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 looking for psychological health therapy trapped in a cage within the back was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in prison.

A Marion County jury discovered 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, but their families said they were not violent. Newton was solely seeking medication for her fear and anxiety and Inexperienced’s family stated she was committed to a mental facility at a regular mental well being appointment by a counselor she had by no means seen earlier than.

Flood, 69, was sentenced about half-hour after the decision and after several kinfolk of the women mentioned his choice to press ahead with the shortest route left an impossible-to-fix gap of their lives.

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

Circuit Courtroom Decide William Seales sentenced Flood to five years in jail on each involuntary manslaughter charge and four years on every reckless homicide cost and ordered the sentences served back-to-back.

The floodwaters swept the police van off its wheels in September 2018 and pinned it towards a guardrail, stopping the ladies from having the ability 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, in line with testimony from the trial streamed by WMBF-TV.

The deputies stated they spoke to the ladies and tried to maintain them calm for about an hour because the water stored rising before it received too harmful and rescuers may no longer hear them.

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

Whereas different components like an emergency radio that didn't notify rescuers of the van's precise location contributed to the deaths, Clements stated the drownings all came out of Flood’s reckless choice to drive 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) by way of water.

National guard troops put up barricades on U.S. Freeway 76 simply outdoors Nichols, but 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 in the water, he couldn't flip around as a result of he could now not see the edge of the freeway and was fearful about running into a ditch hidden by the water.

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

Flood's lawyer said while it was a terrible tragedy, others have been attempting to unfairly blame just the former deputy instead of the gear problems, the troops that waived them across the barricades and supervisors who knew dangerous flooding was beginning and sent him though taking the ladies to the mental well being amenities was not an emergency.

"I ask that you simply resist the urge to try to give justice to those 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 before he was sentenced told the decide he tried everything he could to keep the ladies calm as the waters rose and help was slow to reach.

“It was a collection of errors on my part and other folks that led me to that time and I’m sorry for what occurred to the ladies,” Flood mentioned.

Flood and the deputy with him, Joshua Bishop, have 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, but it surely nonetheless would not open. The delay in getting help 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 acquired increased and faster and it was too dangerous to proceed.

Newton's son Charles said he hated that Flood had to learn to observe the rules and use frequent sense at such a steep price.

“I can forgive, but I can't overlook. Fortuitously, I still bear in mind my mom as a happy lady, a joyful woman who liked her household," he mentioned. “However you, Mr. Flood, will bear in mind my mother by hearing her screams behind that van."

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