Nurse’s automobile hit 130 mph in collision that killed 5 in L.A. County, prosecutors say

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 court docket 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 response to 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 affect.

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 threat.

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 Court docket 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 through the crash, and that her psychological well being had deteriorating lately.

The D.A.’s Friday submitting stated 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 automobile’s recorded information and surveillance video signifies Linton had “full management over steering … to maintain her automotive 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, stated it didn’t seem that she had fainted, handed out, or skilled a seizure, the doc states.

Linton protection legal professional, former California appeals court docket decide Halim Dhanidina, stated he would reply to prosecutors’ claims through the listening to Monday.

“We count on to name a number 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 stated by e-mail.

The D.A.’s workplace acknowledged Linton has claimed to have bipolar dysfunction. She admitted to experiencing signs in line with impairment earlier than the crash, however was not taking prescribed medicine that might have prevented the signs, in response to the doc.

Linton instructed investigators she had not slept for not less than 4 days earlier than the collision as a result of stress in her life brought on her to lose sleep, in response to prosecutors’ submitting. She stated avoiding her medicine led to insomnia, it acknowledged.

On Aug. 4, Linton stated she labored a 12-hour shift, and reported that her lack of sleep was catching as much as duties, together with giving sufferers medicine on time, in response to the Friday submitting.

The submitting states Linton “opined that the reason for her collision was her fatigue.”

In jail calls along with her sister, Linton “acknowledged that she mustn’t have gone to work on the day of the crash, stating, “5 persons are useless 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 not less than 3 times for rushing. Linton was additionally concerned in a automotive crash in 2008 in New York that resulted in “private damage and property injury,” in response to the doc.

The doc additionally detailed situations the place Linton displayed what prosecutors stated was “aggressive, violent” conduct.

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 stated she remembered driving straight and seeing a automotive go in entrance of her from left to proper, the doc states.

The very last thing she remembered was going straight earlier than she wakened on the bottom exterior her burning automotive, in response to the doc.

Safety footage confirmed the second Linton’s Mercedes-Benz plowed by way of a purple mild 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 way of the intersection, the paperwork state.

In an announcement Saturday, Kaiser Permanente stated Linton was employed by an entity known 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 stated.

Victims of the crash recognized by authorities and household embrace Ryan, 23; her 11-month-old son, Alonzo Quintero; and her boyfriend, Reynold Lester, 23.

Ryan’s fetus didn’t survive. Relations stated 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 pals recognized them to the Los Angeles Instances as Nathesia Lewis, 42, and Lynette Noble, 38. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner lists each ladies as having died Aug. 4.

An replace on the California Freeway Patrol investigation of the collision was not obtainable Saturday.