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 women searching for mental well being remedy trapped in a cage within 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 homicide.

Judges ordered Wendy Newton, 45, and Nicolette Green, 43, to be involuntarily committed the day they died in September 2018, however their households stated they were not violent. Newton was only in search of drugs for her worry and anxiousness and Inexperienced’s family mentioned she was committed to a mental facility at an everyday mental health appointment by a counselor she had by no means seen earlier than.

Flood, 69, was sentenced about half-hour after the verdict and after a number of relatives of the women stated his decision to press forward with the shortest route left an impossible-to-fix hole in their lives.

“This was a deliberate act set in motion by a pompous, cussed man,” Green'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 time.”

Circuit Court Choose William Seales sentenced Flood to five years in prison on each involuntary manslaughter charge and 4 years on each reckless murder charge 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 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, according to testimony from the trial streamed by WMBF-TV.

The deputies stated they spoke to the women and tried to keep them calm for about an hour because the water stored rising earlier than it bought too dangerous and rescuers may now not hear them.

“How awful must which have been to take a seat there and wait to your own demise?” Solicitor Ed Clements said in his closing argument Thursday.

While other components like an emergency radio that failed to notify rescuers of the van's actual location contributed to the deaths, Clements stated the drownings all came out of Flood’s reckless choice to drive 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) by way of water.

National guard troops put up barricades on U.S. Freeway 76 just outside Nichols, but Flood drove round them after briefly speaking to the soldiers.

Clements read from Flood's statement to investigators that he felt like as soon as he was in the water, he couldn't turn around as a result of he might no longer see the sting of the highway and was fearful about working into a ditch hidden by the water.

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

Flood's lawyer stated while it was a terrible tragedy, others had been attempting to unfairly blame just the former deputy as an alternative of the tools issues, the troops that waived them around the barricades and supervisors who knew dangerous flooding was starting and despatched him though taking the ladies to the mental well being amenities 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," defense legal professional Jarrett Bouchette said. “They wish to make him a scapegoat for this accident.”

Flood did not testify, however earlier than he was sentenced advised the judge he tried all the pieces he may to keep the ladies calm because the waters rose and help was sluggish to arrive.

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

Flood and the deputy with him, Joshua Bishop, had been eventually rescued from the top of the transport van, authorities said. 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 surely still wouldn't open. The delay in getting help was pricey too. A firefighter testified they have been able to reduce the roof off the van and started working on the cage, however the water bought greater and quicker and it was too dangerous to continue.

Newton's son Charles stated he hated that Flood had to learn to comply with the foundations and use common sense at such a steep worth.

“I can forgive, however I can't neglect. Thankfully, I nonetheless remember my mother as a contented lady, a joyful girl who beloved her household," he said. “But you, Mr. Flood, will keep in mind my mother by hearing her screams in the back of that van."

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