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 in search of psychological well being 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 homicide.

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 were not violent. Newton was only looking for medicine for her concern and anxiousness and Inexperienced’s family mentioned she was dedicated to a mental facility at an everyday 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 a number of family members of the ladies mentioned his decision to press ahead with the shortest route left an impossible-to-fix hole in their lives.

“This was a deliberate act set in motion by a pompous, cussed 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 avoid wasting time.”

Circuit Courtroom Judge William Seales sentenced Flood to 5 years in prison on each involuntary manslaughter charge and four years on every 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 towards a guardrail, stopping the ladies from being able 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 accordance with testimony from the trial streamed by WMBF-TV.

The deputies mentioned they spoke to the women and tried to maintain them calm for about an hour because the water stored rising earlier than it obtained too dangerous and rescuers might not hear them.

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

While different components like an emergency radio that didn't notify rescuers of the van's actual location contributed to the deaths, Clements mentioned the drownings all came out of Flood’s reckless decision to drive 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) via water.

National guard troops put up barricades on U.S. Freeway 76 simply exterior Nichols, but Flood drove round them after briefly talking to the soldiers.

Clements read from Flood's statement to investigators that he felt like once he was in the water, he couldn't flip around as a result of he might no longer see the sting of the highway and was fearful about operating right into a ditch hidden by the water.

“Perhaps it wounded his satisfaction 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 said.

Flood's lawyer said whereas it was a terrible tragedy, others were trying to unfairly blame simply the former deputy instead of the equipment issues, the troops that waived them across the barricades and supervisors who knew harmful flooding was starting and despatched him despite the fact that taking the women to the psychological well being facilities was not an emergency.

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

Flood did not testify, however earlier than he was sentenced told the judge he tried everything he could to maintain the women calm as the waters rose and assist was slow to reach.

“It was a series of mistakes 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, had been eventually 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, nevertheless it nonetheless wouldn't open. The delay in getting help was costly too. A firefighter testified they were capable of lower the roof off the van and started engaged on the cage, however the water bought larger and quicker and it was too harmful to continue.

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

“I can forgive, but I can not neglect. Happily, I still keep in mind my mom as a contented lady, a joyful woman who cherished her household," he mentioned. “But you, Mr. Flood, will remember my mom by hearing her screams in the back of that van."

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