California nurse Nicole Linton allegedly caused a high-speed crash that killed six people, including an eight-months-pregnant woman whose unborn child was expelled from her body and found in the roadway, prosecutors said.
Family members of the victims wept and left the courtroom during opening statements on Sept. 8 as prosecutors presented images from the 2022 collision, according to ABC7. Linton also cried during the proceedings, the New York Post reported.
“The defendant had plenty of time to stop, to brake, to swerve,” Deputy District Attorney Brittany Vannoy told jurors, according to the Los Angeles Times. “But instead she floored that gas pedal to 131 mph, ignored that red light, and barreled toward that intersection, killing six people.”
Linton faces six murder counts and has pleaded not guilty. Her defense attorneys maintain that she was suffering a mental health crisis before the crash and then experienced a seizure that caused her to lose control of the vehicle.
But a doctor who treated Linton after the collision previously testified that there was “no evidence of a neurological episode,” the Times reported.
Prosecutors say Linton, a traveling nurse from Texas, was driving her Mercedes-Benz through Windsor Hills on Aug. 4, 2022, when she accelerated to 131 mph and struck several vehicles.
The dead included Asherey Ryan, her 11-month-old son, Alonzo Quintero, Ryan’s boyfriend, Reynold Lester, and the couple’s unborn child, whom they intended to name Armani.
Ryan was eight months pregnant and on her way to a medical appointment. Her infant son was thrown from his car seat into a nearby parking lot, where a bystander found him.
“She went to go pick him up and realized his neck was broken and screamed, ‘The baby, the baby!’” Vannoy said, according to the Post. “She tries to perform CPR on Baby Alonzo but it was too late.”
Ryan’s unborn child was “ripped” from her womb in the impact, Vannoy said, according to the Post. ABC7 reported that the baby was found on the roadway with the umbilical cord still attached.
Two friends, Nathesia Lewis and Lynette Noble, who were traveling in another vehicle, also died in the crash.
Linton suffered little physical injury, but first responders said she appeared confused at the scene.
“She asked, ‘Did I kill people? Did I hurt people?’” emergency medical technician Isabel Schrama testified in 2024, according to the Los Angeles Times. “And then she started to, I would say, freak out.”
Vannoy also argued during opening statements that Linton had been frustrated with her assignment at Kaiser Permanente and angry with coworkers. According to the Times, the prosecutor said Linton “got in her car and channeled that fury, that frustration, into her driving.”
The prosecution cited a 2020 blog post written by Linton and titled “Bitter F- – -ing Nurse,” in which she complained about her life, the Times reported. Linton’s attorney argued that the post had no relevance to the case.
Linton obtained her California nursing license fewer than five months before the fatal collision.
“At that time, Ms. Linton did not have a criminal history or a record of discipline that would have precluded her from obtaining licensure; and, the BRN did not have any information calling her mental state into question,” a spokesperson for the California Board of Registered Nursing told FOX 11. “At this time, upon the request of counsel representing the BRN, Ms. Linton has been suspended from practicing nursing until the resolution of her criminal proceeding, or unless and until the court orders otherwise.”
A Kaiser spokesperson did not immediately respond to Oxygen’s request for comment.
After the tragedy, Kaiser described the Windsor Hills collision as “horrific.”
“It’s impossible to imagine the pain those involved are experiencing,” a spokesperson said in a statement to Fox 11. “Our thoughts are with everyone affected by this tragedy.” The company referred additional questions to law enforcement.
Oxygen could not reach Linton’s attorney for comment.