LOS ANGELES (CNS) — A nurse has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and vehicular manslaughter stemming from a high-speed accident, Fire accident at Windsor Hills intersection that killed six people, including an unborn baby, just over two years ago.

Nicole Lorraine Linton, now 39, remains jailed without bond in connection with the Aug. 4, 2022 crash at the intersection of La Brea and Slauson avenues.

She was ordered to stand trial Aug. 2 on six counts of murder and five counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence after a hearing that included about 10 days of testimony and two days of attorney arguments.

Much of that hearing focused on Linton’s history of strange behavior in the years before the crash, including Internet searches that the judge said were “full of questions about suicide” and searches that included “Can you see it coming?” your death?” and “Why do I feel like death is near?” three days before the collision.

Investigators determined that Linton’s black Mercedes-Benz was traveling 130 mph at the time of the crash, which occurred after the vehicle ran a red light. The collision and ensuing fire were captured on surveillance video tape from a nearby business.

One of Linton’s former attorneys, Caleb Mason, argued earlier this year that the technical data, along with the opinion of a neurologist who later examined her at the defense’s request, was consistent with his client experiencing a seizure in the brain. section of road leading to the intersection.

Among those killed in the crash was 23-year-old Asherey Ryan of Los Angeles, who family members said was 8 1/2 months pregnant, along with her unborn child, who would be named Armani Lester, and her 11-month-old son Alonzo. . Quintero and her 24-year-old boyfriend, Reynold Lester of Los Angeles, who were in a Jaguar that California Highway Patrol investigator Hector Castañeda testified was split “in half.”

Also killed were Nathesia Lewis, 43, and her friend Lynette Noble, 38, who were in a Nissan.

Nine other people, including Linton, were injured and a total of nine vehicles were involved in the collision and its aftermath.

The CHP investigator testified that data from Linton’s Mercedes-Benz showed the vehicle was traveling at 122 mph five seconds before the crash and had reached 130 mph at the time of impact, with the accelerator depressed for the full five seconds before the crash. collision.

CHP Patrol Officer Jeffrey Crain testified that there were multiple curves along La Brea where a driver would have to turn to maintain their position on the road, and said investigators obtained surveillance video from a company that They showed a vehicle compatible with Linton’s 2018 Mercedes-Benz. appear to be accelerating, saying he estimated the initial speed at 55 mph at that point less than 20 seconds before the crash and then at 64 mph. He said it took the vehicle 17 seconds to go half a mile, something that should have taken about 40 seconds in a 45 mph zone.

Crain noted that the light was red for about 15 seconds before the accident.

“It’s graphic,” he said of a redacted photograph taken of the collision scene.

Mason told Superior Court Judge Eleanor J. Hunter earlier this year that his client did not have a mental state consistent with murder, and said the vast majority of his Internet searches were conducted years before the accident.

The defense attorney called the deaths “horrible and tragic” but said “it doesn’t mean it’s a murder.”

Deputy District Attorney Brittany Vannoy responded that it was “beyond a doubt” that Linton caused the deaths, citing a driving pattern that was dangerous to human life.

The prosecutor called Linton a “time bomb,” saying he got behind the wheel of his car even though he was “well aware of his triggers,” including stress and lack of sleep, based on his past behavior that included jumping on a Houston police officer’s patrol car in 2018. She had stopped taking her medications before starting work as a travel nurse, the prosecutor said.

Linton’s online searches for “death is near” were evidence that she was “actively considering the act of suicide,” Vannoy said.

The judge noted that evidence involving Linton’s previous incidents involved her anger turning into aggression, saying she left a lunch at Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center on the day of the accident while “stressed” and “had all these symptoms that trigger your anger.”

Hunter said the defendant knew she was undergoing an EEG test suggested after the accident by doctors to determine if she was having seizures, and that she had “certain movements and gestures” while being activated during the test, but that the raw data They indicated that there were “no seizures.”

“I don’t know if it’s a simulation, but you can certainly argue for it,” the judge said, noting that the defendant had acknowledged lying in other cases.

Linton broke down in tears during the second day of that hearing when a witness described seeing a “big black cloud in front of me” after hearing what “sounded like a bomb or something like that” and seeing what “looked like something out of one of those apocalyptic movies.”

Linton broke down crying again when prosecutors showed a photograph of a plume of smoke rising from the scene of the collision. The judge warned him: “I just don’t want anyone here crying… We’ll give you a second to compose yourself.” When the hearing resumed minutes later, Linton kept his head bowed as prosecutors played dramatic surveillance video showing the crash.

Isabel Schrama, a paramedic who learned about the accident while she and her partner were on their way to another call, testified that she was riding in the ambulance with Linton as she was taken to the hospital and that a paramedic said there were “a lot of other people.” “There were cars and there were dead people.”

“She asked: Did I kill people? Did I hurt people?” Schrama testified, adding that the defendant was a little “scared” and seemed “really worried,” but was eventually able to provide her own name and date of birth.

Paramedic Richard Jimenez, who responded to the accident scene, described Linton as having an “altered mental state” but said he could eventually remember his name and age, but not how the accident occurred.

The prosecutor asked the paramedic: “Did you see other victims who couldn’t be saved?”

“Correct,” the paramedic responded.

Dr. Kristen Lee, a psychiatry resident who met with Linton twice at a hospital after the accident, said Linton told her she remembered crying while driving, but she wasn’t sure why. He said the defendant denied any suicidal or homicidal ideation, had two previous “psychological” hospitalizations and a history of bipolar disorder.

She said she was later called to speak to Linton, who said, “I’m a murderer. I’m a murderer. The cop just told me I killed all these people.” He said Linton described what happened as a “nightmare and that she just wanted to wake up.”

On a website supporting Linton, one of his sisters, Camille, wrote that the accident “did not happen on purpose, but was a tragic accident.”

“She is someone we love very much and right now a lot of people see her as a monster and a murderer, when she is one of the most compassionate and caring people we know.”