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 searching for psychological health remedy trapped in a cage within the back 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 dedicated the day they died in September 2018, however their families stated they weren't violent. Newton was only seeking medicine for her fear and nervousness and Green’s household mentioned she was dedicated to a mental facility at a daily mental well being appointment by a counselor she had by no means seen earlier than.

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

“This was a deliberate act set in movement by a pompous, stubborn man,” Green's sister Donnela Inexperienced-Johnson told the decide. “He abused the trust my sister, Nikki, Wendy and the state of South Carolina entrusted him with. And for what? To save lots of time.”

Circuit Court Decide William Seales sentenced Flood to 5 years in prison on every involuntary manslaughter cost and four 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 women from being able 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, based on testimony from the trial streamed by WMBF-TV.

The deputies stated they spoke to the ladies and tried to keep them calm for about an hour as the water stored rising before it acquired too dangerous and rescuers may now not hear them.

“How terrible should that have been to take a seat there and wait for your personal dying?” Solicitor Ed Clements mentioned in his closing argument Thursday.

While other factors like an emergency radio that didn't notify rescuers of the van's exact location contributed to the deaths, Clements stated the drownings all came out of Flood’s reckless choice to drive 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) through water.

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

Clements learn from Flood's assertion to investigators that he felt like once he was within the water, he couldn't flip round as a result of he might no longer see the sting of the freeway and was fearful about running into a ditch hidden by the water.

“Maybe it wounded his pleasure or stubbornness. I don’t know. He pushed ahead into water that was not just standing in a tall puddle, but it surely was speeding, 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 were trying to unfairly blame just the former deputy as a substitute of the gear issues, the troops that waived them across the barricades and supervisors who knew harmful flooding was starting and sent him even though taking the ladies to the psychological well being services was not an emergency.

"I ask that you simply resist the urge to attempt to give justice to these two women by giving injustice to this good man," defense lawyer Jarrett Bouchette mentioned. “They need to make him a scapegoat for this accident.”

Flood did not testify, however earlier than he was sentenced instructed the judge he tried every part he could to maintain the ladies calm as the waters rose and help was gradual to reach.

“It was a sequence of errors on my part and different people who led me to that time and I’m sorry for what happened to the ladies,” Flood mentioned.

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

They tried to shoot the locks off the second door, but it nonetheless wouldn't open. The delay in getting assist was costly too. A firefighter testified they had been capable of lower the roof off the van and started working on the cage, however the water bought higher and sooner and it was too dangerous to proceed.

Newton's son Charles stated he hated that Flood had to learn to follow the foundations and use widespread sense at such a steep value.

“I can forgive, but I can not neglect. Luckily, I nonetheless bear in mind my mother as a happy girl, a joyful girl who beloved her household," he said. “However you, Mr. Flood, will bear in mind my mother by hearing her screams behind that van."

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