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 within the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, drowning two ladies searching for psychological well being treatment trapped in a cage in the again was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in jail.

A Marion County jury discovered former Horry County deputy Stephen Flood responsible 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, but their families said they were not violent. Newton was only seeking medicine for her worry and anxiousness and Inexperienced’s family said she was dedicated to a psychological facility at a regular mental health appointment by a counselor she had by no means seen before.

Flood, 69, was sentenced about half-hour after the verdict and after a number of kin of the women mentioned his resolution to press ahead with the shortest route left an impossible-to-fix hole in their lives.

“This was a deliberate act set in movement by a pompous, stubborn man,” Inexperienced's sister Donnela Inexperienced-Johnson instructed the choose. “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 Judge William Seales sentenced Flood to 5 years in jail on every involuntary manslaughter cost and four years on every reckless murder cost 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, stopping 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 line with testimony from the trial streamed by WMBF-TV.

The deputies said they spoke to the ladies and tried to maintain them calm for about an hour because the water saved rising earlier than it received too dangerous and rescuers could now not hear them.

“How terrible should which were to take a seat there and wait to your personal loss of life?” Solicitor Ed Clements stated in his closing argument Thursday.

While different components like an emergency radio that didn't notify rescuers of the van's exact location contributed to the deaths, Clements said the drownings all came out of Flood’s reckless determination 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 talking to the soldiers.

Clements read from Flood's assertion to investigators that he felt like once he was within the water, he couldn't flip around as a result of he may now not see the sting of the highway and was anxious about working into a ditch hidden by the water.

“Perhaps 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 mentioned.

Flood's lawyer mentioned while it was a terrible tragedy, others have been attempting to unfairly blame simply the previous deputy as a substitute of the equipment issues, the troops that waived them around the barricades and supervisors who knew harmful flooding was starting and sent him despite the fact that taking the women to the mental well being facilities was not an emergency.

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

Flood did not testify, however earlier than he was sentenced informed the choose he tried every thing he might to maintain the women calm as the waters rose and assist was gradual to reach.

“It was a sequence of errors on my half and different people that led me to that point and I’m sorry for what occurred to the women,” Flood said.

Flood and the deputy with him, Joshua Bishop, were ultimately rescued from the highest 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 pricey too. A firefighter testified they have been able to minimize the roof off the van and began working on the cage, however the water got increased and quicker and it was too dangerous to proceed.

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

“I can forgive, however I can not neglect. Luckily, I nonetheless keep in mind my mother as a cheerful girl, a joyful girl who loved her family," he stated. “However you, Mr. Flood, will keep in mind my mother by listening to her screams in the back of that van."

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