Texas nurse facing murder charges has 'no recollection' of fiery LA crash, had 'mental collapse': motion

[Editor LA Times]

No excuse. Lock this bitch up. Let the lesbians have her.

Lawyers for the Texas traveling nurse held behind bars on six
counts of murder for a fiery Los Angeles wreck earlier this
month appealed for her to be released for psychiatric testing,
alleging in a new motion that the woman suffered a mental
collapse and may have blacked out before the deadly wreck.

Nicole Linton, a traveling nurse from Texas, is facing murder
charges after allegedly barreling a Mercedes-Benz at 90 mph
through an intersection in Los Angeles’ Windsor Hills section on
Aug. 4, sparking a fiery crash that killed six, including a
pregnant woman, her unborn child, her boyfriend, and the woman’s
11-month-old infant son.

In a new motion filed Tuesday, Linton’s defense attorneys
describe how she suffered a mental collapse before the crash.
The filing also describes Linton’s deteriorating mental state
after a bipolar disorder diagnosis four years ago.

In the aftermath of the crash, Linton was treated at the Ronald
Reagan UCLA Medical Center by Dr. William Winter, who wrote in
an Aug. 6 evaluation that she experienced an "apparent lapse of
consciousness" leading up to the wreck captured on disturbing
surveillance video.

"She has no recollection of the events that led to her
collision," Winter wrote in the evaluation including among other
heavily redacted medical records attached to the motion. "The
next thing she recalled was lying on the pavement and seeing
that her car was on fire."

The motion says Linton’s family first became aware of her mental
health issues in May 2018. A letter from Linton’s sister,
Camille Linton, said that Nicole experienced her first mental
breakdown while studying to become a nursing anesthetist at the
University of Texas in Houston.

"The stress was too much for her and it ‘broke’ her," Camille
Linton wrote. "Thus beginning the journey of Nicole’s 4-year
struggle with mental illness."

At the time of the crash, Nicole Linton had been working for
West Los Angeles Medical Center. She had expressed to her sister
that her co-workers were "acting weird" toward her.

"In the days and hours leading up to the events of August 4,
Nicole’s behavior became increasingly frightening," the motion
says.

The day of the crash, Linton came home from the hospital for
lunch and FaceTimed her sister "completely naked," according to
court documents.

She went back to work before leaving again and called her sister
just minutes before the crash to say she was coming back to
Houston to visit her niece and that she would be getting married
soon.

While experiencing a panic attack in May 2018, Nicole Linton ran
out of her apartment, and when police approached, she jumped on
the hood of the cop car and was arrested for disorderly conduct,
the motion says. She called her family from the police station
stating concern for her pet turtle at home.

Days after that arrest, she confessed to her family that she
believed she was possessed by her dead grandmother. The motion
says that she visited Ben Taub psychiatric hospital the next day
and required stitches after banging her head into a glass
partition and complaining about police and the Supreme Court.
Records note she sang Bob Marley as the medical staff tended to
the bloody wound.

The motions say Linton was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at
Ben Taub and prescribed psychiatric medication. More than a year
later, a neighbor spotted Linton running around her apartment
complex naked and called the woman’s family. She at that point
was involuntarily committed.

She stopped taking her medication during the pandemic, and an
online therapist told her that she merely suffered from anxiety.
She also began not sleeping and accused her family of stealing
from her.

The motion says Linton – charged with six counts of murder and
five counts of manslaughter – should be released on no more than
$300,000 bail with ankle monitoring to undergo testing at UCLA
Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital.

But prosecutors with Los Angeles County District Attorney George
Gascón’s office have maintained that Linton, who has family in
Jamaica, is a flight risk and a danger to public safety in
requesting that she remain behind bars while awaiting trial.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-nurse-facing-murder-charges-no-
recollection-fiery-la-crash-mental-collapse-motion

[Editor LA Times]

Lock this bitch up. Let the lesbians have her.

The nurse facing murder charges for the fiery Los Angeles crash
that killed five and an unborn child was in the midst of a
“frightening” mental health crisis and may have lost
consciousness at the time of the crash, according to court
documents filed Wednesday.

The filings describe Nicole Linton’s four-year struggle with
bipolar disorder and a determination by doctors that the nurse
had an “apparent lapse of consciousness” at the time of the
crash.

“Mental incapacitation and unconsciousness are, of course,
complete defenses to crimes under California law,” Linton’s
attorneys note.

The filings also revealed that a fully naked Linton FaceTimed
her sister during her lunch break, which she was driving back
from when she caused the deadly wreck.

Linton, a 37-year-old traveling nurse from Houston is accused of
traveling nearly 90 mph when the car she was driving blew
through a stoplight on Aug. 4 and struck at least five other
cars, setting at least three on fire.

