A Los Angeles-area socialite has been convicted of second-degree murder and other crimes for running over and killing two young boys in 2020 while speeding through an intersection, ABC7 reports.
Jurors on Friday handed down the verdict against 60-year-old Rebecca Grossman following two days of deliberations and a six-week trial in Van Nuys Superior Court.
In addition to two counts of second-degree murder, the jury found Grossman guilty of two counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one count of hit-and-run driving that resulted in death.
The verdict comes more than three years after Grossman struck 11-year-old Mark Iskander and his brother, 8-year-old Jacob Iskander, while they were crossing a street in a marked crosswalk with their family in Westlake Village, which is northwest of Los Angeles, around 7:10 p.m. on September 29, 2020.
While at the crosswalk, the mother reported hearing revving engines and saw a black SUV speeding toward the three-way intersection, which does not have a stoplight. She managed to grab only one child and jumped out of the way before the vehicle barreled through. A white SUV followed closely behind.
Prosecutors argued that Grossman, who was driving the white SUV, did not stop immediately after the crash, but instead continued driving until her vehicle’s emergency system activated and forced her to a halt about a one-third of a mile from the scene. Prosecutors said she did not return to the crash site or call 911.
Investigators determined that Grossman was likely traveling more than 70 miles per hour in a 45-MPH zone, although defense attorneys argued she was going 54 MPH “at best,” according to ABC7.
During the trial, Grossman’s attorneys alleged that her then-boyfriend, former L.A. Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson, was the one who initially hit the boys. Grossman and Erickson had just left a restaurant, where they had drinks, and were traveling in separate vehicles. Erickson was in the black SUV.
The defense argued that Erickson’s SUV was the first to barrel through the crosswalk and that when he allegedly struck the children, the impact caused one of the boys to fly into Grossman’s hood.
But that claim was refused by prosecutors, and a sheriff’s deputy testified he did not see any evidence that more than one vehicle struck the children. Erickson was charged with a misdemeanor in connection with the case.
Grossman is married to prominent plastic surgeon Dr. Peter Grossman, but at the time of the crash, they had were planning a separation and were dating other people.
In a dramatic moment after the verdict was read, Rebecca Grossman’s 19-year-old daughter could be seen crying and reportedly screamed “oh my god, oh my god,” according to the Daily Mail. Grossman sought to comfort the teen before she was led away in handcuffs. Since the crash, Grossman had mostly been free on $2 million bail.
Nancy Iskander, the boys’ mother, spoke with reporters after the verdict was read and reflected on her sons’ lives.
“They had so much in front of them,” Nancy Iskander said, according to KTLA-TV. “So much in this life, all of my hopes, all of my dreams, and they were just taken. If I want to see them, I have to go to the cemetery or just look at their friends and imagine how they would look like.”
Grossman is scheduled to be sentenced April 10. She faces 34 years to life in prison, according to the Los Angeles Times.
[Feature Photo: Mark and Jacob Iskander/Archangel Michael Coptic Orthodox Church of Ventura County]
