4 days earlier than a lady barreled right into a busy Windsor Hills intersection at greater than 100 mph, inflicting a lethal, fiery crash, prosecutors say, she searched on-line utilizing her telephone: “Why do I really feel like loss of life is close to?”
That very same day, they are saying, she additionally searched, “Are you able to see your dea[th] coming?”
These web searches had been a part of the proof offered by prosecutors Friday towards Nicole Linton, a touring nurse charged within the deaths of 5 individuals and a fetus after crashing by the intersection of La Brea and Slauson avenues on Aug. 4, 2022.
Linton’s psychological state, each earlier than and throughout the crash, performs a central position in her authorized proceedings. After a multi-day preliminary listening to that started final week, a decide is ready to determine whether or not there may be sufficient proof of a criminal offense to take the case to trial. The preliminary listening to is ready to proceed this week.
Linton’s household has stated she struggled with bipolar dysfunction since 2018, and a psychiatrist testified Thursday that Linton had twice been hospitalized on account of psychological points previous to the crash.
Nevertheless, Caleb Mason — Litton’s protection legal professional — argued in courtroom that she may have blacked out moments earlier than the crash, probably resulting from a seizure.
Linton’s protection attorneys have additionally raised questions on when she was taken into police custody, and whether or not statements she made after the crash needs to be admissible if she had not but been suggested of her Miranda rights.
Prosecutors allege that Linton sped down La Brea Avenue towards the busy intersection of Slauson Avenue simply after 1:30 p.m.
California Freeway Patrol Investigator Jeffrey Crain testified that Linton’s Mercedes-Benz reached the intersection at a velocity of 131 mph, putting a number of automobiles and sparking a hearth that was caught on surveillance video.
Killed within the collision had been Nathesia Lewis, 42; Lynette Noble, 38; 23-year-old Asherey Ryan, who was 8½ months pregnant on the time; Ryan’s 11-month-old son Alonzo Quintero; and her boyfriend, Reynold Lester.
Prosecutors on Friday confirmed pictures of the lethal crash, breaking the aftermath down frame-by-frame. As the photographs had been projected onto a display screen, relations of the victims started to cry within the courtroom.
Linton lowered her head to look away from the photographs, and wiped her face with tissues.
An EMT, a physician and a psychiatrist who handled Linton after the crash testified Thursday that the 39-year-old appeared confused, was unable to reply easy questions and repeatedly stated she couldn’t keep in mind the moments main as much as the crash.
EMT Isabel Schrama stated she tended to Linton, who was sitting on the curb and bleeding from her face and arm instantly after the crash.
Linton didn’t reply when requested repeatedly for her identify or start date and have become agitated, Schrama stated, when she heard a paramedic affirm that there had been a number of deaths within the crash.
“She requested, ‘Did I kill individuals? Did I damage individuals?’ After which she began to, I’d say, freak out,” Schrama stated.
Within the downtown Los Angeles courtroom, prosecutors offered textual content messages, emails, on-line searches and paperwork discovered on Linton’s laptop going again years. In previous years she had researched suicide strategies in addition to suicide charges for nurses.
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One doc — created in April 2020 and located on her laptop computer — was titled “Bitter F*****g Nurse” and referenced suicide, L.A. County Deputy Dist. Atty. Brittany Vannoy instructed the courtroom.
Prosecutors stated a number of different worrisome searches had been discovered on Linton’s laptop within the weeks main as much as the crash, together with on June 18, 2022: “Why do I cry so simply recently?”
On Might 8, 2022, prosecutors say, Linton searched, “Can’t eat or sleep resulting from nervousness” and, “When somebody says they don’t need to die hours earlier than they cross away.”
In keeping with Dr. Kristen Lee, a psychiatrist at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Middle, Linton had been prescribed lithium and lorazepam after being identified with bipolar dysfunction, however admitted she had not taken medicine for years.
Mason, Linton’s legal professional, questioned whether or not medical checks taken on the hospital after the crash might have detected proof of seizures, and if the medicine she obtained, together with fentanyl, might have affected her psychological state.
Dr. Michael Levine, who attended to Linton after the crash, stated that he didn’t imagine the medicine would have an effect on her psychological state and that the checks on the time didn’t present proof of seizures.
At a hospital the day after the crash, Linton stated that she didn’t keep in mind how the crash occurred however that she had left a piece potluck and was upset at her coworkers, Lee testified.
“She talked about that she didn’t like [her coworkers] very a lot and so they weren’t very good to her, both,” Lee stated.
Linton stated she recalled leaving the potluck and calling her sister throughout the drive however didn’t keep in mind the crash itself, Lee testified.
Lee stated Linton instructed her the day of the crash: “The cop simply instructed me that I killed all these individuals.”
Lee added, “She stated that it was a nightmare, and she or he simply needed to get up.”
