Wealthy Los Angeles socialite and philanthropist Rebecca Grossman ‘floored’ her car just before she mowed down and killed two young brothers with her Mercedes while racing with her lover after cocktails together, then tried to flee the scene, prosecutors told the jury on the first day of testimony at her murder trial.
Opening arguments began in a Los Angeles courtroom on Friday, with LA Deputy District Attorney Ryan Gould telling jurors how ‘those boys didn’t have a chance’ after Grossman got behind the wheel of her car while ‘impaired with alcohol and Valium,’ in the September 29, 2020 crash.
‘She did not stop after hitting the kids – she continued down the road,’ said Gould, adding that witnesses will tell the court that Grossman’s white Mercedes was ‘flying down the road’ at 81mph before the accident.
And after an emergency operator told her that two young boys had been hit, ‘she did not go back to the scene of the accident’ from her car which ended up a quarter of a mile further on, he continued.
Rebecca Grossman and her husband Dr. Peter Grossman are seen arriving at the Los Angeles Superior Courthouse in Van Nuys on Friday for the first day of testimony in her trial
Grossman, 62, showed up for her trial Friday wearing a dark blue cardigan over a white blouse and a skirt
The LA socialite is accused of fatally hitting brothers Mark, 11, and Jacob, 8, Iskander on a crosswalk in Westlake Village in September 2020
While prosecutors say it was Grossman’s car that hit and killed the boys, her defense team is claiming that it was her then-boyfriend, ex-MLB star Scott Erickson’s black SUV – or possibly another mystery black vehicle – that was to blame.
Grossman – who is married to plastic surgeon Dr. Peter Grossman – and Erickson were heading to a Westlake Village apartment in two separate cars after lunch at Julio’s in Westlake Village where she had been drinking margaritas, prosecutors say.
She showed up for her trial Friday at a court in Van Nuys, 20 miles north west of LA, wearing a dark blue cardigan over a white blouse and blue and white flowered skirt and with her husband, prominent plastic surgeon Dr. Peter Grossman, at her side.
She is charged with two counts of second degree murder in the horrific deaths of eight-year Jacob Iskander and his 11-year-old brother Mark at a marked pedestrian crossing in September 2020.
Grossman – who is looking at a maximum sentence of 34 years to life in prison if convicted – also faces two counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one of hit-and-run driving resulting in death.
She’s pleaded not guilty to all charges and has a website proclaiming her innocence, titled The Truth Matters.
The founder with her husband of the Grossman Burn Foundation in West Hills, Grossman has been free on $2million bail since being charged more than three years ago.
At a preliminary hearing in May 2022, the boys’ heartbroken mother, Nancy Iskander, wept on the witness stand as she told how she was on a crosswalk in Westlake Village with her four children when she saw two vehicles barreling toward her at high speed.
Prosecutors say Grossman was chasing after Scott Erickson (left) – who was driving a separate SUV – after a cocktail-fueled lunch at Julio’s in Westlake Village
The socialite is accused of going 81mph in a 45mph zone before plowing into the boys on a crosswalk and damaging her white Mercedes (pictured)
The Iskander brothers ‘didn’t stand a chance,’ prosecutor Ryan Gould said in opening statements in Rebecca Grossman’s trial
She desperately tried to wave down the cars, one a white Mercedes with Grossman at the wheel and the other a black SUV driven by ex-Erickson, 56, – with whom prosecutors say Grossman had been drinking margaritas earlier on the day of the crash – just seconds before her two sons were mowed down.
‘I still see it every night – it haunts me every night,’ said Iskander, who managed to dive to safety, pulling her five year old son Zachary out of the way.
‘The speed was insane,’ she said of the two cars. ‘They were zigzagging with each other as if they were playing or racing.
‘They didn’t stop before the intersection. They didn’t stop at the intersection. They didn’t stop when an 11 year-old was on the hood of the car….Nobody stopped.’
Presiding at that earlier preliminary hearing, LA Superior Court Judge Shellie Samuels, ordered Grossman to stand trial, telling the court: ‘The defendant was not rushing to get home. She was playing a high-speed game of chicken with Mr. Erickson.
‘The defendant acted with deliberate conscious disregard for life.’
Now, at her full jury trial with Judge Joseph Brandolino on the bench, to get a seconds degree murder conviction, prosecutors will have to prove to the jury that Grossman acted with ‘implied malice’, knowing that driving an alleged 81mph in a 45mph limit was dangerous to human life.
Grossman’s murder charges are unusual as there was no charge of driving under the influence.
The LA District Attorney decided against a DUI charge because while a blood test of Grossman showed 0.08 per cent, California’s legal limit, a breathalyzer taken earlier showed 0.076 per cent.
Rebecca Grossman is seen with her husband, Dr Peter Grossman – a renowned plastic surgeon who runs a specialist burns unit. The pair are pictured together in October 2011
The plastic surgeon has remained by his wife’s side during her legal troubles despite the slew of scandalous allegations against her
Erickson played with the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2005 for a year, then ended his career with the New York Yankees in 2006
Prosecutors say that that Grossman also had Valium in her system and, with the alcohol, she was impaired when she got behind the wheel.
They also argue that she drove on for another quarter mile after the fatal crash and only pulled up because the engine on her car – heavily damaged at the front end due to the collision with the boys – stopped running.
Erickson was said to have been romantically involved with Grossman while she was separated from her husband.
He drove his black SUV through the crosswalk where Iskander family was walking seconds before Grossman’s car did, according to prosecutors.
He was charged with misdemeanor reckless driving and his case was resolved in February 2022 with a judge ordering him to make a public service announcement for high school students about the importance of safe driving.
Erickson, who is divorced, was a star with the Minnesota Twins and Baltimore Orioles. He then spent a year playing with the Los Angeles’ Dodgers in 2005, and ended his career with the New York Yankees in 2006.
Grossman’s $2million bail, plus the slow pace of the case – including several hearings where Grossman didn’t show up – sparked outrage at past court proceedings from protesters who believe her wealth and ‘connections’ have kept her out of jail for more than three years.
Two petitions claiming to have a combined total of more than 50,000 signatures circulated, calling for Grossman – who lives in a $7.6million ranch house in a swank gated Hidden Hills community – to be locked up and justice for the dead boys’ parents who have also brought a civil lawsuit against her.
Earlier this month, the boy’s mother, Nancy Iskander, wished her son, Jacob, a happy heavenly birthday, posting a photograph of the joint grave where the two brothers are buried
Karim and Nancy Iskander, the boys’ parents, are shown at a court hearing in April 2022
‘Justice must be served, regardless of Grossman’s financial means, status, privilege and connections,’ declared one.
‘We demand that Grossman is prosecuted and sentenced to the fullest extent of the law and that she face serious consequences for her actions that took away the lives of Mark and Jacob.’
The other petition proclaimed, ‘Let’s push to spread awareness about this case and put Rebecca Grossman behind bars. Justice for Mark and Jacob Iskander.’
Grossman’s legal team is preparing to argue that she was neither the first or last car to hit the children the night they died.
Images from the scene show the front of Grossman’s luxury car badly-damaged by an impact prosecutors say was caused by the youngsters she mowed down while speeding in a 45mph zone.
Prosecutors say Grossman was chasing after Erickson, after a cocktail-fueled lunch.
Erickson, now 55, was charged with a misdemeanor, and his case was resolved in February 2022 with a judge ordering him to make a public service announcement geared toward high school students about the importance of safe driving.
Despite the slew of scandalous allegations, her plastic surgeon husband Dr. Peter Grossman is standing by his wife.