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 women searching for psychological health therapy trapped in a cage in the back 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 dedicated the day they died in September 2018, however their families stated they were not violent. Newton was solely seeking drugs for her worry and anxiousness and Green’s family stated she was dedicated to a mental 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 verdict and after several kinfolk of the ladies mentioned his resolution to press forward with the shortest route left an impossible-to-fix gap of their lives.

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

Circuit Court docket Decide William Seales sentenced Flood to five years in prison on each 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 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 didn't 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 stated they spoke to the ladies and tried to keep them calm for about an hour because the water kept rising earlier than it received too harmful and rescuers may no longer hear them.

“How terrible should which were to sit down there and wait to your own death?” Solicitor Ed Clements said in his closing argument Thursday.

Whereas other elements like an emergency radio that did not notify rescuers of the van's actual 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 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 troopers.

Clements learn from Flood's statement to investigators that he felt like once he was within the water, he couldn't flip around as a result of he might now not see the sting of the highway and was nervous about running right into a ditch hidden by the water.

“Perhaps it wounded his pride or stubbornness. I don’t know. He pushed forward into water that was not simply 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 stated while it was a horrible tragedy, others had been trying to unfairly blame simply the previous deputy instead of the tools issues, the troops that waived them around the barricades and supervisors who knew harmful flooding was starting and sent him regardless that taking the ladies to the psychological well being amenities was not an emergency.

"I ask that you simply resist the urge to attempt to give justice to those two women by giving injustice to this good man," protection lawyer Jarrett Bouchette mentioned. “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 everything he may to keep the women calm as the waters rose and help was gradual to arrive.

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

Flood and the deputy with him, Joshua Bishop, were eventually rescued from the highest of the transport van, authorities said. 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 still would not open. The delay in getting assist was costly too. A firefighter testified they have been able to cut the roof off the van and started engaged on the cage, however the water acquired greater and quicker and it was too dangerous to proceed.

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

“I can forgive, however I can't neglect. Fortunately, I nonetheless keep in mind my mother as a cheerful lady, a joyful lady who loved her family," he stated. “But you, Mr. Flood, will remember my mom by hearing her screams behind that van."

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