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 in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, drowning two girls searching for psychological well being therapy trapped in a cage within 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, however their families said they were not violent. Newton was only seeking medicine for her fear and nervousness and Green’s household stated she was dedicated to a psychological facility at a daily mental health appointment by a counselor she had by no means seen earlier than.

Flood, 69, was sentenced about half-hour after the verdict and after several kin of the ladies said his choice to press ahead with the shortest route left an impossible-to-fix gap of their lives.

“This was a deliberate act set in movement by a pompous, cussed man,” Inexperienced's sister Donnela Green-Johnson advised the judge. “He abused the belief my sister, Nikki, Wendy and the state of South Carolina entrusted him with. And for what? To save time.”

Circuit Court docket Choose William Seales sentenced Flood to five years in jail on each involuntary manslaughter charge and 4 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 against a guardrail, stopping 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, in line with 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 stored rising before it bought too harmful and rescuers could not hear them.

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

While different factors like an emergency radio that failed to notify rescuers of the van's actual location contributed to the deaths, Clements stated the drownings all came out of Flood’s reckless decision to drive 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) via water.

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

Clements learn from Flood's assertion to investigators that he felt like once he was within the water, he couldn't flip round because he might no longer see the sting of the freeway and was frightened about running into a ditch hidden by the water.

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

Flood's lawyer mentioned whereas it was a horrible tragedy, others have been attempting to unfairly blame just the former deputy as a substitute of the equipment problems, the troops that waived them around the barricades and supervisors who knew dangerous flooding was beginning and despatched him though taking the women to the psychological health facilities was not an emergency.

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

Flood didn't testify, however before he was sentenced informed the choose he tried every part he could to keep the ladies calm as the waters rose and assist was gradual to arrive.

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

Flood and the deputy with him, Joshua Bishop, had been eventually rescued from the top 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, however it nonetheless would not open. The delay in getting help was pricey too. A firefighter testified they have been in a position to cut the roof off the van and started engaged on the cage, however the water acquired higher and faster and it was too dangerous to proceed.

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

“I can forgive, however I can't forget. Luckily, I still keep in mind my mom as a cheerful woman, a joyful woman who cherished her family," he mentioned. “But you, Mr. Flood, will bear in mind my mother by hearing her screams behind that van."

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