The murder trial of a Los Angeles socialite got off to a tempestuous start on Friday with prosecutors and the defense arguing about what the jury could be told – and the defense claiming that an associate of the accused was ‘hiding in the bushes’ after the killings.
Rebecca Grossman, 60, is charged with second-degree murder over the September 29, 2020 crash that killed Jacob Iskander, eight, and brother Mark, 11.
Prosecutors claim the married socialite had a boozy lunch with her former LA Dodgers star lover, Scott Erickson, before getting into her Mercedes SUV and fatally hitting the two boys in Westlake Village.
But Grossman’s defense on Friday, in their opening statements, said that they intend to show that it was Erickson – who was driving a separate vehicle at the time of the crash, after their lunch – who hit and killed the boys.
Grossman’s lawyer, Tony Buzbee, infuriated prosecutors by telling the jury that Erickson was found ‘hiding in the bushes’ after the fatal crash – a detail which prosecutors said was unknown to them.
‘Scott Erickson’s car hit those children – that’s what we will prove and that’s what the science in this case will show,’ said Buzbee.
Rebecca Grossman, her husband Dr. Peter Grossman, and their daughter and son are seen on Friday outside Los Angeles Superior Courthouse, on the first day of her murder trial
LA socialite and philanthropist Rebecca Grossman is seen leaving court flanked by her son and daughter during a lunch break at her murder trial on Friday
Tony Buzbee, Grossman’s lawyer, was rebuked by the judge on Friday afternoon for introducing evidence that had not been disclosed to prosecutors
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)
Buzbee said Erickson ‘stopped his vehicle and hid in the bushes’ to observe what police were doing after the crash.
At the end of Friday’s session, the jury left for the day and prosecutors then turned on Buzbee, demanding the judge punish him for introducing new evidence.
The prosecution, led by Ryan Gould, deputy district attorney of Los Angeles County, accused Buzbee and his team of ‘unethical’ behavior, and ‘making a mockery’ of the justice system.
They were furious at Buzbee for mentioning some details which they had agreed would not be revealed.
And they were also angered by Buzbee introducing the new detail, about Erickson ‘hiding in the bushes’.
Gould told the judge: ‘This is the first time the people have heard about it.’
Buzbee denied any unethical behavior and Judge Brandolino – while not imposing sanctions against – scolded him.
‘This should not be happening,’ the judge said. ‘We cannot have the defense violating pre-trial rulings.’
Earlier on Friday, Buzbee, a high-profile attorney ran for mayor of Houston in 2019 and last year defended the impeached attorney general of Texas, Ken Paxton, told the jury he would prove Grossman was not responsible for the deaths of the two boys.
He scoffed at a prosecution video reconstruction of the crash showing Mark and Jacob being hit by Grossman’s white Mercedes.
Mark Iskander, 11, and his younger brother Jacob, eight, were killed in the crash in 2020
Grossman is accused of killing brothers Mark, 11, and Jacob, 8, Iskander after plowing her Mercedes into the two boys in Westlake Village in September 2020
The Iskander brothers ‘didn’t stand a chance,’ prosecutor Ryan Gould said in opening statements in Rebecca Grossman’s trial
‘No science could ever support that,’ said Buzbee.
He accused the police of ‘taking the easy way’ and pointing blame at Grossman in a ‘rush to judgement.’
Buzbee called the police investigation into the accident ‘absolutely terrible’ and added that ‘there is nowhere near enough evidence to convict’ Grossman.
‘She did not drop anything and someone else did. The prosecution is trying to fit a square peg into a round hole,’ he said.
Buzbee argued that the Westlake Village crosswalk, where the boys were killed, is ‘dangerous’ and ‘improperly marked’.
And he also asserted that Mark and Jacob were not actually on the crosswalk but 50 feet north of it when they were struck.
He refuted the prosecution’s claim that Grossman tried to ‘flee the scene’.
And Buzbee said that witnesses would tell of hearing two impacts, adding that while prosecutors ‘suggest one vehicle did that, scientifically that is impossible.’
He also said he plans to introduce expert witnesses who will say Grossman was only traveling at 52mph – not the 81mph the DA claims.
He said Erickson’s car, which was ahead of Grossman’s, was doing ‘more than 70’ before the tragedy.
As for prosecutors’ contentions that Grossman was impaired with alcohol and Valium, another one of her attorneys, Mark Thiessen told the jury: ‘That’s simply untrue.’
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
Grossman has claimed the accident was caused by a poorly lit, poorly signaled crosswalk pictured above
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
He called the police investigation ‘messed up’ and branded roadside sobriety and breathalyzer tests given to Grossman as ‘maladministered.’
Thiessen argued that she was ‘polite, coherent and co-operative’ with police at the scene and she had ‘no loss of mental or physical faculties’.
‘She did nothing wrong,’ he said, adding that this was a case of: ‘We have two dead kids. We need somebody to blame.’
Gould, however, told the jury that earlier in the day Grossman had drunk half a margarita at a friend’s house, then a full margarita with Erickson at Julio’s in Westlake Village before they decided to drive to her home to watch a Biden-Trump presidential debate on TV.
A witness who spotted Grossman and Erickson after Julio’s, racing before the crash, remembered thinking: ‘They are going to kill somebody, the way they are going,’ Gould said.
After the terrible collision, he said, the boys’ mother, Nancy Iskander could see Jacob lying in the road but she could not see Mark because he had been hit and thrown so far away.
‘With the speed Mrs Grossman was going, he (Mark) was projected 254 feet away,’ said Gould.
‘And she did not stop…she continued down the road.
‘Mark died of traumatic blunt force injuries. Jacob was internally decapitated – the force of the collision severed his spinal cord inside.’
Gould told the court that the black box inside Grossman’s Mercedes indicated that just before the accident she was ‘flooring it,’ driving at up to 81mph in a 45mph neighborhood.
‘If she had been driving 45miles an hour, she would not have hit Mark and Jacob,’ said Gould.
Erickson played with the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2005 for a year, then ended his career with the New York Yankees in 2006
Erickson, pictured with sports journalist Lisa Guerrero in 2015, was charged with a misdemeanor over the 2020 crash, and settled his case in 2022
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.
She was accompanied by her children and her husband.
She is charged with two counts of second degree murder; two counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence; and one of hit-and-run driving resulting in death.
Grossman is facing a maximum sentence of 34 years to life in prison if convicted.