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 girls searching for mental health treatment trapped in a cage in the back was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in prison.

A Marion County jury found 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, however their households stated they were not violent. Newton was only searching for medication for her worry and nervousness and Inexperienced’s family mentioned 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 decision and after several relations of the women mentioned his decision to press forward 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,” Green's sister Donnela Inexperienced-Johnson advised the decide. “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 Court docket Choose William Seales sentenced Flood to five years in jail on each involuntary manslaughter charge and 4 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 against a guardrail, preventing 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 stated they spoke to the women and tried to maintain them calm for about an hour as the water kept rising earlier than it received too dangerous and rescuers may not hear them.

“How awful must which were to sit there and wait to your personal death?” Solicitor Ed Clements mentioned in his closing argument Thursday.

Whereas different elements like an emergency radio that failed to notify rescuers of the van's precise location contributed to the deaths, Clements said the drownings all got here 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 just outdoors Nichols, however Flood drove round them after briefly talking to the troopers.

Clements read from Flood's statement to investigators that he felt like as soon as he was within the water, he could not flip round because he could not see the sting of the highway and was fearful about working 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 just standing in a tall puddle, but it surely was rushing, crossing the guardrail. All of it was the Little Pee Dee River by then,” Clements mentioned.

Flood's lawyer said whereas it was a terrible tragedy, others have been trying to unfairly blame just the former deputy instead of the gear issues, the troops that waived them across the barricades and supervisors who knew harmful flooding was beginning and sent him even though 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 those two women by giving injustice to this good man," defense lawyer Jarrett Bouchette stated. “They wish to make him a scapegoat for this accident.”

Flood didn't testify, but earlier than he was sentenced advised the choose he tried all the things he might to maintain the ladies calm because the waters rose and help was sluggish to reach.

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

Flood and the deputy with him, Joshua Bishop, have been finally 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 in a position to reduce the roof off the van and started working on the cage, but the water obtained larger and faster and it was too harmful to proceed.

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

“I can forgive, however I can't overlook. Happily, I still remember my mom as a contented lady, a joyful girl who loved her household," he said. “However you, Mr. Flood, will bear in mind my mom by hearing her screams behind that van."

———

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