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 seeking psychological well being remedy trapped in a cage within the back 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 committed the day they died in September 2018, but their households mentioned they weren't violent. Newton was only searching for drugs for her worry and anxiousness and Inexperienced’s household said she was committed to a psychological facility at a regular mental well being appointment by a counselor she had by no means seen before.

Flood, 69, was sentenced about 30 minutes after the decision and after several kin of the women mentioned his resolution to press forward 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,” Inexperienced's sister Donnela Inexperienced-Johnson instructed the judge. “He abused the trust my sister, Nikki, Wendy and the state of South Carolina entrusted him with. And for what? To save lots of time.”

Circuit Courtroom Decide William Seales sentenced Flood to five years in jail 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 against 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 mentioned they spoke to the women and tried to keep them calm for about an hour as the water stored rising earlier than it got too dangerous and rescuers might now not hear them.

“How awful should that have been to sit down there and wait to your own death?” Solicitor Ed Clements mentioned in his closing argument Thursday.

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

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

Clements read from Flood's statement to investigators that he felt like as soon as he was in the water, he couldn't turn round because he could now not see the sting of the highway and was apprehensive about working right 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 mentioned.

Flood's lawyer said whereas it was a terrible tragedy, others had been attempting to unfairly blame simply the former deputy as an alternative of the equipment problems, the troops that waived them across the barricades and supervisors who knew dangerous flooding was beginning and despatched him although taking the ladies to the psychological well being amenities was not an emergency.

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

Flood did not testify, however earlier than he was sentenced advised the choose he tried all the pieces he may to maintain the ladies calm because the waters rose and help was gradual to arrive.

“It was a sequence of mistakes on my part and different folks that led me to that time and I’m sorry for what occurred to the girls,” Flood stated.

Flood and the deputy with him, Joshua Bishop, have been ultimately 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 nonetheless wouldn't open. The delay in getting assist was costly too. A firefighter testified they were able to cut the roof off the van and began engaged on the cage, but the water bought higher and sooner and it was too dangerous to proceed.

Newton's son Charles said he hated that Flood needed to learn to observe the rules and use common sense at such a steep value.

“I can forgive, however I can not forget. Fortunately, I nonetheless keep in mind my mother as a contented woman, a joyful lady who beloved her household," he said. “However you, Mr. Flood, will remember my mom by listening to her screams behind that van."

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