COLUMBIA, SC (AP) – A South Carolina lawmaker whose police van was swept away by floods after Hurricane Florence, drowning two women seeking mental health treatment in a back cell, was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Thursday.
A Marion County jury has found former Hori County Deputy Stephen Flood guilty of two counts of manslaughter and two counts of manslaughter.
Judges ordered Wendy Newton, 45, and Nicolette Green, 43, to be forced to die on the day they died in September 2018, but their families said they were not violent. Newton sought medicine only for his fears and anxieties, and Green’s family said she had been referred to a psychiatric facility for a regular mental health meeting by a counselor she had never seen before.
Flood, 69, was convicted about 30 minutes after the sentencing, after several relatives of the women said his decision to move forward the shortest possible time left a hole in their lives that could not be repaired.
“It was a deliberate act by a pompous, stubborn man,” Green’s sister Donela Green-Johnson told the judge. “He abused the trust of my sister, Nikki, Wendy and the state of South Carolina. And for what? To save time. ”
District Court Judge William Seals sentenced Flood to five years in prison for each count of manslaughter and four years for each charge of manslaughter, and ordered the sentences to be served consecutively.
The floods swept the police van off its wheels in September 2018 and pinned it to the guardrail, preventing women from exiting through the sliding door they used to enter the van. Flood and his deputy did not have a second door key and no emergency evacuation hatch, according to testimonies from WMBF-TV.
Deputies said they had talked to the women and tried to keep them calm for about an hour as the water continued to rise before it became too dangerous and rescuers could no longer hear them.
“How awful it must have been to sit there and wait for your own death?” Attorney Ed Clements said in his closing speech Thursday.
While other factors, such as an emergency radio station that failed to inform rescuers about the exact location of the van, contributed to the death, Clements said all the drownings were due to Flood’s reckless decision to drive 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) in water.
National Guard troops set up barricades on U.S. Highway 76 right in front of Nichols, but Flood bypassed them after talking briefly with the soldiers.
Clements read from Flood’s statement to investigators that he felt as if he could not turn around after being in the water because he could no longer see the edge of the highway and was worried about falling into a ditch hidden from the water.
“Maybe it hurt his pride or perseverance. I do not know. He pushed forward into the water, which was not just standing in a high puddle, but it was rushing in, crossing the guardrail. Until then, it was all Little Pee Dee, “Clements said.
Flood’s lawyer said that while this was a terrible tragedy, others were trying to unfairly blame only the former deputy for the equipment problems, the troops who left them around the barricades and the guards who knew a dangerous flood was starting and sent him away. took the women to psychiatric facilities was not urgent.
“Please resist the urge to try to do justice to these two ladies by doing injustice to this good man,” said defense attorney Jarrett Bouchet. “They want to make him a scapegoat for this incident.
Flood did not testify, but before being convicted, he told the judge that he had done everything possible to keep the women calm as the waters rose and help arrived slowly.
“It was a series of mistakes on my part and on the part of other people who brought me to this point, and I’m sorry about what happened to the girls,” Flood said.
Flood and his deputy, Joshua Bishop, were eventually rescued from the top of the van, authorities said. Bishop will be tried on two counts of manslaughter at a later date.
They tried to shoot the locks on the second door, but it still didn’t open. Delaying aid was also costly. A firefighter testified that they managed to cut off the roof of the van and started working on the cage, but the water rose faster and it was too dangerous to continue.
Newton’s son Charles said he hated that Flood had to learn to follow the rules and use common sense at such a high price.
“I can forgive, but I can’t forget. Fortunately, I still remember my mother as a happy woman, a happy woman who loved her family, “he said. “But you, Mr. Flood, will remember my mother when you hear her screams in the back of the van.”
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