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 women looking for psychological well being therapy trapped in a cage in the again was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in jail.

A Marion County jury found 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, however their families mentioned they were not violent. Newton was solely in search of drugs for her worry and anxiousness and Inexperienced’s family mentioned she was dedicated to a mental facility at a regular mental health appointment by a counselor she had never seen earlier than.

Flood, 69, was sentenced about half-hour after the decision and after several relations of the women said his resolution to press ahead 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 Green-Johnson informed the choose. “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 Choose William Seales sentenced Flood to five years in prison on every involuntary manslaughter cost and 4 years on every reckless murder 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, stopping the ladies 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, according to testimony from the trial streamed by WMBF-TV.

The deputies stated they spoke to the women and tried to keep them calm for about an hour as the water kept rising before it got too harmful and rescuers could now not hear them.

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

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

National guard troops put up barricades on U.S. Highway 76 simply exterior Nichols, but Flood drove round them after briefly speaking to the troopers.

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 because he may now not see the edge of the highway and was frightened about running right into a ditch hidden by the water.

“Perhaps it wounded his pride or stubbornness. I don’t know. He pushed ahead into water that was not simply standing in a tall puddle, however 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 horrible tragedy, others were attempting to unfairly blame simply the former deputy as an alternative of the equipment problems, the troops that waived them around the barricades and supervisors who knew dangerous flooding was beginning and sent him though taking the women to the mental health facilities was not an emergency.

"I ask that you resist the urge to try to give justice to those two girls by giving injustice to this good man," protection lawyer Jarrett Bouchette mentioned. “They need to make him a scapegoat for this accident.”

Flood didn't testify, but earlier than he was sentenced instructed the decide he tried everything he might to maintain the women calm as the waters rose and assist was gradual to arrive.

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

Flood and the deputy with him, Joshua Bishop, had been finally rescued from the top of the transport van, authorities mentioned. 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 still wouldn't open. The delay in getting help was pricey too. A firefighter testified they were in a position to minimize the roof off the van and started engaged on the cage, however the water received increased and quicker and it was too dangerous to continue.

Newton's son Charles stated he hated that Flood had to study to follow the rules and use widespread sense at such a steep worth.

“I can forgive, however I can not neglect. Fortuitously, I still remember my mother as a contented lady, a joyful lady who beloved her family," he said. “But you, Mr. Flood, will bear in mind my mom by hearing her screams at the back of that van."

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