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

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 Inexperienced, 43, to be involuntarily dedicated the day they died in September 2018, but their households mentioned they were not violent. Newton was solely looking for medicine for her concern and nervousness and Inexperienced’s family stated she was committed to a mental facility at a regular mental health appointment by a counselor she had by no means seen before.

Flood, 69, was sentenced about half-hour after the verdict and after a number of family of the women mentioned his decision to press forward 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 judge. “He abused the trust my sister, Nikki, Wendy and the state of South Carolina entrusted him with. And for what? To save time.”

Circuit Court Decide William Seales sentenced Flood to five years in jail on every involuntary manslaughter cost 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 against a guardrail, preventing the women 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, according to testimony from the trial streamed by WMBF-TV.

The deputies mentioned they spoke to the ladies and tried to keep them calm for about an hour as the water saved rising earlier than it bought too dangerous and rescuers could now not hear them.

“How terrible should which have been to take a seat there and wait for your personal death?” Solicitor Ed Clements mentioned in his closing argument Thursday.

While other factors like an emergency radio that didn't notify rescuers of the van's exact location contributed to the deaths, Clements mentioned the drownings all got here out of Flood’s reckless decision to drive 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) through water.

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

Clements learn from Flood's assertion to investigators that he felt like as soon as he was within the water, he couldn't flip round as a result of he might now not see the edge of the highway and was worried about operating into a ditch hidden by the water.

“Possibly it wounded his satisfaction or stubbornness. I don’t know. He pushed forward into water that was not just standing in a tall puddle, but it was speeding, 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 had been trying to unfairly blame just the former deputy instead of the gear problems, the troops that waived them around the barricades and supervisors who knew dangerous flooding was beginning and sent him even though taking the women to the psychological health amenities was not an emergency.

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

Flood did not testify, however before he was sentenced told the judge he tried every thing he could to keep the women calm as the waters rose and assist was sluggish to reach.

“It was a sequence of mistakes on my part and other those that led me to that point and I’m sorry for what occurred to the women,” Flood mentioned.

Flood and the deputy with him, Joshua Bishop, have been ultimately 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, however it still wouldn't open. The delay in getting help was expensive too. A firefighter testified they were capable of lower the roof off the van and started engaged on the cage, however the water bought increased and quicker and it was too dangerous to proceed.

Newton's son Charles stated he hated that Flood had to study to follow the principles and use common sense at such a steep value.

“I can forgive, but I can not neglect. Fortunately, I still remember my mom as a happy lady, a joyful girl who beloved her family," he said. “But you, Mr. Flood, will keep in mind my mom by listening to her screams behind that van."

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