Wendell Smallwood Jr. will be allowed to spend time with his dying daughter after a judge approved a motion to withdraw his guilty plea, opening the door for an early release from prison.
Gloucester County Superior Judge Renard Scott granted the motion, The News Journal reported Monday, giving the former Eagles and Steelers running back the chance to be with his daughter, Mila, in her final days.
Mila is 8 and was diagnosed in 2026 with diffuse anaplastic Wilms tumor, an aggressive and rare childhood kidney cancer, according to the report. She is now in palliative care and has been told she has just days or weeks to live after chemotherapy did not work.
Smallwood, 32, had been sentenced last September to 18 months in prison in connection with a COVID-related fraud scheme. He pleaded guilty in December 2024 to felony wire fraud, conspiracy and tax fraud involving economic relief programs.
He also pleaded guilty to second-degree unlawful possession of an assault firearm for having an AR-15 rifle in New Jersey and received a three-year prison sentence.
In July, though, the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that New Jersey’s ban on assault weapons was unconstitutional, giving Smallwood the legal basis to seek withdrawal of that plea.
An emergency hearing on Aug. 7 found that his daughter’s illness was a significant reason to grant the motion.
Smallwood’s football path began at West Virginia before the Eagles selected him No. 153 overall in the fifth round of the 2016 NFL draft. He went on to rush for 850 yards and five touchdowns over three seasons from 2016 to 2018 and was part of the Eagles’ Super Bowl LII championship team.
After that, he spent the 2019, 2020 and 2021 seasons moving between the Commanders, Steelers, Jaguars and Commanders again. He played one game for Pittsburgh in 2020 and spent most of that year on the practice squad.
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