Nurse suffered mental collapse in days before L.A. crash

The nurse struggling with murder rates for allegedly slamming her Mercedes-Benz into traffic this month in Windsor Hills was in the throes of a “frightening” psychological well being crisis in the times, several hours and minutes prior to the crash, new court docket data submitted by her lawyers display.

The revelations came in a complete filing by Nicole Linton’s defense attorneys that presents the most detailed narrative nonetheless of the functions primary up to the horrific crash that killed five men and women and an unborn little one.

The movement and attachments, acquired by The Occasions, element the nurse’s 4-calendar year battle with bipolar dysfunction and include things like a willpower by health professionals in the speedy aftermath of the lethal incident that Linton endured an “apparent lapse of consciousness” at the time of the crash.

Linton is accused of speeding her sedan down La Brea Avenue toward the fast paced intersection at Slauson Avenue soon after 1:30 p.m. on Aug. 4. Authorities say she was heading close to 90 mph when she barreled via a light that had been red for nine seconds and slammed into passing site visitors.

The fiery crash killed five, like a pregnant female and a infant. The Los Angeles district attorney billed Linton with 6 counts of murder, like the expecting woman’s unborn baby.

Linton has been held in jail because the crash, with prosecutors alleging she is a flight risk and a hazard to the group. They said in a submitting that Linton was suffering from deteriorating psychological well being problems in advance of the crash.

“She has no recollection of the situations that led to her collision,” wrote doctor William Winter season on Aug. 6. Wintertime handled Linton at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Clinical Center.

“The following thing she recalled was lying on the pavement and observing that her vehicle was on fireplace,” he wrote.

Winter wrote that Linton has bipolar problem and suffered an “apparent lapse of consciousness” at the time of the crash, according to the seriously redacted health care documents.

Linton’s family members grew to become mindful of her mental wellness concerns in Might 2018 when she was a nursing student at the University of Texas in Houston, her attorneys wrote. Her sister Camille Linton explained in a letter to the courtroom that Nicole’s reports to be a nurse anesthetist induced her to start with psychological wellbeing breakdown.

“The anxiety was far too a great deal for her and it ‘broke’ her,” Camille Linton wrote. “Thus starting the journey of Nicole’s 4-12 months struggle with mental disease.”

She ran out of her condominium in Might 2018 through a stress assault, and when law enforcement approached her, she jumped on a law enforcement automobile and was arrested for disorderly conduct, her attorneys wrote.

Linton called her family members from the law enforcement station and was anxious about the nicely-staying of her pet turtle, in accordance to her lawyers.

A couple of days soon after that arrest, Linton advised her family members that she thought she was possessed by her dead grandmother.

The subsequent day, at Ben Taub psychiatric hospital, Linton needed stitches on her forehead soon after she banged her head into a glass partition whilst ranting about the police and Supreme Courtroom, the legal professionals wrote. She sang Bob Marley as the health care staff addressed her wound, the documents say.

It was at Ben Taub that she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and recommended psychiatric medication, the defense movement claims.

Extra than a yr later, Linton was involuntarily fully commited to a psychiatric ward immediately after a neighbor referred to as her spouse and children after seeing Linton working close to her condominium elaborate bare, the lawyers mentioned.

Linton’s psychological well being deteriorated further more following she stopped using her psychiatric treatment in the course of the pandemic. Her lawyers claimed an online therapist instructed her she just suffered from panic.

Linton commenced acting strangely, not sleeping and becoming obsessive about cleaning. She ranted at family customers and accused them of thieving from her, her attorneys claimed.

“In the times and several hours main up to the occasions of August 4, Nicole’s actions grew to become more and more terrifying,” wrote her lawyers.

Linton was in call with a single of her sisters, and held telling her that her coworkers at the West Los Angeles Medical Heart had been “acting strange,” her attorneys stated.

The working day of the crash, Linton drove house from the clinic for lunch and FaceTimed her sister fully bare, according to the court papers.

She then went again to perform, and called her sister again at 1:24 p.m. expressing she was leaving work all over again, just minutes in advance of the crash.

“She explained to her sister that she was traveling out to meet her in Houston the upcoming day so she could do her niece’s hair. She also mentioned that she would be obtaining married and that her sister must fulfill her at the altar,” the legal professionals wrote.

