By TERRI VERMEULEN KEITH | City News Service
VAN NUYS >> The mother of two young boys killed as they crossed a Westlake Village street in 2020 testified Monday that the family was in the crosswalk when she saw two vehicles heading toward them at an “insane, crazy speed,” that she ducked out of the way of the first vehicle with her youngest son, and that she believes her other two boys were hit by the second vehicle that was allegedly driven by socialite Rebecca Grossman.
“I know who killed them,” Nancy Iskander — the mother of 11-year-old Mark and his 8-year-old brother Jacob — told a Van Nuys jury as testimony began in Grossman’s trial.
Iskander added that she would have said so if someone else had killed the boys.
Grossman, the 60-year-old co-founder of the Grossman Burn Foundation, was charged in December 2020 with two felony counts each of murder and vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, along with one felony count of hit-and-run driving resulting in death, in connection with the Sept. 29, 2020, deaths.
In opening statements Friday, Deputy District Attorney Ryan Gould told jurors that Grossman was speeding when she hit the brothers in a crosswalk on Triunfo Canyon Road.
Grossman’s attorneys insisted she was not the driver responsible for the deadly crash, which they contend occurred outside a crosswalk. The defense pointed the blame at former Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson, whom they allege was driving a black Mercedes SUV just ahead of Grossman’s white Mercedes SUV.
Related story: Rebecca Grossman isn’t the driver responsible for deaths of 2 young brothers, her attorney says
Erickson was described by the prosecutor as Grossman’s boyfriend at the time.
“I saw two cars coming towards us at an insane, crazy speed,” the victims’ mother told jurors in an emotional morning of testimony.
“I am 100 percent sure I was (in) the crosswalk with all of them,” Iskander added of herself and her three sons, saying her two older sons were behind her within about arm’s reach of her in the crosswalk.
Iskander said it was still light at the time, telling jurors that she could “clearly see two cars — black and white” and that “they could see me, too.”
She testified that she put her hand up in the air and that she had to jump with her 5-year-old son out of the way of the black SUV — without that vehicle hitting anyone. She also said she heard a “lot of noise” and the sound of a crash when the white SUV passed.
“I did not see her hit the boys … I heard the crash …” she said, noting that she didn’t see either of the vehicles stop.
Under cross-examination by lead defense attorney Tony Buzbee, the victims’ mother maintained that Grossman was responsible for the deadly crash.
She acknowledged that she didn’t actually see the white Mercedes hit her children because it was going “too fast.”
She said she had to search for her two oldest sons after the collision.
“At first, I couldn’t find them,” the victims’ mother said of the two boys. “I was screaming. I was in shock. I didn’t know what to do.”
Wiping away tears, Iskander said she first found Jacob laying near her, that it looked like he was asleep and that his heart was still beating. She said she subsequently found Mark with blood coming out of his mouth and every bone in his body broken.
She said the boys “died before my very eyes.”
The boys’ mother said a defense expert’s animation video — which depicts the black Mercedes striking the children first as they were outside the crosswalk — has “nothing to do with what happened to my children” and is “complete science fiction.”
When asked if she had ever seen her older son flying through the air, she said, “No, I wouldn’t have missed that.”
She acknowledged that she has filed a lawsuit against Grossman and Erickson, saying that “she killed” her two children, who are at a cemetery instead of going to school or playing sports.
The family had gone out to get some fresh air in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, with Iskander saying that she and Jacob were each on rollerblades, Mark was riding his skateboard, her youngest son was on a scooter and her husband was jogging ahead while pushing a stroller containing their daughter. The woman said she and her sons waited until the road was clear to begin walking across the street toward the lake and that she saw the two approaching vehicles as they were in the crosswalk.
The victims’ mother said the vehicles appeared to be “playing” and “trying to beat each other some place” before the deadly collision.
Jurors also heard from one of Erickson’s former friends, former MLB player Royce Clayton, who testified that he met Grossman and Erickson early that evening for margaritas at a Mexican restaurant before the crash. He said under questioning by the defense that he is no longer friends with Erickson because Clayton has children and does not “understand how he could be so negligent and (be) responsible for running down kids.”
