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 girls searching for mental health 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 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, but their households stated they were not violent. Newton was solely seeking medication for her fear and anxiousness and Inexperienced’s household stated she was dedicated to a psychological facility at an everyday mental well being appointment by a counselor she had never seen before.

Flood, 69, was sentenced about 30 minutes after the verdict and after several relatives of the women mentioned his determination 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,” Inexperienced's sister Donnela Green-Johnson advised the judge. “He abused the trust my sister, Nikki, Wendy and the state of South Carolina entrusted him with. And for what? To avoid wasting time.”

Circuit Courtroom Decide William Seales sentenced Flood to five years in jail on every involuntary manslaughter charge and four 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 women 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 women and tried to keep them calm for about an hour as the water kept rising earlier than it obtained too dangerous and rescuers could no longer hear them.

“How awful must which were to take a seat there and wait for your personal dying?” Solicitor Ed Clements stated in his closing argument Thursday.

While other elements like an emergency radio that failed to notify rescuers of the van's exact location contributed to the deaths, Clements stated the drownings all got here out of Flood’s reckless resolution to drive 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) by water.

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

Clements learn from Flood's statement to investigators that he felt like as soon as he was in the water, he could not flip round because he might now not see the edge of the highway and was fearful about operating right into a ditch hidden by the water.

“Maybe it wounded his pleasure or stubbornness. I don’t know. He pushed forward into water that was not just standing in a tall puddle, however it was speeding, crossing the guardrail. All of it was the Little Pee Dee River by then,” Clements stated.

Flood's lawyer stated whereas it was a terrible tragedy, others were trying to unfairly blame simply 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 despite the fact that taking the women to the psychological well being services was not an emergency.

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

Flood didn't testify, but earlier than he was sentenced informed the choose he tried every thing he might to maintain the ladies calm as the waters rose and assist was slow to reach.

“It was a series of mistakes on my half and other those that led me to that time and I’m sorry for what happened to the girls,” Flood mentioned.

Flood and the deputy with him, Joshua Bishop, have been finally rescued from the highest 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, nevertheless it nonetheless wouldn't open. The delay in getting assist was costly too. A firefighter testified they were capable of minimize the roof off the van and started engaged on the cage, however the water obtained larger and sooner and it was too dangerous to proceed.

Newton's son Charles mentioned he hated that Flood needed to be taught to comply with the rules and use frequent sense at such a steep price.

“I can forgive, however I cannot forget. Happily, I nonetheless remember my mother as a cheerful lady, a joyful woman who loved her household," he mentioned. “But you, Mr. Flood, will keep in mind my mom by listening to her screams at the back of that van."

———

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