Although the extent of Linton’s injuries from the crash were being not involved in the report, Winter stated “fractures” and Linton’s legal professionals claimed that the traveling nurse is working with a wheelchair to move close to jail.

“The health-related data are an aim impartial account of what happened right here,” Linton’s legal professional, Jacqueline Sparagna, informed The Periods.

But Linton’s attorneys argued that psychological wellbeing challenges and Linton’s “apparently bizarre” actions are no cause to preserve her locked up and that Linton should be released for testing at UCLA Resnick Neuropsychiatric Medical center. They explained she would put on an ankle keep track of or submit to any other conditions imposed by the court docket.

“Ms. Linton would be most appropriately housed in a psychological wellness remedy facility where by she can be monitored and taken care of for her illness,” wrote attorneys Halim Dhanidina and Jacqueline Sparagna in the filing Monday.

If not, Linton ought to be launched on no extra than $300,000 bail, the attorneys stated, adding that was all Linton could manage.

“The security and perfectly getting of the people of Los Angeles are our primary concern,” said Dist. Atty. George Gascón in a statement to The Situations. “Under my coverage, preventative detention can be asked for under a circumstance-unique evaluation to guard community security and to moderately make sure the defendant’s return to court.”

Linton is accused by the district lawyer of reckless disregard for lifetime in link with the multi-auto crash. She faces 5 manslaughter counts on top of the 6 murder counts.

“In an instant, Ms. Linton’s carry out took the lives of six individuals and injured a lot of other people,” Gascón claimed at a press conference days soon after the crash.

The crash brought about the fatalities of 23-calendar year-outdated Asherey Ryan her just about 1-12 months-outdated kid, Alonzo Quintero her boyfriend, Reynold Lester and their unborn kid. Ryan was 8½ months pregnant when she was killed. Also killed were pals Nathesia Lewis, 43, and Lynette Noble, 38.

“I already cried. I cried. I did not snooze a single little bit. I’m all cried out,” stated Sha’seana Kerr, Ryan’s sister, the day right after the crash. “We have to bury four persons.”

Linton’s legal professionals mentioned that blood tests confirmed their client had no narcotics or alcohol in her program besides for fentanyl that was offered to her just after the crash.

They also countered prosecutors’ arguments that Linton has a heritage of unsafe driving.

“A fifty-condition detailed search of insurance information reveals that Ms. Linton has no these kinds of historical past,” wrote Linton’s attorneys. “In point, Ms. Linton was decided to be at fault in only a few prior collisions, the most the latest of which developing in 2014.”

They bought backup in the letter of a relatives pal of Linton, a previous federal prosecutor in Washington D.C.

Prosecutors reported in their filing that Linton’s background of mental disease involved “jumping on police cars and trucks to jumping out of condominium home windows.” But the defense attorneys responded that the D.A.’s place of work unfairly pluralized “events occurring only at the time.”

And the apartment window Linton jumped out during a “manic episode” was on the 1st ground, according to Linton’s sister, who filed a declaration together with the defense’s bail argument.

The protection involved in its paperwork character letters from Linton’s relatives and pals.

Beverly Harrison, Linton’s mom, reported her daughter came to The usa from Jamaica when she was 10 and grew up with out her father. In excess of the previous two many years, her daughter expended her birthdays in Jamaica at her mother’s remote household in the mountainous region of Jamaica and took care of her.

“She is a Godly particular person who put her have confidence in in him,” Harrison wrote to the court docket. “She is a person that if she suggests or do anything she regrets, she will come again to say that she is sorry and question you for forgiveness. My sweet child I appreciate her but God enjoys her ideal.”

One particular of Linton’s other five siblings, Kimberly, mentioned her sister turned a traveling nurse all through the pandemic and wanted to start professional medical faculty future year to come to be a doctor.

“Nicole is about saving life and she normally has both empathy and sympathy for any lifestyle which is decline and the family no make any difference how many time a single can see that type of issue in that subject,” Kimberly Linton wrote.

Her brother, Donovan Dallas, who is the deputy superintendent of law enforcement in Saint Andrew North in Jamaica, thinks his sister did not deliberately trigger the crash. He questioned that she be unveiled into her family’s care.