A nurse has been charged with six counts of murder after she crashed into traffic at a busy intersection in Windsor Hills last month, according to new court documents filed on Friday.
The motion filed by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office against the nurse’s attorney claiming she was unconscious before the collision noted that Nicole Linton “was conscious and intentional while driving.”
Authorities initially estimated that Linton’s car was travelling at 90 mph when it collided with multiple cars at the intersection of La Brea and Slawson Avenues shortly after 1:30 p.m. on Aug. 1. 4.
“Further analysis revealed that her speed at the time of impact was in fact 130 mph and that she had stepped on the gas pedal at least five seconds before the crash, going from 122 mph to 130 mph,” the court on Friday said. the document said.
Prosecutors said an analysis of data and surveillance video recorded by Mercedes showed that Linton “had full control of the steering, keeping the steering wheel tilted so that her car drove directly into the crowded intersection.”
“This NASCAR-worthy performance runs counter to her notion of unconsciousness or incapacity,” the filing said.
Linton, 37, was charged with six counts of murder and five counts of vehicular manslaughter with aggravated negligence. One of the victims was Ashery Ryan, who was 8.5 months pregnant. Prosecutors charged Linton with murdering Ryan’s fetus.
The crash also killed Ryan’s nearly 1-year-old children, Alonzo Quintero, and her boyfriend, Reno Lester, who were in the car with her.
Nathesia Lewis, 43, and her friend Lynette Noble, 38, were also killed.
Linton has been behind bars since the crash, with prosecutors claiming she was a flight risk and a danger to the community.
Linton’s mental health was deteriorating before the crash, her defense attorney said in a previous filing.
“She has no recollection of the events that led to her collision,” Dr. William Winter wrote in August. 6. Winter treated Linton at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
“The next thing she recalls was lying on the sidewalk and seeing her car on fire,” he wrote.
The extent of Linton’s injuries from the crash was not included in the doctor’s report, but Winter mentioned “broken bones” and Linton’s lawyer said she was using a wheelchair to move around the prison.
According to her heavily redacted medical records, Winter wrote that Linton suffered from bipolar disorder and was “significantly unconscious” at the time of the crash.
Linton’s family became aware of her mental health issues in May 2018, while she was studying nursing at the University of Texas in Houston, her attorneys wrote. Her sister Camille Linton said in a letter to the court that Nicole Linton’s study to become a nurse anesthetist caused her first mental health breakdown.
“The pressure was too much for her and it ‘breaks’ her down,” Camille Lynton wrote. “And thus began Nicole’s 4-year journey through her battle with mental illness.”
Linton ran out of her apartment during a panic attack in May 2018, and when police approached her, she jumped into a police car and was arrested for disorderly conduct, her lawyers wrote.
According to her lawyer, Linton called her family from the police station and was concerned about the health of her pet turtle.
A few days after that arrest, Linton told her family she believed she was possessed by her dead grandmother.
The next day, at the Ben Taub Asylum, Linton needed stitches on his forehead after hitting his head against a glass partition while yelling at the police and the Supreme Court, lawyers wrote. Records show she sang a Bob Marley song as paramedics treated her wounds.
It was in Bentaub that she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and prescribed psychiatric medication, the defense motion said.
“Nicole’s behavior became increasingly horrific in the days and hours leading up to the events of August 4,” her attorney wrote.
Linton kept telling one of her sisters that her colleagues at Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center “behaved strangely,” her attorney said. Court documents show that on the day of the crash, Linton was driving home from the hospital for lunch and FaceTimed her sister naked.
She then went back to work and called her sister at 1.24pm to say she was leaving get off work again, just minutes before the accident.
“She told her sister that she was flying out to meet her in Houston the next day so she could do her niece’s hair. She also said she was getting married and that her sister should meet her at the altar,” the lawyers wrote road.
In documents filed Friday against Linton’s request for pretrial release or bail, prosecutors disputed defense attorneys’ claims about Linton’s driving and medical history.
Prosecutors said the records they obtained detailing Lynton’s previous three speeding violations and two crashes “demonstrate a continuing disregard for the safety of others on the road.”
“In order to paint the horrific conscious act as we now know it as an accident, the defence conflated the possibility that the defendant suffered a mental health attack prior to the crash with the now defunct concept of being unconscious at the time of the crash. crash,” prosecutors said.
To date, no medical diagnostic documents have been submitted to the court, according to prosecutors. The records refer to previous diagnoses of bipolar disorder, but do not include any instances in which Linton lost consciousness due to seizures, seizures, syncope or other medical conditions, the documents show.
Prosecutors say existing medical records depict violent and aggressive behavior in past mental health incidents and show that as early as May 2019, Linton “admitted to her refusal to take her prescribed medication.”
Prosecutors said Linton’s statements to officers after the crash contradicted her claim that she had no recollection of the events that led to the crash.
“[Linton’s] The insight into the circumstances of the crash was very accurate and consistent with the evidence of her driving behavior,” the document said.
She said she was stressed by work and a problem with one of her sisters, and she had not slept for four days before the crash, prosecutors said.
“The defendant believes that the cause of her collision was her fatigue,” according to the document. “During a prison phone call with her sister… a few days later, [Linton] Acknowledging that she wasn’t supposed to be at work on the day of the crash, saying, “Five people died because of me.”
Linton’s attorney could not be reached for comment Friday night.