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 ladies in search of mental well being treatment trapped in a cage in the again was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in jail.

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 said they weren't violent. Newton was solely seeking medicine for her fear and anxiety and Green’s family stated she was committed to a psychological facility at a regular mental health appointment by a counselor she had never seen earlier than.

Flood, 69, was sentenced about half-hour after the verdict and after a number of kinfolk of the ladies said 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 movement by a pompous, stubborn man,” Green's sister Donnela Inexperienced-Johnson instructed the choose. “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 jail on each involuntary manslaughter cost and 4 years on every reckless murder cost 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, in response to testimony from the trial streamed by WMBF-TV.

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

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

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

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

Clements read from Flood's assertion to investigators that he felt like as soon as he was within the water, he could not flip round because he might now not see the edge of the freeway and was nervous about running into a ditch hidden by the water.

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

Flood's lawyer mentioned whereas it was a horrible tragedy, others have been attempting to unfairly blame just the former deputy as an alternative of the gear issues, the troops that waived them around the barricades and supervisors who knew harmful flooding was starting and sent him despite the fact that taking the ladies to the mental health amenities was not an emergency.

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

Flood did not testify, however earlier than he was sentenced told the decide he tried every little thing he might to maintain the ladies calm as the waters rose and help was sluggish to reach.

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

Flood and the deputy with him, Joshua Bishop, had been eventually rescued from the highest 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, but it surely still would not open. The delay in getting assist was expensive too. A firefighter testified they were able to minimize the roof off the van and began working on the cage, however the water got greater and quicker and it was too harmful to proceed.

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

“I can forgive, however I cannot neglect. Luckily, I still keep in mind my mom as a contented lady, a joyful girl who loved her family," he said. “But you, Mr. Flood, will bear in mind my mother by listening to her screams in the back of that van."

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