Ex-deputy gets 18 years after detainees drown in locked van

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A deputy in South Carolina whose police van was swept away by floodwaters in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, drowning two girls in search of mental health therapy trapped in a cage within the again was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in prison.

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 dedicated the day they died in September 2018, but their households mentioned they were not violent. Newton was solely seeking drugs for her fear and anxiousness and Green’s household mentioned she was dedicated to a psychological facility at a regular psychological health appointment by a counselor she had never seen earlier than.

Flood, 69, was sentenced about 30 minutes after the decision and after a number of relations of the women stated his determination to press ahead with the shortest route left an impossible-to-fix hole in their lives.

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

Circuit Court docket Decide William Seales sentenced Flood to 5 years in prison on every involuntary manslaughter cost and four years on each reckless homicide charge and ordered the sentences served back-to-back.

The floodwaters swept the police van off its wheels in September 2018 and pinned it against a guardrail, stopping the women from being able to get out the sliding door they used to enter the van. Flood and a deputy with him did not have a key to a second door and there was no emergency escape hatch, based on testimony from the trial streamed by WMBF-TV.

The deputies stated they spoke to the women and tried to maintain them calm for about an hour because the water stored rising before it bought too dangerous and rescuers might no longer hear them.

“How awful should that have been to take a seat there and wait on your personal loss of life?” Solicitor Ed Clements stated in his closing argument Thursday.

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

Nationwide guard troops put up barricades on U.S. Freeway 76 just outdoors Nichols, however Flood drove around them after briefly talking to the soldiers.

Clements read from Flood's statement to investigators that he felt like as soon as he was in the water, he could not flip around as a result of he might not see the sting of the highway and was anxious about running right into a ditch hidden by the water.

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

Flood's lawyer mentioned whereas it was a horrible tragedy, others were making an attempt to unfairly blame just the previous deputy as a substitute of the equipment problems, the troops that waived them around the barricades and supervisors who knew dangerous flooding was beginning and sent him although taking the ladies to the mental health facilities was not an emergency.

"I ask that you resist the urge to attempt to give justice to these two girls by giving injustice to this good man," defense lawyer Jarrett Bouchette mentioned. “They wish to make him a scapegoat for this accident.”

Flood did not testify, however earlier than he was sentenced instructed the decide he tried every part he could to maintain the women calm because the waters rose and help was sluggish to reach.

“It was a collection of errors on my half and different those that led me to that time and I’m sorry for what occurred to the women,” Flood stated.

Flood and the deputy with him, Joshua Bishop, had been finally rescued from the top of the transport van, authorities stated. Bishop will stand trial for two counts of involuntary manslaughter at a later date.

They tried to shoot the locks off the second door, however it still would not open. The delay in getting assist was expensive too. A firefighter testified they have been able to reduce the roof off the van and began engaged on the cage, but the water acquired 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 foundations and use widespread sense at such a steep price.

“I can forgive, but I cannot overlook. Fortuitously, I nonetheless remember my mom as a contented lady, a joyful girl who loved her household," he mentioned. “However you, Mr. Flood, will remember my mom by hearing her screams behind that van."

———

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