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 psychological well being therapy trapped in a cage in the again was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in prison.

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 families mentioned they weren't violent. Newton was solely in search of medication for her concern and anxiety and Inexperienced’s household mentioned she was dedicated to a psychological facility at an everyday psychological well being appointment by a counselor she had never seen before.

Flood, 69, was sentenced about half-hour after the verdict and after a number of family members of the women mentioned 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, cussed man,” Green's sister Donnela Green-Johnson told the choose. “He abused the trust my sister, Nikki, Wendy and the state of South Carolina entrusted him with. And for what? To save time.”

Circuit Court Judge William Seales sentenced Flood to five years in prison on every involuntary manslaughter charge and four years on each reckless homicide 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, 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 response to testimony from the trial streamed by WMBF-TV.

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

“How terrible should which have been to take a seat there and wait to your personal death?” Solicitor Ed Clements mentioned in his closing argument Thursday.

Whereas other factors like an emergency radio that failed to notify rescuers of the van's precise location contributed to the deaths, Clements said the drownings all came out of Flood’s reckless determination 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 troopers.

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

“Perhaps it wounded his satisfaction or stubbornness. I don’t know. He pushed ahead into water that was not simply standing in a tall puddle, but 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 were attempting to unfairly blame just the previous deputy instead of the equipment issues, the troops that waived them around the barricades and supervisors who knew harmful flooding was starting and despatched him though taking the ladies to the mental health facilities was not an emergency.

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

Flood didn't testify, but before he was sentenced instructed the judge he tried everything he might to keep the ladies calm as the waters rose and assist was gradual to arrive.

“It was a collection of mistakes on my half and different folks that led me to that time and I’m sorry for what occurred to the women,” Flood said.

Flood and the deputy with him, Joshua Bishop, have been ultimately rescued from the highest of the transport van, authorities said. 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 still would not open. The delay in getting help was pricey too. A firefighter testified they were in a position to reduce the roof off the van and started engaged on the cage, however the water acquired greater and faster and it was too dangerous to continue.

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

“I can forgive, however I can't overlook. Luckily, I still remember my mom as a cheerful woman, a joyful lady who loved her family," he said. “But you, Mr. Flood, will bear in mind my mother by hearing her screams at the back of that van."

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