….lawyers claim mental illness
The nurse going through homicide prices for allegedly slamming her Mercedes-Benz into site visitors this month in Windsor Hills was within the throes of a “frightening” mental well being disaster within the days, hours and minutes before the crash, new court docket data filed by her attorneys present.
The revelations got here in a complete submitting by Nicole Linton’s protection attorneys that provides probably the most detailed narrative but of the occasions main as much as the horrific crash that killed 5 individuals and an unborn youngster.
The movement and attachments, obtained by The Times, element the nurse’s four-year wrestle with bipolar dysfunction and embody a willpower by medical doctors within the instant aftermath of the lethal incident that Linton suffered an “apparent lapse of consciousness” on the time of the crash.
Linton is accused of dashing her sedan down La Brea Avenue towards the busy intersection at Slauson Avenue shortly after 1:30 p.m. on Aug. 4. Authorities say she was going around 90 mph when she barreled via a lightweight that had been pink for 9 seconds and slammed into passing site visitors.
The fiery crash killed 5, together with a pregnant woman and a baby. The Los Angeles district lawyer charged Linton with six counts of homicide, together with the pregnant girl’s unborn youngster.
Linton has been held in jail for the reason that crash, with prosecutors alleging she is a flight threat and a hazard to the neighborhood. They stated in a submitting that Linton was affected by deteriorating mental health issues before the crash.
“She has no recollection of the events that led to her collision,” wrote physician William Winter on Aug. 6. Winter handled Linton on the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
“The next thing she recalled was lying on the pavement and seeing that her car was on fire,” he wrote.
Winter wrote that Linton has bipolar dysfunction and suffered an “apparent lapse of consciousness” on the time of the crash, in keeping with the closely redacted medical data.
Linton’s household turned conscious of her mental well being points in May 2018 when she was a nursing student at the University of Texas in Houston, her attorneys wrote. Her sister Camille Linton stated in a letter to the court docket that Nicole’s research to be a nurse anesthetist prompted her first mental well being breakdown.
“The stress was too much for her and it ‘broke’ her,” Camille Linton wrote. “Thus beginning the journey of Nicole’s 4-year struggle with mental illness.”
She ran out of her residence in May 2018 throughout a panic assault, and when police approached her, she jumped on a police automotive and was arrested for disorderly conduct, her attorneys wrote.
Linton known as her household from the police station and was involved in regards to the well-being of her pet turtle, in keeping with her attorneys.
A couple of days after that arrest, Linton informed her household that she believed she was possessed by her useless grandmother.
The subsequent day, at Ben Taub psychiatric hospital, Linton required stitches on her brow after she banged her head right into a glass partition whereas ranting in regards to the police and Supreme Court, the attorneys wrote. She sang Bob Marley because the medical employees handled her wound, the data say.
It was at Ben Taub that she was recognized with bipolar dysfunction and prescribed psychiatric treatment, the protection movement says.
More than a yr later, Linton was involuntarily dedicated to a psychiatric ward after a neighbor known as her household after seeing Linton operating round her residence advanced bare, the attorneys stated.
Linton’s mental well being deteriorated additional after she stopped taking her psychiatric treatment through the pandemic. Her attorneys stated a web-based therapist informed her she merely suffered from nervousness.
Linton started appearing unusually, not sleeping and turning into obsessive about cleansing. She ranted at members of the family and accused them of stealing from her, her attorneys stated.
“In the days and hours leading up to the events of August 4, Nicole’s behavior became increasingly frightening,” wrote her attorneys.
Linton was in touch with her sister Camille, and saved telling her that her coworkers on the West Los Angeles Medical Center have been “acting weird,” her attorneys stated.
The day of the crash, Linton drove dwelling from the hospital for lunch and FaceTimed her sister utterly bare, in keeping with the court docket papers.
She then went again to work, and known as her sister once more at 1:24 p.m. saying she was leaving work once more, simply minutes before the crash.
“She told her sister that she was flying out to meet her in Houston the next day so she could do her niece’s hair. She also said that she would be getting married and that her sister should meet her at the altar,” the attorneys wrote.
