A nurse accused of killing 5 in a horrific Los Angeles County collision “floored the gasoline pedal” to 130 mph simply earlier than the fiery August crash, prosecutors alleged in courtroom submitting Friday.
Knowledge from the Mercedes-Benz E-Class Coupe that Nicole Linton was driving present she accelerated within the 5 seconds earlier than the multi-vehicle Aug. 4 crash, going from 122 mph to 130 mph, in keeping with a movement filed by the Los Angeles County District Legal professional’s Workplace and obtained by NBC Los Angeles.
The doc, filed to oppose pretrial launch and bail for the 37-year-old touring nurse, additionally alleged that information confirmed she didn’t attempt to brake or decelerate earlier than influence.
The district legal professional’s workplace argued in Friday’s submitting that releasing Linton would current a hazard to the general public, and that she is a flight danger.
A listening to on the whether or not Linton could possibly be eligible to be launched earlier than trial is scheduled for Monday in an L.A. Superior Courtroom courtroom.
Linton, a Houston resident, has been charged with six counts of homicide and 5 counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence. One of many victims, Asherey Ryan, was pregnant.
Linton remained held with out bail, jail data present.
Linton’s protection argued in a earlier submitting reported on by the Los Angeles Instances that she had a lapse of consciousness in the course of the crash, and that her psychological well being had deteriorating in recent times.
The D.A.’s Friday submitting mentioned the protection’s declare of lack of consciousness shouldn’t be supported by the Mercedes’ digital information recorder or by obtainable medical data.
Evaluation of the car’s recorded information and surveillance video signifies Linton had “full management over steering … to maintain her automobile touring straight towards the crowded intersection,” the submitting acknowledged.
“This NASCAR-worthy efficiency flies within the face of the notion that she was unconscious or incapacitated,” the prosecution wrote within the doc.
Docs at UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Middle who handled Linton after the crash, mentioned it didn’t seem that she had fainted, handed out, or skilled a seizure, the doc states.
Linton protection legal professional, former California appeals courtroom choose Halim Dhanidina, mentioned he would reply to prosecutors’ claims in the course of the listening to Monday.
“We anticipate to name a couple of witnesses together with a psychiatrist who has met with Ms. Linton twice on the jail and has additionally reviewed related police and hospital data attendant to Aug. 4 and prior incidents,” he mentioned by e-mail.
The D.A.’s workplace acknowledged Linton has claimed to have bipolar dysfunction. She admitted to experiencing signs per impairment earlier than the crash, however was not taking prescribed remedy that might have prevented the signs, in keeping with the doc.
Linton informed investigators she had not slept for at the least 4 days earlier than the collision as a result of stress in her life triggered her to lose sleep, in keeping with prosecutors’ submitting. She mentioned avoiding her remedy led to insomnia, it acknowledged.
On Aug. 4, Linton mentioned she labored a 12-hour shift, and reported that her lack of sleep was catching as much as duties, together with giving sufferers remedy on time, in keeping with the Friday submitting.
The submitting states Linton “opined that the reason for her collision was her fatigue.”
In jail calls together with her sister, Linton “acknowledged that she mustn’t have gone to work on the day of the crash, stating, “5 persons are lifeless due to me,” the doc acknowledged.
Prosecutors identified a number of situations the place Linton had been concerned in prior crashes, the doc states.
Between 2008 and 2009, she was stopped at the least thrice for rushing. Linton was additionally concerned in a automobile crash in 2008 in New York that resulted in “private harm and property harm,” in keeping with the doc.
The doc additionally detailed situations the place Linton displayed what prosecutors mentioned was “aggressive, violent” habits.
In an interview with California Freeway Patrol officers, Linton recalled the moments earlier than the crash, together with what music she was listening to, and mentioned she remembered driving straight and seeing a automobile cross in entrance of her from left to proper, the doc states.
The very last thing she remembered was going straight earlier than she awoke on the bottom outdoors her burning automobile, in keeping with the doc.
Safety footage confirmed the second Linton’s Mercedes-Benz plowed by means of a crimson gentle in Windsor Hills, about 10 miles southwest of downtown L.A.
The video confirmed automobiles touring from left to proper in entrance of Linton not more than 9 seconds earlier than she drove by means of the intersection, the paperwork state.
In a press release Saturday, Kaiser Permanente mentioned Linton was employed by an entity referred to as AMN Healthcare and contracted to work at Kaiser Permanente on a short lived foundation. She was not touring for the corporate on the time of the crash, it mentioned.
Victims of the crash recognized by authorities and household embody Ryan, 23; her 11-month-old son, Alonzo Quintero; and her boyfriend, Reynold Lester, 23.
Ryan’s fetus didn’t survive. Members of the family mentioned Ryan and Lester had deliberate to call the kid Armani.
Officers haven’t publicly confirmed the names of the 2 different victims, however household and associates recognized them to the Los Angeles Instances as Nathesia Lewis, 42, and Lynette Noble, 38. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner lists each girls as having died Aug. 4.
An replace on the California Freeway Patrol investigation of the collision was not obtainable Saturday.
