Man who killed Serena Williams’ sister released and rearrested

The man whom authorities said fatally shot Venus and Serena Williams‘ sister, Yetunde Price in 2003 was released from prison earlier this year, after more than a decade behind bars.

However, it appears Robert Edward Maxfield was re-arrested on Friday night in Compton, California, and remains in custody after allegedly violating his parole, according to Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials and jail records.

The nature of the alleged violation was unclear Tuesday night.

A spokesman with the state’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, who confirmed the release of the Maxfield in Price’s case, could not immediately say if it was the same Maxfield who was arrested in Compton.

The men in both cases share identical biographical information though, including age, name and race. Price was also killed in Compton.

Speaking generically, DOC spokesman Luis Patiño tells PEOPLE that someone who violates their parole then goes before a judge and could have their parole revoked, at which point they would be sent back to jail.

The Maxfield in Price’s case, now 38, pleaded no contest in 2006 to voluntary manslaughter in Price’s death just after midnight on Sept. 14, 2003, the Associated Press previously reported.

Serena Williams, winner of both Best Female Tennis Player and Best Female Athlete (right) with her sister Yetunde Price (Photo by SGranitz/WireImage for ESPN)

Maxfield had been charged with murder but accepted the lesser count on the eve of his third trial, following two mistrials.

Maxfield was sentenced in April 2006 to 15 years in prison and he was paroled in March, according to state corrections officials.

Patiño, the DOC spokesman, could not say for how long Maxfield was set to be paroled after his release — but he disputed reports that Maxfield was freed “early.”

He served nearly three years in jail, between his arrest and sentencing, and was then placed in prison where he served nearly another 12 years before his March parole, according to Patiño.

Price, who was 31 and the mother of three children at the time of her death, was a nurse and the owner of an L.A.-area hair salon. She also worked as a personal assistant to her tennis superstar sisters, Serena and Venus.

She was one of the Williams’ three other sisters, a half-sibling from a previous relationship between their mother, Oracene Price, and Yusef Rasheed.

The Williams sisters have not commented on Maxfield’s release. (Prosecutors also declined to comment.) But Serena reportedly faced him in court in 2006.

She said then that she initially wasn’t “going to speak … because it’s too hard for me to talk.”

However, she said she wanted to tell Maxfield “that this was unfair to our family, and our family has always been positive and we always try to help people,” according to the Times.

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