Nurse Convicted of Murdering Six in 130 MPH Windsor Hills Crash

Nicole Linton, 41, faces multiple life sentences for the La Brea and Slauson crash that killed a pregnant mother and her family.

A jury on Friday convicted nurse Nicole Linton of murdering six people when she drove 130 mph through a red light in Windsor Hills. The dead included a pregnant woman, her 11-month-old son and the baby she was carrying.

The crash happened on the afternoon of Aug. 4, 2022, at La Brea and Slauson avenues. Linton, now 41 and from Houston, had left her shift as a registered nurse early and was driving her Mercedes-Benz about 18 minutes later. Around 1:40 p.m., she entered the intersection 15 seconds after the light had turned red. She hit several cars, and three of them caught fire.

Jurors found her guilty on all six counts of second-degree murder, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said in its announcement of the verdict. Prosecutors showed jurors evidence that she revved the engine after passing the Five Points intersection, then held the gas pedal to the floor for at least five seconds. She didn't stop or swerve, the office said. The car was at its top speed when it reached the traffic waiting at Slauson.

Asherey Ryan, 23, was eight and a half months pregnant. She was riding with her boyfriend, Reynold Lester, 24, and their son, Alonzo, to her last prenatal appointment. All three were killed, along with the unborn boy the couple had named Armani. The impact split their car in two and threw Alonzo out of it, still strapped in his car seat.

In another car, two friends on a shopping trip, Nathesia Lewis, 43, and Lynette Noble, 38, were also killed.

“The jury agreed that this was no accident,” District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said in the release. He said Linton had used her car “as a high-speed missile,” and he described what was left in the intersection as wreckage that “looked like a warzone.”

The verdict came four years and two months after the crash. Hochman credited Deputy District Attorneys Antonella Nistorescu and Brittany Vannoy with more than four years of work on the case. The California Highway Patrol investigated it.

It's one of several deadly crashes that Hochman's office has taken to a jury as murder. The office lists six pending prosecutions of drivers it accuses of speeding. Among them is the October 2023 crash on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu that killed four Pepperdine University students as they walked along the shoulder. Those defendants haven't been convicted and are presumed innocent.

One of the office's earlier murder verdicts has already held up on appeal. A jury convicted Rebecca Grossman in February 2024 of murdering brothers Mark and Jacob Iskander, 11 and 8. She hit the boys in a marked crosswalk in Westlake Village in 2020. Prosecutors said she'd had drinks at a bar beforehand and reached speeds of up to 81 mph on a road posted at 45. She was sentenced to 15 years to life. A state appeals court upheld her convictions in March 2026.

Linton is due back in court Dec. 1 for sentencing in Department 109 of the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center. Prosecutors expect her to receive multiple life sentences.

Source: lacounty.gov, retrieved October 3, 2026.