While the extent of Linton’s accidents from the crash weren’t included within the report, Winter talked about “fractures” and Linton’s attorneys stated that the touring nurse is utilizing a wheelchair to maneuver round jail.
“The medical records are an objective unbiased account of what happened here,” Linton’s lawyer Jacqueline Sparagna informed The Times.
But Linton’s attorneys argued that mental well being points and Linton’s “apparently bizarre” actions aren’t any motive to maintain her locked up and that Linton must be launched for testing at UCLA Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital. They stated she would put on an ankle monitor or undergo every other circumstances imposed by the court docket.
“Ms. Linton would be most appropriately housed in a mental health treatment facility where she can be monitored and treated for her illness,” wrote attorneys Halim Dhanidina and Jacqueline Sparagna within the submitting Monday.
Otherwise, Linton must be launched on not more than $300,000 bail, the attorneys stated, including that was all Linton might afford.
“The safety and well being of the residents of Los Angeles are our primary concern,” stated Dist. Atty. George Gascón in an announcement to The Times. “Under my policy, preventative detention can be requested under a case-specific analysis to protect public safety and to reasonably ensure the defendant’s return to court.”
Linton is accused by the district lawyer of reckless disregard for all times in connection with the multi-vehicle crash. She faces 5 manslaughter counts on prime of the six homicide counts.
“In an instant, Ms. Linton’s conduct took the lives of six people and injured many others,” Gascón said at a press conference days after the crash.
The crash caused the deaths of 23-year-old Asherey Ryan; her almost 1-year-old child, Alonzo Quintero; her boyfriend, Reynold Lester; and their unborn youngster. Ryan was 8½ months pregnant when she was killed. Also killed have been associates Nathesia Lewis, 43, and Lynette Noble, 38.
“I already cried. I cried. I didn’t sleep one bit. I’m all cried out,” stated Sha’seana Kerr, Ryan’s sister, the day after the crash. “We have to bury four people.”
Linton’s attorneys famous that blood assessments confirmed their shopper had no narcotics or alcohol in her system apart from fentanyl that was given to her after the crash.
They additionally countered prosecutors’ arguments that Linton has a history of dangerous driving.
“A fifty-state comprehensive search of insurance records reveals that Ms. Linton has no such history,” wrote Linton’s attorneys. “In fact, Ms. Linton was determined to be at fault in only three prior collisions, the most recent of which occurring in 2014.”
They received backup within the letter of a household buddy of Linton, a former federal prosecutor in Washington D.C.
Prosecutors stated in their filing that Linton’s historical past of mental sickness included “jumping on police cars to jumping out of apartment windows.” But the protection attorneys responded that the D.A.’s workplace unfairly pluralized “events occurring only once.”
And the residence window Linton jumped out throughout a “manic episode” was on the primary flooring, in keeping with Linton’s sister, who filed a declaration alongside with the protection’s bail argument.
The protection included in its paperwork character letters from Linton’s household and associates
Beverly Harrison, Linton’s mom, stated her daughter got here to America from Jamaica when she was 10 and grew up with out her father. Over the final two years, her daughter spent her birthdays in Jamaica at her mom’s distant dwelling within the mountainous area of Jamaica and took care of her.
“She is a Godly person who put her trust in him,” Harrison wrote to the court docket. “She is a person that if she says or do anything she regrets, she will come back to say that she is sorry and ask you for forgiveness. My sweet baby I love her but God loves her best.”
One of Linton’s different 5 siblings, Kimberly, stated her sister turned a touring nurse through the pandemic and needed to begin medical college subsequent yr to grow to be a physician.
“Nicole is about saving lives and she always has both empathy and sympathy for any life that’s loss and the family no matter how many time one can see that sort of thing in that field,” Kimberly Linton wrote.
Her brother, Donovan Dallas, who’s the deputy superintendent of police in Saint Andrew North in Jamaica, believes his sister didn’t deliberately trigger the crash. He requested that she be launched into her household’s care. (Text, excluding headline: Reuters)
•Nicole Linton seems in Los Angeles Superior Court for arraignment on homicide prices stemming from a site visitors accident in Los Angeles. (Frederick M. Brown/POOL)
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