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 within the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, drowning two women in search of mental health treatment trapped in a cage in the back was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in prison.

A Marion County jury discovered 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 Inexperienced, 43, to be involuntarily dedicated the day they died in September 2018, but their households stated they weren't violent. Newton was solely searching for drugs for her fear and anxiousness and Inexperienced’s household stated she was committed to a psychological facility at a regular psychological health appointment by a counselor she had never seen earlier than.

Flood, 69, was sentenced about half-hour after the decision and after a number of family of the women mentioned his resolution to press ahead with the shortest route left an impossible-to-fix hole of their lives.

“This was a deliberate act set in motion by a pompous, cussed man,” Inexperienced's sister Donnela Inexperienced-Johnson advised 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 Courtroom Choose William Seales sentenced Flood to five years in jail on every involuntary manslaughter charge and four years on each reckless murder 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, preventing the ladies from with the ability 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, in response to testimony from the trial streamed by WMBF-TV.

The deputies said they spoke to the ladies and tried to keep them calm for about an hour because the water kept rising earlier than it received too dangerous and rescuers could no longer hear them.

“How awful should which were to sit there and wait in your own demise?” Solicitor Ed Clements mentioned in his closing argument Thursday.

Whereas other elements like an emergency radio that did not notify rescuers of the van's actual location contributed to the deaths, Clements mentioned the drownings all got here out of Flood’s reckless resolution to drive 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) by means of water.

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

Clements read from Flood's assertion to investigators that he felt like once he was in the water, he could not turn around as a result of he might not see the edge of the highway and was frightened about operating into a ditch hidden by the water.

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

Flood's lawyer said whereas it was a terrible tragedy, others had been trying to unfairly blame just the former deputy instead of the equipment problems, the troops that waived them around the barricades and supervisors who knew harmful flooding was starting and despatched him despite the fact that taking the ladies to the mental well being amenities was not an emergency.

"I ask that you resist the urge to attempt to give justice to these two women by giving injustice to this good man," protection legal professional Jarrett Bouchette said. “They want to make him a scapegoat for this accident.”

Flood did not testify, however earlier than he was sentenced advised the judge he tried the whole lot he might to keep the ladies calm as the waters rose and help was sluggish to arrive.

“It was a collection of mistakes on my part and other folks 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, have been ultimately rescued from the highest of the transport van, authorities mentioned. Bishop will stand trial for two counts of involuntary manslaughter at a later date.

They tried to shoot the locks off the second door, but it still wouldn't open. The delay in getting help was expensive too. A firefighter testified they were capable of lower the roof off the van and started engaged on the cage, however the water obtained larger and sooner and it was too harmful to proceed.

Newton's son Charles stated he hated that Flood had to study to observe the foundations and use frequent sense at such a steep price.

“I can forgive, however I can't forget. Luckily, I still keep in mind my mother as a happy girl, a joyful woman who loved her household," he mentioned. “However you, Mr. Flood, will keep in mind my mother by hearing her screams in the back of that van."

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