A traveling nurse who slammed her Mercedes into a crowded South Los Angeles intersection at 131 miles per hour was found guilty of murder Friday afternoon after jurors rejected an argument that she had a seizure while driving.
Several gasps and sobs erupted from some of the victims’ relatives as the verdict was read, and they later shared hugs with prosecutors and detectives in the courthouse hallway. A number of Linton’s relatives sat apart from them on a separate row of benches. The jury deliberated for only about three hours.
Prosecutors say Linton, 41, was furious with her co-workers and was considering quitting her job at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in West Los Angeles when she was driving on La Brea Avenue. Approaching a busy intersection on Slauson Boulevard, prosecutors say Linton “stepped down” on the gas pedal before crashing into several cars and causing a fiery crash.
The collision killed six people, including Nathesia Lewis, 42; Lynette Noble, 38; Asherey Ryan, 23; Ryan’s 11-month-old son Alonzo; and Ryan’s boyfriend, 23-year-old Reynold Lester. Ryan was more than eight months pregnant at the time and Linton was also convicted of murdering her fetus.
The consequences of the accident were nightmarish. The intersection was littered with burning car parts, traces of blood stained the asphalt, and black smoke filled the sky. The force of the collision ripped Ryan’s fetus from his womb and threw Alonzo’s car seat into the air, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors argued that Linton’s reckless driving was fueled by his refusal to address his mental health issues. She had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was involved in several documented incidents of violence and erratic driving even though she had stopped taking her medication, according to the Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney’s Office. Atty. Antonella Nistorescu.
In one alarming incident, Nistorescu said Linton allegedly slapped a woman and drove through red lights at speeds of 100 miles per hour while she was not taking her medication.
Linton had not taken his medication or slept for days before the accident, prosecutors said.
“The only person who could have prevented this is Nicole Linton,” Nistorescu said during her closing argument Thursday. “The only person who knew that when she got behind the wheel of her Mercedes, she was subject to the same stressors, exhibiting the same symptoms that had previously led her to engage in violent and aggressive actions that harmed others.”
Linton, who had tears in her eyes as she turned to her family after the verdict was read, faces life in prison at a sentencing hearing in December. His lawyer, Jovan Blacknell, was not immediately available for comment.
Linton’s defense team argued that prosecutors were trying to put her in prison for a tragic accident. A neurologist and psychiatrist who examined Linton weeks after the crash said she suffered a seizure in the moments before the crash and completely lost control of the vehicle. Blacknell also noted that prosecutors did not call any medical experts to testify whether the accident could be linked to bipolar disorder.
Holding a photo of an ultrasound of Ryan’s unborn child and signs reading “Slauson Six” — a neighborhood nickname for those killed in the crash — some relatives of the victims expressed frustration with Linton’s defense of seizure after the verdict.
“It wasn’t an accident. This was someone wanting to date herself and other people with her…we knew it wasn’t a medical crisis,” said Ryan’s sister, Shashanna Kerr.
Throughout the trial, Blacknell acknowledged the horrific nature of the accident, but reminded jurors that they could not decide his client’s fate based on his emotions.
“The results have been catastrophic. The images are visceral. And the loss of life has been horrific,” he said. “But as much as I want to acknowledge what happened and acknowledge the people who were injured, the people who died, these images don’t help you answer the question that you’re here to answer.”
Prosecutors accused Linton of lying about his seizures. She was never diagnosed with an underlying seizure disorder, such as epilepsy, and a medical test to induce a seizure in Linton after the crash showed no abnormal brain activity, prosecutors said.
During the test, Linton jerked and twitched, which prosecutors described as an attempt to fake a seizure.
Blacknell said no medical professional discovered that Linton was “faking” or attempting to fake a health problem for gain.
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