Rebecca Grossman will not testify in her own defense, she declared Tuesday at her murder trial – where she’s accused of running down and killing two young brothers while speeding in her white Mercedes.
When Judge Joseph Brandolino asked the wealthy socialite if she had discussed with her lawyers whether or not to take the witness stand, she answered ‘yes.’
And when he asked her what her decision was, she told him, in a barely audible whisper, that she will ‘not be testifying’.
Grossman, 60, is charged with two counts of second degree murder in the tragic deaths of eight-year Jacob and Mark Iskander, 11, at a marked Westlake Village pedestrian crosswalk in September 2020.
She’s looking at a maximum sentence of 34 years to life in prison if convicted and is also facing two additional counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, plus one of hit-and-run driving resulting in death.
Rebecca Grossman (right) leaves court with her husband Peter Grossman
Rebecca leaves court with her husband Peter Grossman and their two children (center and right)
Erickson, pictured in 2018. Erickson was allegedly racing with Grossman just before the crash
Grossman – who wore a black cardigan over a white shirt and black pants, with hair tied back, at Van Nuys Court Tuesday – has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Her husband, plastic surgeon and burns specialist Dr. Peter Grossman, was in court – as he has been every day of the trial – with Rebecca who has been free on $2 million bail since her arrest more than three years ago.
While prosecutors say it was Grossman, at the wheel of her white Mercedes SUV, who killed the Iskander boys, her defense claims that it was the black Mercedes SUV driven by her lover, ex-pro baseball player Scott Erickson, 56 – with whom she was allegedly racing just before the crash – that was to blame.
Her lawyers also assert that Erickson – who has two black Mercedes SUVs, both with the same Nevada number plate – lied to cops about which car he was driving the night of the accident.
And Grossman’s teen daughter Alexis told the court Friday that she saw Erickson after the accident, hiding behind a tree watching as her mother spoke to police and later he threatened to ‘ruin her and her family’ if she told anyone she’d seen him that night.
Erickson 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.
Grossman’s lead attorney, Tony Buzbee, rested his defense Tuesday and prosecutors called back several ‘rebuttal’ witnesses to speak to testimony conflicts raised by the defense.
John Grindy, ex cop and now an accident reconstruction expert, challenged defense expert Dr. Justin Schorr’s contention that ‘ you cannot do a full reconstruction of the accident without the black car’, referring to Erickson’s black Mercedes SUV that was just in front of Grossman’s car before the collision.
‘I disagree’, said Grindy who said having just Grossman’s white Mercedes, plus scene evidence and witness statements were enough to ‘determine speed and impact’ in the crash.
Grindy criticized Dr. Schorr for not considering conflicting eye witness testimony in his conclusions, saying ‘eye witness statements are important – they are a piece of the puzzle.’
But when Buzbee displayed a chart showing inconsistencies between the eye witness accounts about which car hit which boy, whether the black Mercedes or the white one was in front, and whether there was the sound of one bump or two at the collision impact, Grindy conceded that some of the witness testimony was ‘confusing.’
Rebecca Grossman will not testify in her own defense, she declared Tuesday at her murder trial – where she’s accused of running down and killing two young brothers while speeding in her white Mercedes
The wealthy socialite (pictured center) was accused of running over and killing two young brothers in Westlake Village in 2020
The attorney asked if he had tried to find and inspect Erickson’s black SUV or talk to Erickson himself and Grindy answered, ‘No.’
Buzbee put a similar question to prosecution rebuttal witness, Michael Hale – another accident reconstruction expert – asking, ‘Were you ever asked to find Erickson’s car and see what the front end looked like?’ the response, again, was ’No.’
Hale is the prosecution expert who examined the black box of Grossman’s white Mercedes and previously told the jury of nine men and three women that she was driving at 81mph just before the crash and tapped the brakes enough to reduce her speed to 73mph at the point of impact with the boys.
Tuesday, on the witness stand again, he stood by those numbers and added, that Grossman was ‘at full throttle’ two seconds before the tragedy.
A police officer who was at the Grossman crash scene cast doubt Tuesday on her daughter Alexis’ claim that she had seen her lover Scott Erickson, ‘hiding behind a tree,’ watching as her mother talked to cops about the accident.
Prosecution rebuttal witness, LA County Sheriff’s Deputy Cody Gaudet told jurors that he didn’t see Erickson – or anybody else – hiding, and if he had ‘I would have noticed.
‘If there was somebody hiding behind a tree it would immediately catch my attention.’
Dep. Guadet added that no members of the public called in to say they’d seen anyone ‘hiding in the bushes or hiding in the trees.
‘If there was anybody doing anything suspicious like that we would have gone to investigate.’
Dep. Gaudet also said he had not seen a damaged black SUV parked nearby.
And, asked if anyone else had reported seeing, Erickson’s black SUV or ‘a black SUV with damaged front end’ near the crash scene, Dep. Gaudet responded, ‘Not to my knowledge.’
Grossman, pictured at Van Nuys Court previously, pleaded not guilty to all charges
Rebecca Grossman’s tearful teen daughter, Alexis seen far right, told the wealthy socialist’s murder trial on Friday how she saw her mother’s lover, Scott Erickson, hiding behind a tree
Erickson played with the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2005 for a year, then ended his career with the New York Yankees in 2006
Grossman, 60, is charged with two counts of second-degree murder in the tragic deaths of Jacob, 8, and Mark Iskander,11, at a marked pedestrian crosswalk in September 2020
Grossman’s white Mercedes SUV is pictured moments after the crash
When Buzbee queried him on whether he ‘made any efforts to find Scott Erickson…. or to find his car to see if it was damaged in front?’ Gaudet answered, ‘No.’
Alexis Grossman – who was 16 at the time of the tragedy – told the court Friday that she was driving to pick up a pizza when she spotted police lights flashing and saw her mother, near her white Mercedes SUV, being questioned by police.
‘I pulled over and ran toward her screaming “mommy, mommy. But the police told me I couldn’t talk to my mom and told me to go home.’
Alexis, now 19 and a sophomore at Clemson University, said she went back to her car and it was then she turned and ‘I saw Scott Erickson. He was behind a tree in the bushes and he was poking his head out and we made eye contact.’
She told lead defense attorney Tony Buzbee that she didn’t see Erickson’s black Mercedes SUV and didn’t speak to him because, “I was so surprised to see my mom surrounded by police. I was freaking out, having a panic attack.’
She drove the short distance back to her mom’s Westlake Village home, where ,shortly after she got there, ‘The front door burst open and Scott Erickson walked in and said, “Why did your mom stop? Why did your mom stop?”
‘He seemed very angry. He was frantic. I could smell alcohol on him. He was freaking out. I was scared.
‘He yelled “Don’t say anything. Don’t tell anyone you saw me or I will ruin you and your family.’
‘He’s a big guy. He’s this baseball player and he was scary,’ added Alexis of Erickson, a former pro pitcher who is 6ft 4 and 240 pounds.
‘I was scared he might do something to hurt me or my family from what he said.’
Under cross examination, Alexis told the court Friday that she didn’t tell police or anyone – except her parents and her family’s lawyer who later died – about seeing Erickson that night until Buzbee took over as lead defense attorney in the case just before trial started in January this year.