Nurse Pleads Not Guilty in Fiery Crash That Killed Six

A nurse pleaded not guilty Thursday to murder and vehicular manslaughter charges stemming from a high-speed, fiery crash at a Windsor Hills intersection that killed six people, including an unborn baby, in the Windsor Hills area 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 avenues.

She was ordered to stand trial Aug. 2 on six counts of murder and five counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence following a hearing that included about 10 days of testimony and two days of arguments from attorneys.

Much of that hearing focused on Linton's history of odd conduct in the years leading up to the crash, including Internet searches that the judge noted were "filled with questions about suicide" and searches involving "Can you see your death coming?" and "Why do I feel 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 went through a red light. The collision and its fiery aftermath were caught 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 experiencing a seizure along the stretch of road leading up to the intersection.

Those killed in the crash included 23-year-old Asherey Ryan of Los Angeles, who relatives said was 8 1/2 months pregnant, along with her unborn child, 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 were in a Jaguar that California Highway Patrol Investigator Hector Castaneda testified was 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, with a total of nine vehicles 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 122 mph five seconds before the crash and had reached 130 mph at the time of impact, with the accelerator depressed for the full five seconds before the collision.

CHP Patrol Officer Jeffrey Crain testified that there were multiple curves along La Brea in which a driver would have to steer to maintain their position on the road, and said investigators obtained surveillance videos from a business that showed a vehicle consistent with Linton's 2018 Mercedes-Benz appear to be speeding up, saying that he estimated the initial speed at 55 mph at that point less than 20 seconds before the crash and then 64 mph. He said it took the vehicle 17 seconds to travel a half-mile — something that should have taken about 40 seconds in a 45 mph zone.

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

"It's graphic," he said of a redacted photo taken of the collision scene.

Mason told Superior Court Judge Eleanor J. Hunter earlier this year that his client didn't have a mental state consistent with murder, saying that the vast majority of her Internet searches were done years before the crash.

The defense lawyer called the deaths "horrible and tragic," but said that "does not mean this is murder."

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

The prosecutor called Linton a "ticking time bomb," saying that she got behind the wheel of her car even though she was "well aware of her triggers," including stress and a lack of sleep, based on her prior conduct that included jumping on a Houston police officer's patrol car in 2018. She had stopped taking her medications before beginning work as a travel nurse, the prosecutor said.

Linton's online searches about "death being near" were evidence that she was "actively considering the act of suicide," Vannoy said.

The judge noted that evidence involving Linton's prior incidents involved her anger turning into aggression, saying that she left a luncheon at Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center the day of the crash while she was "stressed" and "having all these symptoms that trigger her anger."

Hunter said the defendant knew that she was undergoing EEG testing suggested after the crash by doctors to determine if she suffered from seizures, and that she had "certain movements and gestures" while being triggered during the testing but that the raw data indicated that there was "no seizure."

"I don't know if that's malingering, but an argument can certainly be made for that," the judge said, noting that the defendant had acknowledged lying in other instances.

Linton burst into tears during the second day of that hearing when a witness described seeing a "large black cloud in front of me" after hearing what "sounded like a bomb or something of that nature" and seeing what "looked like something out of those apocalyptic movies."

Linton again broke down in tears when prosecutors showed a photo with a plume of smoke rising from the collision scene. The judge warned her, "I just don't want somebody in here crying. ... We'll give her a second to compose herself." 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 came upon the crash as she and her partner were on her way to another call, testified that she rode in the ambulance with Linton as she was being taken to the hospital and that a paramedic said there were "multiple other cars and there were people dead."

"She asked, `Did I kill people? Did I hurt people?" Schrama testified, adding that the defendant was kind of "freaking out" 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 an "altered mental status," but said she could eventually remember her name and age, but not how the crash happened.

The prosecutor asked the paramedic, "You saw other victims that were beyond saving?"

"Correct," the paramedic responded.

Dr. Kristen Lee, a resident in psychiatry who met twice with Linton at a hospital after the crash, said Linton told her that she remembered crying while she was driving, but was unsure why. She said the defendant denied any suicidal or homicidal ideations, had two prior "psych" hospitalizations and a prior history of bipolar disorder.

She said she later was summoned back to speak to Linton, who said, "I'm a killer. I'm a murderer. The cop just told me I killed all these people." She said Linton described what happened as a "nightmare, and that 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 who we love dearly and right now, so many people see her as this monster and a murderer, when she is one of the most compassionate and caring people that we know."