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 seeking psychological health therapy trapped in a cage within the again 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 Inexperienced, 43, to be involuntarily committed the day they died in September 2018, however their families mentioned they weren't violent. Newton was only searching for medicine for her fear and anxiety and Green’s household stated she was dedicated to a mental facility at an everyday mental well being appointment by a counselor she had by no means seen earlier than.

Flood, 69, was sentenced about half-hour after the verdict and after a number of family of the ladies stated his decision to press ahead with the shortest route left an impossible-to-fix gap in their lives.

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

Circuit Courtroom Decide William Seales sentenced Flood to 5 years in prison on each involuntary manslaughter cost and four years on each reckless homicide 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, 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 keeping with 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 because the water stored rising earlier than it acquired too harmful and rescuers could now not hear them.

“How terrible should that have been to take a seat there and wait to your personal loss of life?” Solicitor Ed Clements said in his closing argument Thursday.

Whereas other components like an emergency radio that did not notify rescuers of the van's exact location contributed to the deaths, Clements said the drownings all came out of Flood’s reckless choice to drive 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) by way of water.

Nationwide guard troops put up barricades on U.S. Freeway 76 just exterior Nichols, however Flood drove around them after briefly speaking to the soldiers.

Clements read from Flood's statement to investigators that he felt like once he was in the water, he could not flip round as a result of he may no longer see the edge of the highway and was frightened 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 simply standing in a tall puddle, but it was dashing, 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 have been trying to unfairly blame simply the former deputy instead of the tools issues, the troops that waived them across the barricades and supervisors who knew dangerous flooding was starting and despatched him although taking the ladies to the psychological well being amenities was not an emergency.

"I ask that you just resist the urge to attempt to give justice to these two ladies by giving injustice to this good man," protection lawyer Jarrett Bouchette stated. “They wish to make him a scapegoat for this accident.”

Flood didn't testify, however earlier than he was sentenced told the decide he tried the whole lot he could to keep the women calm because the waters rose and help was sluggish to reach.

“It was a collection of errors on my half and different those who led me to that point and I’m sorry for what happened to the girls,” Flood said.

Flood and the deputy with him, Joshua Bishop, had been ultimately rescued from the highest of the transport van, authorities stated. 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 nonetheless wouldn't open. The delay in getting help was pricey too. A firefighter testified they had been capable of reduce the roof off the van and started working on the cage, however the water acquired higher and sooner and it was too harmful to proceed.

Newton's son Charles said he hated that Flood had to be taught to observe the rules and use common sense at such a steep value.

“I can forgive, however I cannot neglect. Happily, I still remember my mom as a contented woman, a joyful lady who loved her household," he mentioned. “However you, Mr. Flood, will remember my mother by hearing her screams behind that van."

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