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 searching for mental well being therapy trapped in a cage within the again 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 Inexperienced, 43, to be involuntarily dedicated the day they died in September 2018, however their households said they were not violent. Newton was solely seeking medication for her worry and nervousness and Green’s household stated 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 a number of relatives of the ladies mentioned 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, cussed man,” Inexperienced's sister Donnela Green-Johnson informed the decide. “He abused the belief my sister, Nikki, Wendy and the state of South Carolina entrusted him with. And for what? To save lots of time.”

Circuit Court Choose William Seales sentenced Flood to 5 years in jail on every involuntary manslaughter charge 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 towards a guardrail, stopping the women from having 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, according to 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 because the water kept rising before it obtained too harmful and rescuers could no longer hear them.

“How awful must which have been to sit down there and wait on your own demise?” Solicitor Ed Clements stated in his closing argument Thursday.

While other elements like an emergency radio that didn't notify rescuers of the van's actual location contributed to the deaths, Clements stated the drownings all came out of Flood’s reckless resolution to drive 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) by water.

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

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

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

Flood's lawyer mentioned whereas it was a horrible tragedy, others were attempting to unfairly blame just the previous deputy instead of the gear problems, the troops that waived them across the barricades and supervisors who knew harmful flooding was beginning and despatched him regardless that taking the women to the psychological health facilities was not an emergency.

"I ask that you simply resist the urge to try to give justice to those two girls by giving injustice to this good man," protection attorney Jarrett Bouchette mentioned. “They wish to make him a scapegoat for this accident.”

Flood didn't testify, but earlier than he was sentenced told the judge he tried all the things he could to keep the ladies calm because the waters rose and help was sluggish to arrive.

“It was a series of errors on my half and different 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, had been ultimately rescued from the highest 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, however it nonetheless would not open. The delay in getting assist was pricey too. A firefighter testified they had been in a position to lower the roof off the van and started working on the cage, however the water acquired increased and quicker and it was too dangerous to proceed.

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

“I can forgive, but I cannot forget. Thankfully, I nonetheless keep in mind my mom as a contented lady, a joyful lady who liked her family," he mentioned. “However you, Mr. Flood, will remember my mom by hearing her screams behind that van."

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