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 ladies in search of psychological health 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 murder.

Judges ordered Wendy Newton, 45, and Nicolette Green, 43, to be involuntarily dedicated the day they died in September 2018, but their households stated they were not violent. Newton was only seeking medication for her fear and anxiousness and Inexperienced’s household stated she was dedicated 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 a number of kin of the women stated his decision to press ahead 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 Green-Johnson advised 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 Courtroom Choose William Seales sentenced Flood to 5 years in prison on each involuntary manslaughter charge and four years on every 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, stopping the ladies from having 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 keeping with testimony from the trial streamed by WMBF-TV.

The deputies stated they spoke to the women and tried to maintain them calm for about an hour because the water kept rising earlier than it obtained too dangerous and rescuers might now not hear them.

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

Whereas different elements like an emergency radio that did not notify rescuers of the van's exact location contributed to the deaths, Clements said the drownings all got here out of Flood’s reckless determination to drive 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) by means of water.

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

Clements read from Flood's statement to investigators that he felt like as soon as he was within the water, he couldn't turn round as a result of he could no longer see the edge of the highway and was nervous about working right into a ditch hidden by the water.

“Perhaps it wounded his pleasure or stubbornness. I don’t know. He pushed ahead into water that was not simply 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 mentioned.

Flood's lawyer stated while it was a terrible tragedy, others were attempting to unfairly blame just the former deputy instead of the equipment issues, the troops that waived them across the barricades and supervisors who knew dangerous flooding was beginning and sent him regardless that taking the ladies to the mental well being amenities 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 all the pieces he might to maintain the ladies calm as the waters rose and help was slow to arrive.

“It was a collection of errors on my half and different those that led me to that time and I’m sorry for what occurred to the girls,” 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 2 counts of involuntary manslaughter at a later date.

They tried to shoot the locks off the second door, however it still would not open. The delay in getting assist was expensive too. A firefighter testified they have been in a position to minimize the roof off the van and started engaged on the cage, however the water acquired greater and sooner and it was too harmful to proceed.

Newton's son Charles stated he hated that Flood had to be taught to follow the rules and use common sense at such a steep price.

“I can forgive, but I can't forget. Fortunately, I still remember my mom as a happy woman, a joyful girl who liked her household," he mentioned. “But you, Mr. Flood, will keep in mind my mom by hearing her screams behind that van."

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