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LOS ANGELES — A nurse is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 16 on homicide prices stemming from a high-speed, fiery crash at a Windsor Hills intersection in 2022 that killed six folks, together with an unborn child.
Los Angeles County Superior Court docket Choose Eleanor J. Hunter Aug. 2 rejected the protection’s request to dismiss homicide and vehicular manslaughter prices in opposition to Nicole Lorraine Linton or to interchange these counts with misdemeanor prices and ordered her to face trial on the homicide prices.
The decide additionally turned down the protection’s bid for bail to be set for the 39-year-old lady, saying she believes Linton is a “hazard to the neighborhood.”
Linton has remained jailed since her arrest shortly after the Aug. 4, 2022, crash.
The decide’s ruling adopted a preliminary listening to that included about 10 days of testimony and two days of arguments from the attorneys.
A lot of the listening to centered on Linton’s historical past of wierd conduct within the years main as much as the crash, together with web searches, which the decide famous have been “stuffed with questions on suicide” and searches involving “Are you able to see your loss of life coming?” and “Why do I really feel loss of life is close to?” three days earlier than the collision.
Linton is charged with six counts of homicide and 5 counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence involving the crash on the intersection of La Brea and Slauson avenues.
Investigators decided Linton’s black Mercedes-Benz was touring at 130 miles and hour on the time of the crash, which occurred after the car went by way of a pink mild. The collision and its fiery aftermath have been caught on surveillance videotape from a close-by enterprise.
One in every of Linton’s attorneys, Caleb Mason, argued that the technical knowledge — together with the opinion of a neurologist who subsequently examined her on the protection’s request — was constant together with his shopper experiencing a seizure alongside the stretch of street main as much as the intersection.
These killed within the crash included 23-year-old Asherey Ryan of Los Angeles, who family members stated was 8 1/2 months pregnant, alongside along with her unborn little one, who was to be named Armani Lester, her 11-month-old son Alonzo Quintero and her 24-year-old boyfriend, Reynold Lester of Los Angeles, who have been in a Jaguar that California Freeway Patrol Investigator Hector Castaneda testified was break up “in half.”
Nathesia Lewis, 43, and her buddy, 38-year-old Lynette Noble, who have been in a Nissan, additionally have been killed.
9 different folks, together with Linton, have been injured, with a complete of 9 automobiles concerned within the collision and its aftermath.
The CHP investigator testified that knowledge from Linton’s Mercedes-Benz confirmed the car was touring at 122 mph 5 seconds earlier than the crash and had reached 130 mph on the time of influence, with the accelerator depressed for the complete 5 seconds earlier than the collision.
CHP Officer Jeffrey Crain testified there have been a number of curves alongside La Brea Avenue during which a driver must steer to keep up their place on the street, and stated investigators obtained surveillance movies from a enterprise that confirmed a car per Linton’s 2018 Mercedes-Benz seem like rushing up, saying that he estimated the preliminary velocity at 55 mph at that time lower than 20 seconds earlier than the crash after which 64 mph. He stated it took the car 17 seconds to journey a half-mile — one thing that ought to have taken about 40 seconds in a forty five mph zone.Crain famous the sunshine was pink for about 15 seconds earlier than the crash.
“It’s graphic,” he stated of a redacted photograph taken of the collision scene.
Linton’s legal professional advised the decide his shopper didn’t have a psychological state per homicide, saying the overwhelming majority of her web searches have been achieved years earlier than the crash.
The protection lawyer known as the deaths “horrible and tragic,” however stated that “doesn’t imply that is homicide.”
Deputy District Lawyer Brittany Vannoy countered saying it was “past query” Linton prompted the deaths, citing a driving sample that was harmful to human life.
The prosecutor known as Linton a “ticking time bomb,” saying she bought behind the wheel of her automobile regardless that she was “nicely conscious of her triggers,” together with lack of sleep and stress, primarily based on her prior conduct that included leaping on a Houston police officer’s patrol automobile in 2018. She had stopped taking her drugs earlier than starting work as a journey nurse, the prosecutor stated.
Linton’s on-line searches about “loss of life being close to” have been proof she was “actively contemplating the act of suicide,” Vannoy stated.
The decide famous proof involving Linton’s prior incidents concerned her anger turning into aggression, saying she left a luncheon at Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Middle the day of the crash whereas she was “careworn” and “having all these signs that set off her anger.”
Hunter stated the defendant knew she was present process EEG testing urged after the crash by docs to find out if she suffered from seizures, and that she had “sure actions and gestures” whereas being triggered in the course of the testing however the uncooked knowledge indicated there was “no seizure.”
“I don’t know if that’s malingering, however an argument can definitely be made for that,” the decide stated, noting the defendant had acknowledged mendacity in different cases.
Linton burst into tears in the course of the second day of the listening to when a witness described seeing a “massive black cloud in entrance of me” after listening to what “seemed like a bomb or one thing of that nature” and seeing what “seemed like one thing out of these apocalyptic films.”
Linton once more broke down in tears when prosecutors confirmed a photograph with a plume of smoke rising from the collision scene. The decide warned her, “I simply don’t need any person in right here crying. … We’ll give her a second to compose herself.”
When the listening to resumed minutes later, Linton stored her head down as prosecutors performed the dramatic surveillance video exhibiting the crash.
Isabel Schrama, an EMT who stumbled on the crash as she and her accomplice have been on their approach to one other name, testified that she rode within the ambulance with Linton as she was being taken to the hospital and a paramedic stated there have been “a number of different vehicles and there have been folks lifeless.”
“She requested, ‘Did I kill folks? Did I damage folks?’” Schrama testified, including the defendant was sort of “freaking out” and appeared “actually involved,” however was ultimately capable of present her personal title and date of start.
Paramedic Richard Jimenez, who responded to the crash scene, described Linton as having an “altered psychological standing,” however stated she might ultimately bear in mind her title and age, however not how the crash occurred.
Vannoy requested the paramedic, “You noticed different victims that have been past saving?”
“Right,” the paramedic responded.
Dr. Kristen Lee, a resident in psychiatry who met twice with Linton at a hospital after the crash, stated Linton advised her she remembered crying whereas she was driving, however was uncertain why. She stated the defendant denied any suicidal or homicidal ideations, had two prior “psych” hospitalizations and a previous historical past of bipolar dysfunction.
She stated she later was summoned again to talk to Linton, who stated, “I’m a killer. I’m a assassin. The cop simply advised me I killed all these folks.” She stated Linton described what occurred as a “nightmare, and that she simply needed to get up.”
On an internet site supporting Linton, one in every of her sisters, Camille, wrote that the crash “didn’t occur on goal, however was a tragic accident.”
“She is somebody who we love dearly and proper now, so many individuals see her as this monster and a assassin, when she is among the most compassionate and caring those who we all know.”
A yr after the crash, county Supervisor Holly Mitchell and relations of the crash victims gathered on the intersection of La Brea and Slauson to dedicate the Slauson Six Memorial Bench and Group Backyard. The memorial was positioned on land donated by house owners of the fuel station on the nook the place the crash occurred.
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