Nurse denied bail for LA crash that killed six people, including pregnant woman and her unborn baby

A judge today denied bail for a nurse accused of causing a horrific car crash in Los Angeles that killed six people – including a pregnant woman and her infant child – after hearing that she was speeding at 130 mph, not 90 mph as originally thought.

‘She stole six innocent lives,’ Judge Victoria Wilson said of Nicole Linton, 37, who has been in jail since the fiery pileup on August 4 when she drove a Mercedes-Benz that ran a red-light and slammed into other cars at a busy intersection.

‘She acted with complete disregard for life,’ the judge added, telling LA‘s downtown criminal court that the victims of the crash were either burned or crushed to death.

Linton’s lawyers have argued that she is bipolar, suffered ‘an apparent lack of consciousness’ before the pileup and should be granted bail so that she can be sent to a mental health facility for treatment.

But Judge Wilson dismissed her claim, saying, ‘She had complete control over her manouvers and steering before the crash.

‘The defendant floored the gas pedal of her car…..she did not try to stop or slow down….before she plowed into the other cars.’

Noting Linton’s history of mental health issues and her admission to police that she had stopped taking prescribed medication, Judge Wilson said that her ‘conduct has been escalating in dangerousness.’

The judge called the defense’s request to grant Linton bail and send her to a mental health facility, ‘not viable’ and added, ‘I would have no confidence that she would not walk out and be a danger to the public.’

Linton is facing up to 90 years in jail if convicted of the six murders she’s charged with.

‘This is a strong incentive to flee,’ Judge Wilson told the court today, ‘The defendant will be held with no bail.’

The judge’s decision to deny bail and grant the prosecution’s motion to keep Linton in jail till her trial, drew applause from about 20 of the victims’ family members in court today, some of them wearing purple T-shirts bearing the words ‘Justice for Asherey Ryan’, the eight-months-pregnant woman killed in the tragedy.

Linton is charged with six counts of murder and five of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence. One of the murder charges was filed for Asherey’s unborn son.

Linton appeared at today’s hearing wearing gray prison overalls after hobbling on one crutch to a chair because of the broken foot plus broken wrist she reportedly suffered in the accident.

Deputy District Attorney Antonella Nistorescu told the court that while Linton’s speed at the time of the crash was originally estimated to be 90mph, ‘further an analysis reveals that her speed at impact was in fact 130mph and that she floored the gas pedal for at least the five seconds leading into the crash, going from 122 mph to 130 mph.’

She maintained that video cameras near the crash site and recorded data from the Mercedes show that Linton ‘was steering with incredible precision’ as her care barreled toward the crowded intersection.

‘This NASCAR-worthy performance flies in the face of the notion that she was unconscious or incapacitated,’Nistorescu added in a new written declaration opposing bail.

Linton’s lawyers’ claims that she wasn’t conscious of what she was doing at the time of the collision have been backed up by UCLA Doctor William Winter who examined Linton two days after the devastating accident and said in a written statement that she had ‘an apparent lack of consciousness’ at the time of the crash.

‘She has no recollection of the events that led to her collision,’ added Dr. Winter. ‘The next thing she recalled was lying on the pavement and seeing that her car was on fire.’ 

But prosecutors contradicted Linton’s claims she couldn’t remember, saying that in statements to cops after the crash, her ‘insight into the circumstances of the crash is incredibly accurate and consistent with the evidence of her driving conduct.’

Nistorescu said at a previous hearing that the DA has been investigating Linton’s ‘prior mental health episodes’ and reports that she had been prescribed medication for her mental problems but she had ‘voluntarily ceased taking it.’

And in the prosecutor’s new filing, she said there are records of three previous speeding violations and two crashes that Linton had caused by ‘exhibiting an ongoing disregard for the safety of others on the road.

‘In an attempt to paint what we now know was a horrific conscious act as an accident, the defense has conflated the possibility of the defendant suffering a mental health episode prior to the crash with the now defunct notion of a loss of consciousness at the time of the crash.’