Asherey Ryan, who was pregnant, died in the crash, as did her 11-
month-old son Allonzo, and her boyfriend Reynold Lester. The
family was reportedly heading to a prenatal checkup at the time
of the collision.

The filings do not go into great detail regarding Linton’s
struggles with bipolar disorder, save to dispute a prosecutorial
claim that she had a history of “jumping on police cars” and
“jumping out of windows.”

The defense argued each of these happened only once, and — with
an attached affidavit from Linton’s sister describing a 2019
manic episode — said the window in question was on the ground
floor.

Linton’s defense also pushed back on early reports that Linton
had had a long history of motor vehicle accidents and a claim by
prosecutors that Linton had totaled two cars in a 2020 crash.

Her attorneys Wednesday said those reports were false.

“A fifty-state comprehensive search of insurance records reveals
that Ms. Linton has no such history,” Linton’s lawyers wrote.
“In fact, Ms. Linton was determined to be at fault in only three
prior collisions, the most recent of which occurring in 2014.”

“As for the 2020 collision offered to the Court in support of
preventive detention, the claim against Ms. Linton was
effectively withdrawn, being settled for $0,” the attorneys
continued. “Photos of the damage to the so-called ‘totaled’
vehicles involved are not the least bit indicative of speeding
or reckless driving.”

The filing, in advance of an expected Wednesday hearing, seeks
to have Linton released to the custody of a mental health
facility.

Linton appeared in court on Wednesday but the judge decided to
continue the hearing to Sept. 12 to allow prosecutors time to
respond to Linton’s bail motion. The former nurse remains at the
Downtown Los Angeles Twin Towers Correctional Facility under a
“no bail” hold.

“Specifically, Ms. Linton would be most appropriately housed in
a mental health treatment facility where she can be monitored
and treated for her illness under conditions that would
significantly mitigate any risk to the public and the integrity
of the proceedings before the Court,” her attorneys wrote. “She
has no criminal record and no history of reckless driving,
harming others, or disobeying court orders.”

Additional reporting by Marjorie Hernandez

Comments:

Mo L
1 day ago

There are still photos online that captured the image of a
Mercedes just before it entered the intersection and crashed.
There is clearly something protruding out of and above the
driver's side window that looks like possibly a stick with
something on the end. How would that evidence square with "loss
of consciousness?"


BxIrishCath
1 day ago

If she had a known medical condition that causes loss of
consciousness she shouldn’t have been driving in the first
place. Her actions were preventable she needs to face the
consequences.

lenkD.
15 hours ago

Plus, how could she be let to work as nurse?


Gennie
3 hours ago

EXCATLY that makes no sense

https://nypost.com/2022/08/31/nicole-linton-may-have-lost-
consciousness-before-fatal-la-crash/

[Editor LA Times]

No excuse. Lock this bitch up. Let the lesbians have her.

The traveling nurse who is facing murder charges for allegedly
plowing through a Los Angeles intersection at 90 mph last week
reportedly had a history of acting erratically and threatening
suicide after breakups.

Prosecutors said that 37-year-old Nicole Linton had been in 13
wrecks, including one in 2020 that caused bodily injury, before
she allegedly sped through a red light on Aug. 4 in the Windsor
Hills neighborhood, igniting a fiery wreck and killing six
people.

Linton is now facing six counts of murder and five counts of
vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence.

Her attorney requested that her arraignment on Monday be
continued and said that Linton has "documented profound mental
health issues," according to the Los Angeles Times.

Linton was previously romantically involved with Germaine Mason,
an Olympic medal-winning track and field athlete from Jamaica
who died in a motorcycle crash in 2017, the Daily Mail reports.

"Nicole was different after that. She really loved that guy. She
said they’d spoken about marriage. I don’t think she’s ever got
over that," a friend told the news outlet.

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said Monday
that investigators are still looking into the crash, but as of
now, there was no evidence of drugs or alcohol in Linton's
system.

The wreck killed 23-year-old Asherey Ryan, who was eight-and-a-
half months pregnant and on her way to a prenatal checkup.
Ryan's 11-month-old son and her boyfriend were also killed.

Two other women who have not yet been identified were also
killed in the crash.

Linton reportedly worked at strip clubs in New York City before
becoming a nurse, with a friend describing her as volatile after
breakups.

"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 told the Daily Mail.

Linton reportedly worked as a traveling nurse in Texas for years
but had most recently been at Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles
Medical Center in California.

She was hospitalized at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center over
the weekend and was being held on $2 million bail, but that was
increased to $9 million when she was released from the hospital.

"This is a case that will always be remembered for the senseless
loss of so many innocent lives as they simply went about their
daily routines," Gascón said in a statement.

Linton's attorney declined to comment on Thursday.

Fox News's Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-nurse-facing-murder-charges-la-
crash-reportedly-volatile-breakups