Not guilty plea entered in deadly Windsor Hills crash

A nurse has pleaded not guilty to murder and vehicular manslaughter charges stemming from a high-speed, fiery crash at a Windsor Hills intersection that killed six people, including an unborn baby, in the Windsor Hills area just over two years ago.

Nicole Lorraine Linton, now 39, remains jailed without bail 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 following a hearing that included about 10 days of testimony and two days of arguments from attorneys. Investigators determined that Linton’s black Mercedes-Benz was traveling at 130 mph at the time of the crash, which occurred after the vehicle went through a red light. The collision and its fiery aftermath were caught on surveillance videotape from a nearby business.

Those killed in the crash included 23-year-old Asherey Ryan of Los Angeles, who relatives said was 8 1/2 months pregnant, along with her unborn child, who was to be named Armani Lester, 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 Castaneda testified was split “in half.”

Nathesia Lewis, 43, and her friend, 38-year-old Lynette Noble, who were in a Nissan, were also killed.

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

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

The defense lawyer called the deaths “horrible and tragic,” but said that “does not mean this is murder.”

Deputy District Attorney Brittany Vannoy countered that it was “beyond question” that Linton caused the deaths, citing a driving pattern that was dangerous to human life.
The prosecutor called Linton a “ticking time bomb,” saying that she got behind the wheel of her car even though she was “well aware of her triggers,” including stress and a lack of sleep, based on her prior conduct that included jumping on a Houston police officer’s patrol car in 2018. She had stopped taking her medications before beginning work as a travel nurse, the prosecutor said.

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

The judge noted that evidence involving Linton’s prior incidents involved her anger turning into aggression, saying that she left a luncheon at Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center the day of the crash while she was “stressed” and “having all these symptoms that trigger her anger.”