Ex-deputy will get 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 in search of mental well being therapy trapped in a cage within 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 households mentioned they were not violent. Newton was only searching for drugs for her fear and anxiety and Green’s household mentioned she was dedicated to a mental facility at an everyday psychological health appointment by a counselor she had by no means seen before.

Flood, 69, was sentenced about 30 minutes after the verdict and after a number of kin of the ladies stated his choice to press forward with the shortest route left an impossible-to-fix gap of their lives.

“This was a deliberate act set in motion by a pompous, stubborn man,” Inexperienced's sister Donnela Inexperienced-Johnson instructed the judge. “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 docket Decide William Seales sentenced Flood to 5 years in jail on each involuntary manslaughter cost and 4 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 in opposition to 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 didn't have a key to a second door and there was no emergency escape hatch, in accordance with testimony from the trial streamed by WMBF-TV.

The deputies mentioned they spoke to the ladies and tried to keep them calm for about an hour because the water kept rising before it bought too dangerous and rescuers may not hear them.

“How terrible should that have been to sit there and wait on your own death?” Solicitor Ed Clements stated in his closing argument Thursday.

Whereas other components like an emergency radio that didn't notify rescuers of the van's precise location contributed to the deaths, Clements mentioned the drownings all got here out of Flood’s reckless decision to drive 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) by way of water.

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

Clements read from Flood's assertion to investigators that he felt like once he was in the water, he couldn't turn around as a result of he could not see the edge of the highway and was anxious about operating 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, however it was dashing, crossing the guardrail. All of it was the Little Pee Dee River by then,” Clements stated.

Flood's lawyer said whereas it was a horrible tragedy, others have been attempting to unfairly blame just the former deputy instead of the equipment issues, the troops that waived them around the barricades and supervisors who knew harmful flooding was beginning and sent him though taking the women to the mental health 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," defense attorney Jarrett Bouchette mentioned. “They wish to make him a scapegoat for this accident.”

Flood didn't testify, but earlier than he was sentenced instructed the decide he tried all the things he might to keep the ladies calm because the waters rose and help was slow to arrive.

“It was a series of errors on my half and different folks that led me to that time and I’m sorry for what happened to the ladies,” Flood stated.

Flood and the deputy with him, Joshua Bishop, had been eventually rescued from the top of the transport van, authorities stated. Bishop will stand trial for 2 counts of involuntary manslaughter at a later date.

They tried to shoot the locks off the second door, however it still wouldn't open. The delay in getting help was costly too. A firefighter testified they were in a position to lower the roof off the van and began working on the cage, but the water acquired greater and quicker and it was too dangerous to continue.

Newton's son Charles stated he hated that Flood needed to learn to observe the rules and use common sense at such a steep price.

“I can forgive, however I cannot overlook. Fortuitously, I nonetheless remember my mother as a happy girl, a joyful lady who beloved her family," he mentioned. “However you, Mr. Flood, will remember my mother by hearing her screams behind that van."

———

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