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 seeking mental well being therapy 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 homicide.

Judges ordered Wendy Newton, 45, and Nicolette Green, 43, to be involuntarily committed the day they died in September 2018, but their households mentioned they weren't violent. Newton was only in search of medication for her fear and nervousness and Inexperienced’s family said she was committed to a mental facility at a regular psychological well being appointment by a counselor she had never seen earlier than.

Flood, 69, was sentenced about 30 minutes after the verdict and after several relatives of the ladies mentioned his resolution to press forward with the shortest route left an impossible-to-fix gap in their lives.

“This was a deliberate act set in motion by a pompous, stubborn man,” Green's sister Donnela Green-Johnson told the choose. “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 Courtroom Judge William Seales sentenced Flood to five years in prison 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 against a guardrail, preventing the ladies from having 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 mentioned they spoke to the women and tried to keep them calm for about an hour because the water saved rising earlier than it received too dangerous and rescuers could not hear them.

“How terrible should which were to sit down there and wait in your personal dying?” Solicitor Ed Clements mentioned in his closing argument Thursday.

Whereas different elements like an emergency radio that didn't notify rescuers of the van's actual location contributed to the deaths, Clements stated the drownings all came out of Flood’s reckless resolution to drive 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) via water.

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

Clements learn from Flood's assertion to investigators that he felt like once he was in the water, he couldn't flip round because he may not see the edge of the freeway and was frightened about running 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 simply standing in a tall puddle, but it was speeding, crossing the guardrail. All of it was the Little Pee Dee River by then,” Clements said.

Flood's lawyer stated whereas it was a terrible tragedy, others have been making an attempt to unfairly blame just the former deputy instead of the equipment problems, the troops that waived them around the barricades and supervisors who knew dangerous flooding was starting and despatched him though taking the women to the psychological health services was not an emergency.

"I ask that you resist the urge to try to give justice to these two women 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, but before he was sentenced advised the choose he tried all the things he might to keep the ladies calm as the waters rose and assist was gradual to reach.

“It was a series of mistakes on my part and other people who led me to that time and I’m sorry for what happened to the ladies,” Flood said.

Flood and the deputy with him, Joshua Bishop, had been ultimately 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 nonetheless would not open. The delay in getting assist was pricey too. A firefighter testified they had been capable of reduce the roof off the van and started engaged on the cage, but the water obtained larger and faster and it was too dangerous to continue.

Newton's son Charles mentioned he hated that Flood needed to learn to comply with the rules and use frequent sense at such a steep value.

“I can forgive, however I cannot forget. Fortunately, I still remember my mom as a happy girl, a joyful lady who beloved her family," he said. “However you, Mr. Flood, will keep in mind my mother by listening to her screams at the back of that van."

———

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