A nurse pleaded not guilty on Thursday, Nov. 7, to murder and vehicular manslaughter charges stemming from a high-speed, fiery crash at an intersection in the Windsor Hills community in Los Angeles that killed six people, including an unborn baby, just more than two years ago.
Nicole Lorraine Linton, now 39, remained jailed without the possibility of bail in connection with the Aug. 4, 2022, crash at La Brea and Slauson avenues.
She was ordered to stand trial on six counts of murder and five counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence.
Much of the previous preliminary hearing focused on Linton’s history of odd conduct in the years leading up to the crash, including Internet searches that the judge noted were “filled with questions about suicide.”
Investigators determined that Linton’s black Mercedes-Benz was traveling at 130 mph at the time of the crash after she went through a red light.
One of Linton’s former attorneys, Caleb Mason, argued earlier this year that the technical data — along with the opinion of a neurologist who subsequently examined her at the defense’s request — was consistent with his client experiencing a seizure along the stretch of road leading up to the intersection.
Those killed were in two cars.
Nine other people, including Linton, were injured, with nine vehicles involved.
California Highway Patrol Officer Jeffrey Crain testified that there are multiple curves along La Brea where a driver must steer to maintain position on the road, and said investigators obtained surveillance videos. He noted that the light was red for about 15 seconds before the crash.
Mason told Superior Court Judge Eleanor J. Hunter earlier this year that his client didn’t have a mental state consistent with murder.
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