A Los Angeles County prosecutor told jurors Wednesday there is overwhelming evidence that Rebecca Grossman committed double murder by racing her Mercedes SUV with her then-lover and hitting two brothers in Westlake Village more than three years ago.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Jamie Castro said in her closing statement that Grossman was going 73 mph when she fatally struck Mark and Jacob Iskander, ages 11 and 8, in a marked crosswalk on Triunfo Canyon Road.
“This was not a tragic accident,” Castro said. “This was murder.”
Grossman, 60, is charged with two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one count of hit-and-run driving resulting in death. If convicted of all charges, she faces 34 years to life in prison.
To secure a second-degree murder conviction, prosecutors must prove that Grossman acted with implied malice and knew the act of driving at a high speed in a residential area was dangerous to human life.
Castro argued the prosecution had done just that. Grossman, Castro said, showed conscious disregard for human life and knew her speed could be dangerous on a suburban street with pedestrian traffic because she had been warned of the dangers by police in the past. Prosecutors also have alleged that Grossman traveled a third of a mile after slamming into the children before safety features in her car automatically shut it down.
“She had a history of speeding. She’d texted about it,” Castro said. “She acted with disregard for human life.”
Tony Buzbee, Grossman’s lead attorney, has throughout the trial pointed the finger at her then-boyfriend, Scott Erickson, who was the first to barrel through the crosswalk. Crash reconstruction experts for the defense have testified that the Mercedes SUV driven by the former Dodgers pitcher hit the boys first, sending Mark over his vehicle and onto the hood of Grossman’s vehicle.
But although Castro said Erickson was reckless, she said there was “not a shred of evidence” that he struck Mark or his brother.
“He almost hit them, but did not hit them,” Castro said.
It was around 7 p.m. on Sept. 29, 2020, when Nancy Iskander and her three sons approached the crosswalk. Wearing inline skates, Iskander began to cross Triunfo Canyon Road at Saddle Mountain Drive. Her youngest son, Zachary, was next to her on his scooter; Mark, on a skateboard, and Jacob, also wearing inline skates, were also in the crosswalk.
“The mother did everything right,” Castro said. “Rebecca Grossman did everything wrong.”
Iskander previously testified that she heard revving engines and looked up to see a black sport utility vehicle speeding toward the intersection. She dove out of the way, pulling Zachary to safety.
But she testified that a white Mercedes SUV was following closely behind the black vehicle. When it went through the crosswalk, Iskander said, she heard an impact and her two oldest boys were gone.
Jacob was found near the curb about 50 feet from the crosswalk. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead a few hours later. Mark’s body was found 254 feet away.
Castro told jurors that one witness, Susan Manners, testified that she saw Grossman’s vehicle hit Mark. Yasamin Eftekhari and Jake Sands, who were driving in a car behind Grossman’s Mercedes, testified that they saw the white car hit Jacob. Eftekhari, Castro noted, testified the black car never hit the boys.
Castro reminded jurors that before the crash Grossman had a margarita at a friend’s home and then another at a nearby restaurant, Julio’s Agave Grill. Joining her at the restaurant were Erickson and his friend Royce Clayton, also a former professional baseball player.
Although Grossman was not charged with driving under the influence, prosecutors say she was impaired by alcohol and Valium at the time of the crash.
Castro said Grossman was familiar with the area where the roadway and crosswalk are. Investigators found she had made more than 7,000 texts and calls in the vicinity.
Even after the impact, Grossman “continued to drive as far as her car would let her,” Castro said.
Although Grossman told a Mercedes operator and 911 dispatcher that she didn’t know what happened, only that her airbag had deployed, Castro said a text Grossman sent to a friend showed “she was not honest.” In that text, presented earlier in the trial, Grossman wrote she had turned her head for two or three seconds and was distracted by Nancy Iskander, who was falling on her inline skates.
“The defendant is either lying or clearly impaired,” Castro said.
Castro conceded there were shortcomings in the investigation by the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department — with evidence missing and few photos of the scene. But during the trial, a former California Highway Patrol officer turned crash expert was able to re-create the scene.
The prosecutor pushed back on the defense theory that Erickson struck the brothers first, saying the front-end damage to Grossman’s vehicle was not “the result of a child landing on the hood.”
She reminded jurors that pathologist Matthew Miller, who conducted the autopsy, testified that the boys’ injuries were consistent with a single vehicle hitting them.
Castro also repudiated testimony from Grossman’s daughter, Alexis, who told jurors that she saw Erickson hiding behind a tree near where her mother was detained and that he later angrily burst into her family’s home in Westlake Village. She said he smelled of alcohol and threatened to ruin her and her family if she told anyone she saw him.
“Alexis is a victim of her mother’s manipulation,” Castro said, noting that a deputy at the scene testified he never saw Erickson and that no one there reported his presence.
This story originally appeared on LA Times
