Houston nurse Nicole Linton charged with murder, gross vehicular manslaughter in Windsor Hills crash that killed 6

A nurse from Houston was charged Monday with six counts of murder and five counts of gross vehicular manslaughter for the fiery crash that killed six people, including an infant and a pregnant woman.

Nicole Lorraine Linton, 37, was behind the wheel of a Mercedes-Benz that barreled through a red light at Slauson and La Brea avenues last Thursday and slammed into several other vehicles in the Windsor Hills area, according to the CHP. The six people killed included all the members of one family — 23-year-old Asherey Ryan, the child she was pregnant with, her boyfriend, 24-year-old Reynold Lester, who was the father of her unborn son, and her infant son Alonzo, who was about to celebrate his first birthday.

The charges include six counts of murder and five counts of vehicular manslaughter. District Attorney George Gascón said his office cannot file a manslaughter charge in a case involving an unborn child. 

Linton is expected to make an initial court appearance in the case on Monday. If convicted as charged, she could face 90 years to life in prison, Gascón said.

Surveillance video from the scene showed the Mercedes blowing through a red light in a 35 mph zone on La Brea at a speed authorities estimated was about 100 mph, then broadsiding another vehicle, which exploded into flames. It was pushed into at least one other vehicle, and both ended up against a gas station sign on the corner of the intersection. The impact of the fiery crash left a trail of fire from the intersection.

Eight vehicles in total, including Linton’s, were involved in the crash. Linton’s Mercedes ended up near a bench down the street.

The names of the other people who died in the crash, including one who was found dead in the burned wreckage of one vehicle, have not been released. Eight others, including the seven occupants of a Chevrolet Traverse, were also injured in the crash.

The traveling nurse from Houston was arrested Friday while she was still hospitalized for moderate injuries she sustained in the crash. She was released from Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center over the weekend, and is being held on $9 million bail.