Nurse Nicole Lorraine Linton pleads not guilty in fiery crash that killed six people at Windsor Hills intersection

LOS ANGELES (CNS) — A nurse pleaded not guilty to high-speed murder and vehicular manslaughter fiery crash at a Windsor Hills intersection killing six people, including an unborn baby, just over two years ago.

Nicole Lorraine Linton, now 39, remains jailed without bail in connection with the Aug. 4, 2022, crash at the intersection of La Brea and Slauson Avenue.

She was ordered to stand trial on August 2 on six counts of murder and five counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, after a hearing that included approximately ten days of testimony and two days of arguments from attorneys.

Much of that hearing focused on Linton’s history of strange behavior in the years leading up to the crash, including Internet searches that the judge noted were “filled with questions about suicide” and searches related to “Can you die see coming?” and “Why do I feel like death is near?” three days before the collision.

Investigators determined that Linton’s black Mercedes-Benz was traveling at 130 mph at the time of the crash, which occurred after the vehicle ran a red light. The collision and its fiery aftermath were captured on surveillance videotape from a nearby business.

One of Linton’s former attorneys, Caleb Mason, argued earlier this year that the technical data — along with the opinion of a neurologist who subsequently examined her at the defense’s request — was consistent with his client having a seizure along the stretch of road that led to the hospital. until the intersection.

Those killed in the crash included 23-year-old Asherey Ryan of Los Angeles, who relatives said was 8.5 months pregnant, along with her unborn child, to be named Armani Lester, and her 11-month-old son Alonzo. Quintero and her 24-year-old boyfriend, Reynold Lester of Los Angeles, who were in a Jaguar that California Highway Patrol investigator Hector Castaneda testified, were “split in half.”

Nathesia Lewis, 43, and her friend, 38-year-old Lynette Noble, who were in a Nissan, were also killed.

Nine other people, including Linton, were injured, and a total of nine vehicles were involved in the collision and its aftermath.

The CHP investigator testified that data from Linton’s Mercedes-Benz showed that the vehicle was traveling at 125 mph five seconds before the crash and had reached a speed of 130 mph at the time of impact, with the accelerator pedal was pressed for a full five seconds before impact.

CHP Patrol Officer Jeffrey Crain testified that there were multiple turns along La Brea where a driver had to steer to maintain position on the road, and said investigators obtained surveillance video from a business showing a vehicle consistent with Linton’s Mercedes -Benz from 2018. appears to be accelerating and says he estimated the initial speed at that time to be 90 km/h, less than 20 seconds before the crash, and then at 100 km/h. He said the vehicle took 17 seconds to travel half a mile – something that should have taken about 40 seconds in a 70 km per hour zone.

Crain noted that the light was red about 15 seconds before the crash.

“It’s graphic,” he said of a redacted photo of the crash scene.

Mason told Superior Court Judge Eleanor J. Hunter earlier this year that his client was not in a mental state consistent with murder. He said the vast majority of her Internet searches happened years before the crash.

The lawyer called the deaths “terrible and tragic” but said “this does not mean this is murder.”

Deputy District Attorney Brittany Vannoy countered that it was “beyond dispute” that Linton caused the deaths, citing a driving pattern dangerous to human life.

Calling Linton a “ticking time bomb,” the prosecutor said she got behind the wheel of her car even though she was “well aware of the triggers,” including stress and lack of sleep, based on her previous behavior, including jumping on the car. the patrol car of a Houston police officer in 2018. She had stopped taking her medications before working as a travel nurse, the prosecutor said.

Linton’s online searches about being “close to death” were evidence that she was “actively contemplating suicide,” Vannoy said.

The judge noted that evidence relating to Linton’s previous incidents included her anger turning into aggression. fury.”

Hunter said the defendant knew she was undergoing EEG tests suggested by doctors after the crash to determine if she was suffering from seizures, and that she had “certain movements and gestures” while being triggered during the tests, but that the raw data indicated that seizures were present. “no seizure.”

“I don’t know if this is counterfeiting, but certainly an argument can be made for it,” the judge said, noting that the defendant had admitted to lying in other cases.

Linton broke down in tears during the second day of that hearing when a witness described seeing a “big black cloud in front of me” after hearing what “sounded like a bomb or something of that nature” and seeing what “looked like like something out of those apocalyptic movies.”

Linton broke down in tears again when prosecutors showed a photo of a plume of smoke rising from the scene of the crash. The judge warned her: ‘I just don’t want anyone crying here. … We’ll give her some time to calm down.” When the hearing resumed minutes later, Linton kept her head down as prosecutors played the dramatic surveillance video showing the crash.

Isabel Schrama, an EMT who encountered the accident as she and her partner were on their way to another call, testified that she was in the ambulance with Linton as she was taken to the hospital and that a paramedic said there were “several other people ‘. cars and people were dead.”

“She asked, did I kill people? Have I hurt people?’ Schrama testified, adding that the defendant became quite “panicked” and seemed “really concerned” but was eventually able to provide her own name and date of birth.

Paramedic Richard Jimenez, who responded to the crash scene, described Linton as having “altered mental status” but said she was ultimately able to remember her name and age, but not how the crash occurred.

The prosecutor asked the paramedic, “Did you see any other victims who were beyond saving?”

“Right,” the paramedic replied.

Dr. Kristen Lee, a psychiatric nurse who met Linton twice at a hospital after the accident, said Linton told her she remembered crying while driving but wasn’t sure why. She said the defendant denied any suicidal or homicidal ideation, had two previous psychiatric hospitalizations and had a history of bipolar disorder.

She said she was later called back to speak to Linton, who said: ‘I’m a murderer. I’m a murderer. The cop just told me I killed all these people.” She said Linton described the event as a “nightmare, and she just wanted to wake up.”

On a website supporting Linton, one of her sisters, Camille, wrote that the crash “did not happen on purpose, but was a tragic accident.”

“She is someone we love very much and right now so many people see her as a monster and a murderer, when she is one of the most compassionate and caring people we know.”