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 in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, drowning two girls looking for mental well being remedy 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 Inexperienced, 43, to be involuntarily dedicated the day they died in September 2018, however their families stated they were not violent. Newton was only in search of drugs for her concern and anxiousness and Inexperienced’s household stated she was dedicated to a psychological facility at an everyday psychological health appointment by a counselor she had by no means seen before.

Flood, 69, was sentenced about 30 minutes after the verdict and after a number of kinfolk of the women stated 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 choose. “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 Decide William Seales sentenced Flood to 5 years in jail on every involuntary manslaughter cost and four years on every reckless homicide cost 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 having 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 accordance with testimony from the trial streamed by WMBF-TV.

The deputies stated they spoke to the ladies and tried to keep them calm for about an hour as the water stored rising before it got too dangerous and rescuers may now not hear them.

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

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

National guard troops put up barricades on U.S. Freeway 76 just outside Nichols, but Flood drove around them after briefly speaking to the troopers.

Clements learn from Flood's assertion to investigators that he felt like once he was within the water, he couldn't turn around because he may now not see the sting of the highway and was anxious about operating right into a ditch hidden by the water.

“Possibly it wounded his satisfaction 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 whereas it was a terrible tragedy, others were attempting to unfairly blame just the former deputy as an alternative of the equipment problems, the troops that waived them around the barricades and supervisors who knew dangerous flooding was starting and sent him regardless that taking the ladies to the mental well being facilities 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 legal professional Jarrett Bouchette said. “They wish to make him a scapegoat for this accident.”

Flood didn't testify, however earlier than he was sentenced advised the judge he tried every little thing he could to maintain the women calm as the waters rose and assist was slow to arrive.

“It was a collection of errors on my part and different people who led me to that time and I’m sorry for what happened to the ladies,” Flood said.

Flood and the deputy with him, Joshua Bishop, have been eventually 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, nevertheless it nonetheless would not open. The delay in getting assist was pricey too. A firefighter testified they have been able to lower the roof off the van and began engaged on the cage, however the water received greater and sooner and it was too dangerous to proceed.

Newton's son Charles stated he hated that Flood had to study to follow the principles and use frequent sense at such a steep value.

“I can forgive, however I can not forget. Luckily, I still bear in mind my mother as a contented lady, a joyful girl who beloved her family," he mentioned. “But you, Mr. Flood, will remember my mom by hearing her screams at the back of that van."

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