The defense team of Nicole Linton, a nurse that killed six people in a Los Angeles car crash, has hired a neurologist that will testify she had a seizure and froze at the wheel before the crash.
Linton appeared before a Los Angeles judge on March 23 and her defense attorney, Jacqueline Sparagna, told the judge that they plan to call a doctor that specializes in epilepsy and seizures to testify at the upcoming preliminary hearing on April 15, according to the New York Post.
“We are going to put on a defense at the preliminary hearing, which is rare,” said Sparagna to the New York Post. “Everything that the doctor has reviewed is consistent with her having a seizure. Nicole wasn’t sleeping for days and insomnia can cause seizures.”
She continued, “People who fall asleep at the wheel go limp, but if they have a seizure, everything tenses up. That is consistent with why her foot was on the pedal.”
Linton, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse based in Houston, was charged with six counts of murder and five counts of vehicular manslaughter after she sped through a busy Los Angeles intersection going 130 miles per hour on Aug. 4, 2022, and killed five people and an unborn. She was in Los Angeles as a traveling nurse and headed home for lunch at the time of her fatal crash that resulted in six lives lost.
The crash killed Asherey Ryan, who was also pregnant, her 11-month-old son Allonzo and her boyfriend, Allonzo Lester. The family was reportedly headed to a prenatal checkup.
Linton also plowed into another car that caused a three-car pileup and killed Nathesia Lewis, 43, as well as her friend Lynette Noble, 38, in a blazing fire.
Linton’s sister created a website in September 2022 that outlined her mental health issues that date back to 2018. It was reported that on Aug. 6, 2022, Dr. William Winter, who treated Linton at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center after the crash, wrote that she had “no recollection of events.” Also, she struggled with bipolar disorder for four years, and her mental condition was on the decline months leading up to the crash, according to her attorneys.
Sparagna did not reveal the name of the neurologists but did say that the doctor was a “leading expert” in epilepsy and seizures.
“She’s being treated for mental health issues in county jail, so the government’s own doctors concede this is a mental health case,” Sparagna said. “She simply did not, and could not, commit murder.”
Linton pleaded not guilty to her six counts of murder and five counts of vehicular manslaughter. Her previous request by her attorney to have a bail of $300,000 was denied on Aug. 29, 2022, and she is still at the county jail under a “no bail” hold.