In his opening statement last week, Buzbee told jurors that Grossman is “not guilty because she didn’t do anything and someone else did.”
The defense attorney acknowledged that no one saw a vehicle driven seconds ahead of Grossman by Erickson strike the children, but said the defense will prove that Erickson’s vehicle hit the children first, and the victims “hit Mrs. Grossman’s car” about three seconds after the initial collision.
Erickson was previously charged with misdemeanor reckless driving in a case that was separately filed, but that charge was dismissed after he completed a diversionary program.
The prosecutor had told jurors that a passenger in a car behind Grossman’s vehicle saw the white Mercedes strike Jacob.
“It is a well-marked crosswalk and this is where our worlds collide,” Gould said, noting that Grossman and Erickson were in separate vehicles heading back to her house on the lake to watch the presidential debate that night.
“They didn’t have a chance,” the deputy district attorney said of the two boys.
The prosecutor alleged that Grossman was “flooring it to get herself up to 81 mph on a 45 mile-per-hour street” and driving just over 70 mph at the time of impact. He said she wouldn’t have hit the boys if she had been driving at the speed limit.
“She continues to go past … and doesn’t stop for over a third of a mile away. … She never goes back to that crosswalk,” Gould said.
The prosecutor noted that blood testing done on Grossman after the crash determined she had alcohol and Valium in her system, though she is not charged with driving under the influence. Jurors don’t need to find her guilty of that in order to convict her of the charges, he said.
The defense attorney countered the prosecution’s allegation that the defendant was speeding, saying that “Mrs. Grossman was going 52 mph at best.” He contended that the data used by the prosecution’s expert from the vehicle’s so-called black box was not reliable.
Buzbee maintained that Grossman didn’t leave the scene, and accused law enforcement of failing to adequately investigate the crash, saying it was “not the best investigation you’ve ever seen.”
Buzbee insisted that a separate vehicle — Erickson’s — went through the intersection 2 1/2 seconds before Grossman.
“We will show you that is the vehicle that hit the two children first,” Buzbee said, adding that “multiple eyewitnesses either heard or saw two impacts,” with some saying they occurred three seconds apart and others saying they happened five seconds apart.
Buzbee told jurors that debris collected at the scene proves there were “at least two impacts, likely three,” but he said investigators rushed to judgment to accuse Grossman of killing the boys, when in reality, “the car in front of her actually hit the children.”
The defense attorney alleged that Erickson stopped up the road, hid in the bushes and watched after the collision. He said the defense would ask the jury to “use your courage and find Mrs. Grossman not guilty.”
Related story: Jury selection begins in murder trial of Grossman Burn Foundation co-founder over double-fatal crash
Sheriff’s officials said after the crash that family members were crossing the three-way intersection — which does not have a stoplight — in the crosswalk when the mother heard a car speeding toward them and both parents reached out to protect two of their children, but the two boys were too far out in the intersection and were struck.
The older boy died at the scene and his 8-year-old sibling died at a hospital.
Grossman allegedly continued driving after striking the boys, eventually stopping about a quarter-mile away from the scene when her car engine stopped running, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
In a conversation with an operator through a Mercedes-Benz service following the crash, Grossman said she didn’t know if she had hit anyone and that she was driving when her airbag exploded.
“I don’t know what I hit,” she said in the recording when a 911 operator was patched in and asked if she had hit a person.
Grossman is free on $2 million bond.
She was ordered to stand trial in May 2022 by Superior Court Judge Shellie Samuels. Superior Court Judge Joseph Brandolino, who is presiding over the case, subsequently denied a defense motion to dismiss the murder charges.
Related story: Murder charges stand against Grossman Burn Foundation co-founder in boys’ crosswalk deaths
The defendant — who could face up to 34 years to life in prison if convicted as charged — is the wife of Dr. Peter Grossman, who is the director of the Grossman Burn Centers and son of the center’s late founder, A. Richard Grossman.
Rebecca and Peter Grossman were separated at the time of the crash, according to a statement by her husband posted on the website supporting her.
She is a co-founder of the Grossman Burn Foundation and a former publisher of Westlake Magazine.
Brandolino said at the start of the jury selection process that he expected the trial to last about six weeks.
Testimony is set to continue Tuesday.
