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 ladies in search of mental health 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 murder.

Judges ordered Wendy Newton, 45, and Nicolette Inexperienced, 43, to be involuntarily dedicated the day they died in September 2018, however their families said they weren't violent. Newton was solely seeking drugs for her fear and nervousness and Inexperienced’s household stated she was dedicated to a mental facility at a daily mental well being appointment by a counselor she had never seen earlier than.

Flood, 69, was sentenced about half-hour after the decision and after several kinfolk of the ladies stated his decision to press forward 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 Green-Johnson advised the judge. “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 Choose William Seales sentenced Flood to five years in jail on each involuntary manslaughter cost and four years on each reckless homicide 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, 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 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 keep them calm for about an hour as the water stored rising earlier than it bought too dangerous and rescuers may now not hear them.

“How terrible must which have been to sit there and wait for your personal demise?” Solicitor Ed Clements said in his closing argument Thursday.

While different elements like an emergency radio that failed to notify rescuers of the van's actual location contributed to the deaths, Clements mentioned the drownings all got here out of Flood’s reckless resolution to drive 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) via water.

National guard troops put up barricades on U.S. Highway 76 simply exterior Nichols, but Flood drove around them after briefly talking to the soldiers.

Clements learn 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 may now not see the edge of the highway and was apprehensive about working into a ditch hidden by the water.

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

Flood's lawyer said while it was a terrible tragedy, others were trying to unfairly blame just the previous deputy instead of the equipment problems, the troops that waived them across the barricades and supervisors who knew harmful flooding was starting and sent him despite the fact that taking the ladies to the psychological well being facilities was not an emergency.

"I ask that you simply resist the urge to try to give justice to these two ladies by giving injustice to this good man," protection legal professional Jarrett Bouchette stated. “They need to make him a scapegoat for this accident.”

Flood didn't testify, but earlier than he was sentenced told the choose he tried everything he might to maintain the women calm as the waters rose and help was gradual to reach.

“It was a sequence of mistakes on my part and different people who led me to that point and I’m sorry for what happened to the girls,” Flood stated.

Flood and the deputy with him, Joshua Bishop, were ultimately rescued from the top 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 nonetheless wouldn't open. The delay in getting assist was costly too. A firefighter testified they had been in a position to cut the roof off the van and began engaged on the cage, however the water obtained larger and quicker and it was too dangerous to continue.

Newton's son Charles said he hated that Flood had to be taught to comply with the foundations and use frequent sense at such a steep worth.

“I can forgive, but I can't neglect. Fortunately, I nonetheless remember my mother as a cheerful girl, a joyful lady who cherished her family," he mentioned. “But you, Mr. Flood, will bear in mind my mom by listening to her screams behind that van."

———

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