Ex-deputy will get 18 years after detainees drown in locked van

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A deputy in South Carolina whose police van was swept away by floodwaters within the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, drowning two women seeking mental well being treatment trapped in a cage within the again was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in jail.

A Marion County jury found former Horry County deputy Stephen Flood guilty of two counts of involuntary manslaughter and two counts of reckless murder.

Judges ordered Wendy Newton, 45, and Nicolette Green, 43, to be involuntarily committed the day they died in September 2018, but their families stated they weren't violent. Newton was only looking for drugs for her concern and anxiousness and Green’s family mentioned she was dedicated to a mental facility at an everyday mental well being appointment by a counselor she had by no means seen before.

Flood, 69, was sentenced about half-hour after the decision and after several kinfolk of the ladies mentioned his decision to press ahead with the shortest route left an impossible-to-fix hole in their lives.

“This was a deliberate act set in movement by a pompous, stubborn man,” Inexperienced's sister Donnela Green-Johnson instructed the choose. “He abused the trust my sister, Nikki, Wendy and the state of South Carolina entrusted him with. And for what? To save lots of time.”

Circuit Court docket Decide William Seales sentenced Flood to five years in jail on each involuntary manslaughter charge and 4 years on every reckless homicide cost and ordered the sentences served back-to-back.

The floodwaters swept the police van off its wheels in September 2018 and pinned it towards a guardrail, stopping the ladies from with the ability to get out the sliding door they used to enter the van. Flood and a deputy with him didn't have a key to a second door and there was no emergency escape hatch, in response to testimony from the trial streamed by WMBF-TV.

The deputies stated they spoke to the ladies and tried to keep them calm for about an hour because the water kept rising before it bought too dangerous and rescuers might not hear them.

“How terrible should that have been to sit down there and wait for your personal demise?” Solicitor Ed Clements mentioned in his closing argument Thursday.

While other factors like an emergency radio that didn't notify rescuers of the van's precise location contributed to the deaths, Clements said the drownings all got here out of Flood’s reckless choice to drive 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) through water.

National guard troops put up barricades on U.S. Highway 76 simply outdoors Nichols, however Flood drove around them after briefly speaking to the troopers.

Clements learn from Flood's assertion to investigators that he felt like as soon as he was within the water, he could not turn around as a result of he may no longer see the edge of the highway and was apprehensive about working right into a ditch hidden by the water.

“Possibly it wounded his pleasure or stubbornness. I don’t know. He pushed ahead into water that was not just standing in a tall puddle, nevertheless it was speeding, crossing the guardrail. All of it was the Little Pee Dee River by then,” Clements stated.

Flood's lawyer stated whereas it was a terrible tragedy, others had been attempting to unfairly blame just the former deputy instead of the equipment problems, the troops that waived them across the barricades and supervisors who knew dangerous flooding was starting and sent him though taking the women to the mental well being facilities was not an emergency.

"I ask that you just resist the urge to try to give justice to these two ladies by giving injustice to this good man," protection lawyer Jarrett Bouchette mentioned. “They want to make him a scapegoat for this accident.”

Flood didn't testify, but before he was sentenced advised the judge he tried every thing he could to maintain the ladies calm as the waters rose and assist was slow to reach.

“It was a series of mistakes on my half and other folks that led me to that point and I’m sorry for what occurred to the ladies,” Flood said.

Flood and the deputy with him, Joshua Bishop, have been ultimately rescued from the highest of the transport van, authorities said. Bishop will stand trial for 2 counts of involuntary manslaughter at a later date.

They tried to shoot the locks off the second door, but it surely nonetheless wouldn't open. The delay in getting help was pricey too. A firefighter testified they had been able to lower the roof off the van and began engaged on the cage, however the water bought increased and faster and it was too dangerous to proceed.

Newton's son Charles stated he hated that Flood had to be taught to observe the principles and use widespread sense at such a steep worth.

“I can forgive, however I can't forget. Happily, I still keep in mind my mother as a contented lady, a joyful lady who beloved her household," he stated. “However you, Mr. Flood, will remember my mom by hearing her screams in the back of that van."

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Follow Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP.