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 searching for psychological well being treatment trapped in a cage within the again was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in jail.

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 Green, 43, to be involuntarily dedicated the day they died in September 2018, but their families said they were not violent. Newton was solely searching for medicine for her fear and anxiousness and Inexperienced’s family stated she was dedicated to a mental facility at a daily psychological well being 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 relations of the women said his decision 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, cussed man,” Green's sister Donnela Inexperienced-Johnson instructed the choose. “He abused the belief 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 5 years in prison on each involuntary manslaughter charge 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, preventing the women 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 said they spoke to the women and tried to maintain them calm for about an hour because the water saved rising before it received too harmful and rescuers might not hear them.

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

Whereas other components like an emergency radio that failed to notify rescuers of the van's actual location contributed to the deaths, Clements mentioned the drownings all got here out of Flood’s reckless choice to drive 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) via water.

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

Clements learn from Flood's statement to investigators that he felt like as soon as he was within the water, he couldn't flip around as a result of he could not see the sting of the highway and was nervous about operating right into a ditch hidden by the water.

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

Flood's lawyer stated whereas it was a horrible tragedy, others had been making an attempt to unfairly blame simply the previous deputy instead of the tools problems, the troops that waived them across the barricades and supervisors who knew harmful flooding was starting and sent him regardless that taking the ladies to the psychological health amenities was not an emergency.

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

Flood didn't testify, however earlier than he was sentenced advised the choose he tried everything he might to keep the ladies calm as the waters rose and help was gradual to reach.

“It was a series of mistakes on my half and other people that led me to that point and I’m sorry for what happened to the women,” Flood mentioned.

Flood and the deputy with him, Joshua Bishop, have been eventually 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 wouldn't open. The delay in getting help was pricey too. A firefighter testified they have been capable of reduce the roof off the van and started engaged on the cage, however the water got larger and quicker and it was too dangerous to proceed.

Newton's son Charles said he hated that Flood had to study to comply with the principles and use common sense at such a steep price.

“I can forgive, however I can't forget. Fortunately, I still bear in mind my mom as a contented lady, a joyful lady who liked her household," he said. “But you, Mr. Flood, will keep in mind my mom by hearing her screams in the back of that van."

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