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 seeking psychological well being 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 murder.

Judges ordered Wendy Newton, 45, and Nicolette Green, 43, to be involuntarily dedicated the day they died in September 2018, but their households stated they were not violent. Newton was only seeking drugs for her fear and anxiousness and Green’s household said she was dedicated to a mental facility at a daily psychological well being appointment by a counselor she had by no means seen before.

Flood, 69, was sentenced about 30 minutes after the decision and after several kinfolk of the women said his choice 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 judge. “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 Court docket Decide William Seales sentenced Flood to five years in jail on every involuntary manslaughter cost 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, stopping the ladies 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 line with testimony from the trial streamed by WMBF-TV.

The deputies said they spoke to the women and tried to keep them calm for about an hour as the water kept rising earlier than it bought too harmful and rescuers could now not hear them.

“How awful must that have been to take a seat there and wait for your own loss of life?” Solicitor Ed Clements mentioned in his closing argument Thursday.

Whereas different factors like an emergency radio that did not notify rescuers of the van's actual location contributed to the deaths, Clements mentioned the drownings all got here out of Flood’s reckless choice to drive 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) through water.

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

Clements learn from Flood's statement to investigators that he felt like as soon as he was within the water, he could not turn around as a result of he may not see the edge of the freeway and was fearful about running into a ditch hidden by the water.

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

Flood's lawyer stated whereas it was a terrible tragedy, others have been attempting to unfairly blame just the previous deputy as a substitute of the gear issues, the troops that waived them around the barricades and supervisors who knew dangerous flooding was starting and sent him despite the fact that taking the ladies to the psychological well being amenities was not an emergency.

"I ask that you resist the urge to attempt to give justice to those two girls 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, but earlier than he was sentenced advised the decide he tried all the things he might to keep the women calm because the waters rose and help was gradual to arrive.

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

Flood and the deputy with him, Joshua Bishop, were eventually rescued from the top of the transport van, authorities mentioned. Bishop will stand trial for 2 counts of involuntary manslaughter at a later date.

They tried to shoot the locks off the second door, nevertheless it still wouldn't open. The delay in getting assist was expensive too. A firefighter testified they were in a position to reduce the roof off the van and started working on the cage, but the water received increased and quicker and it was too dangerous to continue.

Newton's son Charles stated he hated that Flood had to be taught to follow the rules and use frequent sense at such a steep worth.

“I can forgive, but I can not forget. Thankfully, I nonetheless keep in mind my mother as a contented girl, a joyful lady who liked her family," he mentioned. “However you, Mr. Flood, will bear in mind my mother by listening to her screams behind that van."

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