The crash killed 23-year-old pregnant mother Asherey Ryan, her infant son Alonzo, 24-year-old Reynold Lester, 38-year-old Lynette Noble, and 43-year-old Nathesia Lewis
Nicole Linton appears in Los Angeles Superior Court for arraignment on murder charges stemming from a traffic accident, in Los Angeles. Linton, suspected of causing a fiery crash that killed five people and an 8 1/2-month-old fetus near Los Angeles, has been charged with murder, as well as vehicular manslaughter, and is being held on $9 million bail.
Nicole Linton, the nurse who was charged with murder for her alleged involvement in a fiery crash that killed five in Los Angeles in August, was allegedly driving 130 mph at the time of the collision, prosecutors said.
In a motion filed last Friday by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, prosecutors said it was originally believed that Linton zoomed through the busy intersection on Aug. 4 at approximately 90 mph, but “further analysis reveals that her speed at impact was in fact 130 mph and that she floored the gas pedal for at least the five seconds leading into the crash, going from 122 mph to 130 mph.”
Prosecutors said analysis of her vehicle’s recorded data and surveillance footage of her driving showed that Linton allegedly “had complete control over steering, maintaining the tilt of the steering wheel to keep her car traveling directly toward the crowded intersection.”
“This NASCAR-worthy performance flies in the face of the notion that she was unconscious or incapacitated,” states the motion, which was obtained.
Authorities say Linton was driving a gray Mercedes-Benz when she ran a red light near a gas station in the Windsor Hills neighborhood in Los Angeles and crashed into at least six vehicles.
The crash killed 23-year-old pregnant mother Asherey Ryan, her infant son Alonzo, 24-year-old Reynold Lester, 38-year-old Lynette Noble, and 43-year-old Nathesia Lewis.
Five other people were treated and released for minor injuries.
Attorneys for the 37-year-old nurse said in court documents filed last month and obtained by the Los Angeles Times that she might have lost consciousness moments before the deadly crash — a claim prosecutor’s disputed in the new motion.
While treating Linton at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Dr. William Winter wrote she reportedly did not remember the events leading up to the crash, per the Times.
“She has no recollection of the events that led to her collision,” he wrote, according to the paper. “The next thing she recalled was lying on the pavement and seeing that her car was on fire.”
Winter also noted Linton had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder four years prior, in addition to her “lapse of consciousness” at the time of the collision.
According to the Times, Linton’s family corroborated her 4-year mental health struggle.
Her sister Camille Linton wrote in a letter to the court that while studying to be a nurse anesthetist at the University of Texas in Houston, “the stress was too much for her and it ‘broke’ her, thus beginning the journey of Nicole’s four-year struggle with mental illness,” the outlet reports.
More than a year later, she was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric ward after a neighbor reportedly saw her running naked around her apartment complex, according to the court documents, per the outlet.
Linton’s lawyers stated that on the day of the crash, she left the hospital where she worked during her lunch break and FaceTimed her sister while naked, per the paper. She then returned to work only to leave again.
In the prosecutors’ motion, prosecutors said Linton told CHP officers in an interview that she had not slept four days prior to the crash and “opined that the cause of her collision was her fatigue.”
“In jail calls with her sister Kim days after, Defendant acknowledged that she should not have gone to work on the day of the crash, stating, ‘five people are dead because of me,’” according to the motion.
Prosecutors have opposed Linton’s bid for pretrial release and have also opposed granting bail to her, stating she “remains a danger to the public.”
Linton was charged with six counts of murder and five counts of gross vehicular manslaughter.
Her attorneys could not be reached for comment.
