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 in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, drowning two women looking for psychological health treatment trapped in a cage in the back 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 homicide.

Judges ordered Wendy Newton, 45, and Nicolette Green, 43, to be involuntarily committed the day they died in September 2018, however their families mentioned they were not violent. Newton was only seeking medication for her fear and anxiety and Green’s family mentioned she was committed to a mental facility at an everyday mental well being appointment by a counselor she had by no means seen before.

Flood, 69, was sentenced about 30 minutes after the verdict and after several family members of the women said his decision to press forward with the shortest route left an impossible-to-fix gap in their lives.

“This was a deliberate act set in movement by a pompous, cussed man,” Inexperienced's sister Donnela Inexperienced-Johnson advised the decide. “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 Judge William Seales sentenced Flood to 5 years in prison on every involuntary manslaughter charge 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 in opposition to a guardrail, stopping the women from being able 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, in keeping 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 as the water saved rising earlier than it obtained too dangerous and rescuers may now not hear them.

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

Whereas different elements like an emergency radio that failed to notify rescuers of the van's exact location contributed to the deaths, Clements stated the drownings all came out of Flood’s reckless decision to drive 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) through water.

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

Clements read from Flood's statement to investigators that he felt like as soon as he was in the water, he couldn't flip around as a result of he could now not see the sting of the highway and was fearful about running into a ditch hidden by the water.

“Maybe it wounded his satisfaction or stubbornness. I don’t know. He pushed ahead into water that was not just standing in a tall puddle, but it was dashing, crossing the guardrail. All of it was the Little Pee Dee River by then,” Clements said.

Flood's lawyer said while it was a terrible tragedy, others have been attempting to unfairly blame simply the former deputy as a substitute of the gear problems, the troops that waived them around the barricades and supervisors who knew harmful flooding was beginning and sent him though 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 those 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 didn't testify, however before he was sentenced informed the judge he tried every little thing he might to keep the women calm because the waters rose and help was sluggish to reach.

“It was a collection of mistakes on my half and other people that led me to that time and I’m sorry for what happened to the ladies,” Flood stated.

Flood and the deputy with him, Joshua Bishop, were ultimately rescued from the highest of the transport van, authorities stated. 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 assist was costly too. A firefighter testified they have been capable of cut the roof off the van and started working on the cage, however the water received increased and sooner and it was too dangerous to proceed.

Newton's son Charles mentioned he hated that Flood had to study to comply with the principles and use widespread sense at such a steep value.

“I can forgive, however I cannot forget. Thankfully, I still bear in mind my mom as a cheerful girl, a joyful woman who beloved her family," he mentioned. “But you, Mr. Flood, will bear in mind my mother by listening to her screams behind that van."

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