LOS ANGELES — A traveling nurse who slammed her Mercedes into a crowded South L.A. intersection at 131 mph was convicted of murder on Friday afternoon after jurors rejected an argument that she had a seizure behind the wheel.

Several gasps and sobs erupted from some of the victims’ relatives as the verdict was read, and they later shared hugs with prosecutors and detectives in a courthouse hallway. A number of Nicole Linton’s loved ones sat away from them in a separate row of benches. The jury deliberated for only about three hours.

Prosecutors say Linton, 41, was furious with coworkers and thinking about quitting her job at Kaiser Permanente hospital in West L.A. when she drove down La Brea Avenue. While approaching a busy intersection at Slauson Boulevard, prosecutors say Linton “floored” the gas pedal before smashing into multiple cars and causing a fiery wreck.

The collision killed six people, including Nathesia Lewis, 42; Lynette Noble, 38; Asherey Ryan, 23; Ryan’s 11-month-old son, Alonzo; and Ryan’s boyfriend, Reynold Lester, 23. Ryan was more than eight months pregnant at the time, and Linton also was convicted of killing her fetus.

The aftermath of the crash was nightmarish. The intersection was littered with burning car parts, streaks of blood stained the asphalt, and black smoke filled the sky. The force of the collision ripped Ryan’s fetus from her womb and launched Alonzo’s car seat through the air, prosecutors said.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement Friday that Linton used “her car as a high-speed missile,” adding that her “actions left behind heartbreaking wreckage that looked like a war zone, traumatizing survivors and witnesses.”

At trial, prosecutors argued Linton’s reckless driving was fueled by her refusal to address mental health issues. She had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was involved in several documented incidents of violence and erratic driving when she’d previously gone off her medication, according to Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Antonella Nistorescu.

In one alarming incident, Nistorescu said Linton allegedly slapped a woman and drove through red lights at speeds of 100 miles per hour while off her medication.

Linton had not taken her medication or slept for days before the crash, prosecutors said.

“The only person who could have prevented this is Nicole Linton,” Nistorescu said during her closing argument Thursday. “The only person who knew that when she got behind the wheel of her Mercedes that she was under the same stressors, exhibiting the same symptoms that had led her before to engage in violent, aggressive actions that brought harm to others.”

Linton, who had tears in her eyes when she turned to her family after the verdict was read, faces life in prison at a December sentencing hearing. Her defense attorney, Jovan Blacknell, was not immediately available for comment.

Prosecutors charged Linton under an “implied malice” murder theory, meaning they did not need to prove she planned the victims’ deaths or intended to kill them, but rather willingly committed a reckless act that she knew was incredibly dangerous to human life.

Linton’s defense team argued that prosecutors were trying to put her in prison for a tragic accident. A neurologist and a psychiatrist who examined Linton weeks after the crash said she suffered a seizure in the moments leading up to the wreck and completely lost control of the vehicle. Blacknell also noted that prosecutors failed to call any medical experts to testify whether the crash could be linked to bipolar disorder.

Holding a picture of a sonogram of Ryan’s unborn child and signs that read “Slauson Six” — a neighborhood nickname for those killed in the crash — some of the victims’ relatives expressed frustration with Linton’s seizure defense after the verdict.

“This was not an accident. This was someone who wanted to take herself out and others with her ... we knew that this wasn’t a case of a medical crisis,” said Ryan’s sister, Shashanna Kerr.

Throughout the trial, Blacknell acknowledged the horrible nature of the crash, but reminded jurors they couldn’t decide his client’s fate based on emotion.

“The results were catastrophic. The images are visceral. And the loss of life was horrendous,” he said. “But as much as I do want to acknowledge what occurred, and acknowledge the people who were injured, the people who died, those images don’t help you answer the question you are here to answer.”

Prosecutors accused Linton of lying about suffering seizures. She never has been diagnosed with an underlying seizure disorder, such as epilepsy, and a medical test to provoke a seizure in Linton after the crash came back with no abnormal brain activity, prosecutors said.

During the test, Linton jerked and twitched in what prosecutors described as an attempt to fake a seizure.

Blacknell said no medical professionals found that Linton was “malingering,” or attempting to feign a medical condition for gain.

©2026 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.