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 women searching for psychological health therapy 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 responsible 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 households said they weren't violent. Newton was only searching for medicine for her worry and anxiousness and Green’s family mentioned she was committed to a psychological facility at a daily 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 a number of relations of the women stated 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 motion by a pompous, stubborn man,” Green's sister Donnela Inexperienced-Johnson advised the judge. “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 Court Judge William Seales sentenced Flood to five years in jail 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 towards 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 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 said they spoke to the ladies and tried to maintain them calm for about an hour as the water saved rising before it received too harmful and rescuers may no longer hear them.

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

Whereas different elements like an emergency radio that did not notify rescuers of the van's actual location contributed to the deaths, Clements mentioned the drownings all got here out of Flood’s reckless determination to drive 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) via water.

Nationwide guard troops put up barricades on U.S. Highway 76 simply outside Nichols, however Flood drove around them after briefly speaking to the troopers.

Clements learn from Flood's statement to investigators that he felt like once he was in the water, he could not turn around as a result of he may not see the sting of the freeway and was frightened about operating into a ditch hidden by the water.

“Perhaps it wounded his delight or stubbornness. I don’t know. He pushed ahead into water that was not simply standing in a tall puddle, nevertheless it was dashing, 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 simply the previous deputy as a substitute of the equipment issues, the troops that waived them across the barricades and supervisors who knew harmful flooding was beginning and despatched him although taking the women to the mental health facilities was not an emergency.

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

Flood did not testify, however earlier than he was sentenced instructed the judge he tried every thing he may to maintain the ladies calm as the waters rose and help was sluggish to arrive.

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

Flood and the deputy with him, Joshua Bishop, had been finally rescued from the top of the transport van, authorities stated. 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 have been in a position to minimize the roof off the van and started working on the cage, however the water obtained increased and sooner and it was too dangerous to continue.

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

“I can forgive, but I cannot neglect. Thankfully, I nonetheless keep in mind my mom as a happy girl, a joyful lady who loved her family," he stated. “But you, Mr. Flood, will bear in mind my mom by listening to her screams behind that van."

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