Linton’s attorney, Halim Dhanidina argued that keeping Linton in jail would mean that she couldn’t get treatment for her mental issues and other health problems she suffers, including epilepsy.

And he asked Judge Wilson court to release her to a ‘secure treatment setting’ at a psychiatric care facility at UCLA where her ‘manic episodes’ could be treated and she would ‘follow all the directions of doctors and wear an ankle monitor.

‘She would not be able to just come and go as she pleases. To suggest that Miss Linton could somehow break out of a secure hospital it’s not supported by her position.’

When Dhanidina insisted in court today that ‘We all know that this is mental health related,’ Nistorescu countered, saying that even if Linton was definitively diagnosed with mental illness in the future, ‘that doesn’t make her any less dangerous now.’

And she called the defense’s claim that Linton couldn’t get mental health care in jail ‘false.’

‘She can get psychiatric care while in custody,’ said Nistorescu who added that Linton could be transported from jail to a mental health facility for treatment, then taken back to jail afterward.

Prosecutors have also argued that Linton could be a flight risk since she has ties with people outside California and her mother lives in Jamaica.

The horrendous crash – which happened at a congested intersection in Windsor Hills, about 10 miles southwest of downtown LA – killed 23-year-old Ryan, her 11-month-old son Alonzo Luchiano Quintero and her boyfriend, security guard Reynold Lester, 24, father of Ryan’s unborn child.

Family members said that the three were on their way to a doctor’s appointment for a prenatal exam for Ryan when disaster struck. Their car was split in half in the impact of the high-speed collision which was caught on video by nearby surveillance cameras..

One murder charge — but not an additional charge of vehicular manslaughter — was filed for the fetus, who was identified by the coroner’s office as Armani Lester and listed as born on the same day he died.

The two other victims of the horrendous crash were Lynette Noble, 38, and Nathesia Lewis, 42 – reportedly the mother of seven children.

They were driving together when their car was hit and instantly burst into flames.

At first their bodies couldn’t be identified because of severe trauma and it wasn’t till some time later that they could be ID’d from personal belongings and documents found in their burnt-out car.

While Linton’s lawyer, Dhanidina, has admitted that his client has an out-of-state history of ‘profound mental health issues’ that might be linked to the crash, he denied reports that have said Linton had at least 13 previous crashes — including a 2020 injury accident that totaled two cars — and knew the threat posed by her driving behavior.

‘It’s been reported extensively and it’s not true,’ Dhanidina insisted. ‘She does not have a dangerous driving history.’

LA County District Attorney George Gascón called a press conference after the crash where he declared that Linton – who’s being held at the Century Regional Detention Center, east of downtown – faces up to life in prison if convicted on all charges.

Gascón said Linton was traveling at speeds of at least 90mph when she sped through a red light and hit crossing vehicles at the crowded intersection of La Brea and Slauson Avenues.

‘A young family was destroyed in the blink of an eye,’ Gascón said. ‘There’s catastrophic damage to the families and friends of those killed and injured.

‘It’s not only a tremendous loss to their families, but to our entire community, who learned of this incredible tragedy, who watched the now viral video of the collision.’

Linton, who worked as a traveling ICU nurse, also worked in a strip club and had a history of threatening suicide following bad break-ups. She suffered mental health problems after her lover, Olympic athlete Germaine Mason, died in 2017.

She planned on marrying Mason – a silver medalist in the high jump at the 2008 Olympics – before he was killed in a motorcycle crash, DailyMail.com exclusively revealed.

‘When I saw what had happened in LA the first thing that went through my mind was that she had argued with her boyfriend and was drunk and trying to commit suicide,’ a source close to Linton said.

‘She had threatened to do it before. I thought maybe this time she had gone through with it.’

Linton’s arraignment is scheduled for October 26 when she’ll enter ‘not guilty’ or ‘guilty’ pleas to the 11 charges she’s facing.