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 looking for psychological health remedy trapped in a cage in the again was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in prison.

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 Green, 43, to be involuntarily dedicated the day they died in September 2018, but their families mentioned they weren't violent. Newton was solely in search of drugs for her worry and anxiousness and Inexperienced’s household mentioned she was committed to a mental facility at a regular 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 several kinfolk of the ladies said his decision to press ahead with the shortest route left an impossible-to-fix gap in their lives.

“This was a deliberate act set in motion by a pompous, stubborn man,” Inexperienced's sister Donnela Inexperienced-Johnson told the decide. “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 Judge William Seales sentenced Flood to 5 years in prison on each involuntary manslaughter charge and 4 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 ladies from being able 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, based on testimony from the trial streamed by WMBF-TV.

The deputies said they spoke to the ladies and tried to maintain them calm for about an hour as the water kept rising earlier than it received too dangerous and rescuers may not hear them.

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

Whereas different elements like an emergency radio that did not notify rescuers of the van's precise 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.

Nationwide guard troops put up barricades on U.S. Highway 76 just outdoors Nichols, but Flood drove round them after briefly talking to the troopers.

Clements read from Flood's assertion to investigators that he felt like as soon as he was in the water, he couldn't turn around because he could now not see the edge of the freeway and was fearful about operating right into a ditch hidden by the water.

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

Flood's lawyer stated while it was a terrible tragedy, others have been trying to unfairly blame just the former deputy instead of the gear issues, the troops that waived them across the barricades and supervisors who knew harmful flooding was beginning and sent him though taking the women to the mental health services was not an emergency.

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

Flood didn't testify, however before he was sentenced instructed the choose he tried the whole lot he could to keep the women calm as the waters rose and help was gradual to arrive.

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

Flood and the deputy with him, Joshua Bishop, have been finally 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 surely still would not open. The delay in getting assist was expensive too. A firefighter testified they have been able to cut the roof off the van and started engaged on the cage, however the water received greater and sooner and it was too dangerous to continue.

Newton's son Charles said he hated that Flood needed to be taught to observe the principles and use widespread sense at such a steep price.

“I can forgive, however I can not forget. Fortunately, I still remember my mom as a contented lady, a joyful girl who cherished her family," he stated. “However you, Mr. Flood, will keep 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.