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 girls searching for psychological well being treatment trapped in a cage in the again 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 Inexperienced, 43, to be involuntarily dedicated the day they died in September 2018, but their families said they were not violent. Newton was only seeking medication for her fear and nervousness and Green’s family mentioned she was dedicated to a mental facility at an everyday psychological well being appointment by a counselor she had by no means seen before.

Flood, 69, was sentenced about half-hour after the decision and after a number of kin of the women said his choice 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,” Green's sister Donnela Inexperienced-Johnson told the choose. “He abused the belief my sister, Nikki, Wendy and the state of South Carolina entrusted him with. And for what? To avoid wasting time.”

Circuit Court docket Decide William Seales sentenced Flood to 5 years in jail on every involuntary manslaughter charge and four years on each 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, stopping the ladies from having 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, 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 stored rising earlier than it got too dangerous and rescuers could now not hear them.

“How terrible should which were to take a seat there and wait for your personal loss of life?” Solicitor Ed Clements mentioned in his closing argument Thursday.

Whereas different elements like an emergency radio that didn't notify rescuers of the van's exact location contributed to the deaths, Clements mentioned the drownings all came out of Flood’s reckless determination to drive 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) through water.

Nationwide guard troops put up barricades on U.S. Highway 76 simply exterior Nichols, however Flood drove round them after briefly speaking to the soldiers.

Clements read 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 not see the sting of the freeway and was apprehensive about working right into a ditch hidden by the water.

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

Flood's lawyer said whereas it was a horrible tragedy, others had been attempting to unfairly blame simply the previous deputy as a substitute of the equipment issues, the troops that waived them around the barricades and supervisors who knew harmful flooding was beginning and sent him even though taking the women to the psychological health 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," defense attorney Jarrett Bouchette said. “They want to make him a scapegoat for this accident.”

Flood did not testify, however earlier than he was sentenced instructed the choose he tried every part he could to maintain the ladies calm as the waters rose and help was sluggish to reach.

“It was a collection of errors on my part and different those who led me to that time and I’m sorry for what happened to the women,” Flood said.

Flood and the deputy with him, Joshua Bishop, had been finally rescued from the top of the transport van, authorities said. 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 help was expensive too. A firefighter testified they had been capable of lower the roof off the van and started working on the cage, but the water received higher and faster and it was too dangerous to continue.

Newton's son Charles stated he hated that Flood needed to study to observe the rules and use frequent sense at such a steep worth.

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

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