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 girls searching for mental health therapy trapped in a cage within 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 murder.

Judges ordered Wendy Newton, 45, and Nicolette Green, 43, to be involuntarily dedicated the day they died in September 2018, however their families mentioned they were not violent. Newton was only searching for drugs for her concern and anxiety and Green’s household mentioned she was committed to a psychological facility at a daily mental health appointment by a counselor she had by no means seen earlier than.

Flood, 69, was sentenced about half-hour after the decision and after a number of family members of the women said his decision to press forward with the shortest route left an impossible-to-fix gap of their lives.

“This was a deliberate act set in motion by a pompous, cussed man,” Green'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 lots of time.”

Circuit Courtroom Judge William Seales sentenced Flood to 5 years in prison 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 in opposition to a guardrail, preventing the women from with 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 because the water stored rising earlier than it bought too harmful and rescuers might no longer hear them.

“How awful must that have been to sit there and wait in your personal death?” Solicitor Ed Clements said in his closing argument Thursday.

While other components like an emergency radio that did not notify rescuers of the van's precise location contributed to the deaths, Clements stated the drownings all got here out of Flood’s reckless decision to drive 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) by water.

Nationwide guard troops put up barricades on U.S. Freeway 76 just exterior Nichols, however Flood drove around them after briefly talking to the soldiers.

Clements read from Flood's assertion to investigators that he felt like as soon as he was within the water, he couldn't flip round as a result of he could now not see the sting of the highway and was anxious about working 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 just 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 said.

Flood's lawyer stated whereas it was a terrible tragedy, others were attempting to unfairly blame just the former deputy as an alternative of the tools issues, the troops that waived them around the barricades and supervisors who knew harmful flooding was beginning and despatched him though taking the ladies to the psychological health services was not an emergency.

"I ask that you resist the urge to try to give justice to those two women by giving injustice to this good man," defense legal professional Jarrett Bouchette stated. “They want to make him a scapegoat for this accident.”

Flood didn't testify, however earlier than he was sentenced instructed the choose he tried every thing he might to maintain the women calm because the waters rose and help was gradual to arrive.

“It was a series of errors on my half and other those 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, have been finally 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, but it surely still wouldn't open. The delay in getting assist was pricey too. A firefighter testified they have been in a position to reduce the roof off the van and began working on the cage, however the water bought increased and faster and it was too dangerous to proceed.

Newton's son Charles stated he hated that Flood had to learn to comply with the foundations and use frequent sense at such a steep price.

“I can forgive, but I cannot neglect. Thankfully, I nonetheless keep in mind my mother as a contented woman, a joyful girl who loved her household," he mentioned. “However you, Mr. Flood, will keep in mind my mom by listening to her screams at the back of that van."

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