Ex-deputy gets 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 seeking psychological well being therapy 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 guilty 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 weren't violent. Newton was only seeking medicine for her fear and nervousness and Inexperienced’s household stated she was dedicated to a psychological facility at a regular mental 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 a number of family of the ladies mentioned his decision to press ahead with the shortest route left an impossible-to-fix hole of their lives.

“This was a deliberate act set in motion by a pompous, stubborn man,” Green's sister Donnela Green-Johnson told 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 Decide William Seales sentenced Flood to five years in jail on each involuntary manslaughter cost and four years on every reckless murder cost and ordered the sentences served back-to-back.

The floodwaters swept the police van off its wheels in September 2018 and pinned it towards 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 accordance 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 because the water stored rising before it bought too dangerous and rescuers may no longer hear them.

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

While different components like an emergency radio that didn't notify rescuers of the van's precise location contributed to the deaths, Clements said the drownings all came out of Flood’s reckless decision to drive 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) via water.

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

Clements learn from Flood's statement to investigators that he felt like once he was in the water, he could not turn round as a result of he might not see the sting of the highway and was fearful about operating right into a ditch hidden by the water.

“Possibly 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 speeding, crossing the guardrail. All of it was the Little Pee Dee River by then,” Clements mentioned.

Flood's lawyer mentioned while it was a horrible tragedy, others had been making an attempt to unfairly blame just the former deputy as a substitute of the equipment issues, 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 women to the psychological well being amenities was not an emergency.

"I ask that you simply resist the urge to attempt to give justice to these two ladies by giving injustice to this good man," defense lawyer Jarrett Bouchette said. “They want to make him a scapegoat for this accident.”

Flood didn't testify, however before he was sentenced told the decide he tried all the pieces he might to maintain the women calm as the waters rose and assist was gradual to arrive.

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

Flood and the deputy with him, Joshua Bishop, have been finally 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, but it surely nonetheless would not open. The delay in getting help was costly too. A firefighter testified they were in a position to reduce the roof off the van and began engaged on the cage, but the water got increased and faster and it was too harmful to proceed.

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

“I can forgive, however I can not overlook. Fortunately, I nonetheless bear in mind my mother as a happy lady, a joyful woman who loved her household," he stated. “However you, Mr. Flood, will bear in mind 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.