HOUSTON — California court documents are shedding some more light on Nicole Lorraine Linton, a traveling nurse from Houston accused of causing a deadly crash at a Los Angeles County intersection earlier this month.
Linton, 37, has been charged with six counts of murder and five counts of gross vehicular manslaughter in connection with the crash.
The local district attorney's office wants her to be held without bail.
Mental history
According to court documents, Linton has a history of mental illness dating back to 2018 including "a number of prior incidents which appear to be increasing in severity, ranging from the defendant jumping on police cars to jumping out of apartment windows," court documents said.
Court documents said Linton has tried to hurt herself "more than once" and has also been involuntarily committed several times.
She has no criminal history, according to court documents.
The crash
According to court documents, at about 1:30 p.m. on Aug. 4, Linton was driving her black Mercedes southbound on La Brea Avenue in unincorporated Los Angeles County.
As she approached the Slauson Avenue intersection (which is a heavily trafficked intersection), according to court documents, she accelerated her car to 90 mph.
Westbound traffic on Slauson had been going through a green light for about 9 seconds when Linton ran the red light, court documents said.
There were about 10 vehicles in the intersection when Linton's car struck two of those cars at about the same time, "splitting one of the cars in two and immediately igniting both vehicles in fire," according to court documents.
Another vehicle that was hit spun out of control and caused multiple minor crashes.
Six people were killed in the crash, including a 23-year-old pregnant woman, her boyfriend, her unborn child and her 11-month-old son in one car, authorities said. Two other women were also killed in the crash. Six other children and another adult suffered minor injuries. Linton suffered multiple broken bones.
Authorities said there were no signs that Linton was under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash.
Linton's crash history
After the crash, reports surfaced that Linton had been involved in a number of previous crashes. KHOU 11 reached out to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office to get information about the previous crashes and was given this response:
"Due to the fact that the defendant’s traffic history involves multiple jurisdictions, we cannot confirm the exact number of collisions. We can only say that she has been involved in numerous prior collisions including one in 2020 that involved two wrecked cars and bodily injury."
Court updates
When she appeared in court for the first time a few days after the crash, Linton didn't enter a plea. She showed up in the courtroom in a wheelchair.
Linton is facing up to 90 years to life in prison.
The DA's office wants Linton to be held without bail saying her release could "result in great bodily harm to one or more members of the public."
"The defendant’s extremely reckless conduct combined with her mental health struggles that have escalated to the point of taking the lives of six individuals and harming seven more clearly comport with the exceptions for detention without bail under the California Constitution," court documents said.
The DA's office said Linton has "minimal connections" in California and "numerous contacts" outside California and the country, which would enable her to "flee the jurisdiction and avoid justice in this case."
Linton is due back in court on Aug. 31.
Who is Linton?
According to the documents, Linton agreed to not practice nursing while the case is pending.
Officials said she's currently renting a room at a home near where she was working in West Los Angeles.
They said she doesn't have a California driver's license and her permanent address is in Texas.
"She has numerous prior contacts out of state, including Washington, D.C., Maryland, Georgia, Texas, North Carolina," court records said.
Linton has family members living overseas, including her mother, who lives in Jamaica, according to court documents.