just a matter of legal semantics,” Smallwood’s attorney, Yaron Helmer, told the judge on Friday, according to the outlet. “It’s about whether his daughter will hold her dad again.”
Prosecutors argued against the petition to withdraw Smallwood’s plea, suggesting that he should instead seek a federal furlough, which is a temporary, unescorted release from prison.
Helmer argued that the process would take time that Smallwood’s daughter does not have.
“It is fluff. It does not help. Time is urgent,” he said of a furlough.
The judge called the situation an “unfortunate” circumstance that “none of us would want to face.”
“This is an illness that is untreatable,” Scott said. “His daughter has days, possibly weeks remaining.”
Scott also said that Smallwood is not a danger to the community, noting that he purchased the gun in Pennsylvania and made a “poor judgment call” when he stored the weapon in his basement in New Jersey. He said Smallwood took responsibility for the mistake.
Though Smallwood was approximately three months away from qualifying for parole, Scott said, “That very well may be too late.”
Smallwood could be released as early as Monday, August 17, according to his lawyer.
Smallwood was selected by the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2016 NFL Draft. He also played for the Washington Redskins, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Jacksonville Jaguars before his retirement in 2021.
