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 ladies looking for mental health treatment trapped in a cage in the again was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in prison.

A Marion County jury found former Horry County deputy Stephen Flood responsible 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, however their families stated they were not violent. Newton was solely in search of medication for her fear and anxiety and Inexperienced’s family stated she was committed to a psychological facility at a regular psychological well being appointment by a counselor she had by no means seen earlier than.

Flood, 69, was sentenced about 30 minutes after the verdict and after a number of family members of the ladies mentioned his determination to press forward with the shortest route left an impossible-to-fix hole of their lives.

“This was a deliberate act set in movement by a pompous, stubborn man,” Green's sister Donnela Inexperienced-Johnson informed 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 Choose William Seales sentenced Flood to five years in jail on each involuntary manslaughter cost 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 in opposition to a guardrail, preventing the ladies from being able 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 line with testimony from the trial streamed by WMBF-TV.

The deputies mentioned they spoke to the women and tried to maintain them calm for about an hour as the water stored rising earlier than it acquired too harmful and rescuers may not hear them.

“How awful must that have been to sit down there and wait to your personal demise?” Solicitor Ed Clements stated in his closing argument Thursday.

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

National guard troops put up barricades on U.S. Freeway 76 simply exterior Nichols, however Flood drove round them after briefly talking to the troopers.

Clements read from Flood's assertion to investigators that he felt like as soon as he was in the water, he could not turn around because he could now not see the sting of the highway and was apprehensive about running 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 simply standing in a tall puddle, nevertheless it was rushing, crossing the guardrail. All of it was the Little Pee Dee River by then,” Clements said.

Flood's lawyer stated while it was a horrible tragedy, others have been trying to unfairly blame just the former deputy as an alternative of the tools problems, the troops that waived them across the barricades and supervisors who knew harmful flooding was starting and sent him despite the fact that taking the women to the psychological health facilities was not an emergency.

"I ask that you simply resist the urge to try to give justice to those two women by giving injustice to this good man," protection attorney Jarrett Bouchette mentioned. “They need to make him a scapegoat for this accident.”

Flood did not testify, but earlier than he was sentenced told the judge he tried every thing he might 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 other those that led me to that point and I’m sorry for what happened to the ladies,” 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, nevertheless it still would not open. The delay in getting assist was expensive too. A firefighter testified they had been in a position to cut the roof off the van and started working on the cage, however the water got higher and faster and it was too harmful to proceed.

Newton's son Charles mentioned he hated that Flood needed to study to observe the foundations and use frequent sense at such a steep value.

“I can forgive, however I cannot forget. Fortuitously, I nonetheless keep in mind my mother as a contented lady, a joyful girl who beloved her family," he mentioned. “But you, Mr. Flood, will remember my mom by hearing her screams at the back of that van."

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