Sitting on the stand throughout Rebecca Grossman’s homicide trial this week, witness after witness was requested an uncommon query.
After the hit-and-run killing of two boys in Westlake Village, did you see a 6-foot-4, 250-pound man hiding within the bushes, watching the investigation?
Wanting puzzled, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Cody Gaudet replied he had by no means seen such an individual and there weren’t many bushes on Triunfo Canyon Highway, the place the deadly crash occurred.
“That may be a priority if we had,” he stated.
That description occurs to suit Scott Erickson, a former Dodgers pitcher and Grossman’s onetime lover. Erickson was driving a black Mercedes SUV a brief distance forward of Grossman when prosecutors allege she hit and killed Mark and Jacob Iskander, 11 and eight, in a crosswalk on Sept. 29, 2020.
Grossman, 60, is charged with two counts of second-degree homicide, two counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one depend of hit-and-run driving leading to loss of life. Prosecutors allege she sought to flee the scene in her closely broken Mercedes when the SUV’s security system made the car inoperable, a few third of a mile past the crosswalk.
Grossman’s lead legal professional, Tony Buzbee, has all through the trial taken each alternative to argue it was Erickson’s black SUV — not his consumer’s white Mercedes — that first struck the kids.
He additionally claimed to jurors that Erickson hid in some close by after the crash to look at the aftermath unfold.
Buzbee advised jurors “she didn’t do something, however another person did,” including that authorities by no means examined Erickson’s car after the lethal incident.
The boys’ mom, Nancy Iskander, has testified that Erickson’s black SUV by no means hit her sons — however may have killed her and her 5-year-old son, Zachary, if she hadn’t dived out of the best way and pulled him to security within the bike lane.
“I do know she killed them,” she testified, saying she has little question it was the white SUV she now is aware of was pushed by Grossman that fatally struck her two sons.
Throughout opening statements, Grossman’s protection staff asserted that Erickson’s car struck the kids first, flipping one of many boys into the air earlier than he bounced off Grossman’s car, inflicting front-end injury.
Buzbee has pointed to the testimony of 1 witness, Susan Manners, who stated she noticed Mark tossed into the air however didn’t see him land.
Nancy Iskander, left, is consoled by a buddy outdoors Van Nuys Courthouse West.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Occasions)
However when Deputy Dist. Atty. Ryan Gould confirmed Nancy Iskander a protection digital re-creation depicting that situation, she declared it to be “full science fiction.”
“I wouldn’t have missed that, Mark going up within the sky,” she stated.
Buzbee adopted up, asking whether or not she had seen the second her youngsters had been killed. Iskander replied that “it was too quick,” however added, “If another person did it, I might have stated it.”
Erickson was initially charged with misdemeanor reckless driving after the 2020 crash, however that was dismissed after he made a public service announcement concerning the significance of secure driving.
His lawyer, Mark Werksman, stated he doesn’t plan to handle the problems being raised within the Grossman trial, however added, “This may occasionally change over the course of the approaching days [or] weeks.”
Three eyewitnesses to the lethal incident testified that they noticed one however not each boys hit by the white SUV or a light-colored car.
Jake Sands and Yasamin Eftekhari, who had been driving on Triunfo Canyon Highway on the time, stated they noticed Mercedes SUVs — one black, one white — rushing towards the crosswalk, altering lanes like they had been competing. The white car despatched Jacob flying to the best curb, they stated, and Sands testified that he didn’t hear an impression when the black SUV handed by the crosswalk.
The pair described Grossman as driving 80 mph or extra on the road, the place the posted pace restrict is 45 mph.
Nonetheless, Sands — a self-described automobile man — wrongly stated Grossman’s commonplace white Mercedes was a high-powered AMG mannequin. Prosecutors additionally referred to as a number of different witnesses who described listening to roaring engines and seeing from a distance autos touring at super pace.
Deputy Rafael Mejia testified that he discovered Grossman’s SUV stopped three-tenths of a mile from the marked crosswalk. The car was powered down by its security system as a result of its airbags deployed, court docket information present.
Mejia testified that he discovered Grossman standing in entrance of the car, which had seen front-end injury, together with a buckled fender on the passenger aspect that sheriff’s officers photographed.
“She advised me her car was disabled by Mercedes-Benz and her airbags went off, and he or she didn’t know what was happening,” Mejia stated. “She stated she hit one thing, however she didn’t know what she hit.”
Mejia stated components of Grossman’s white Mercedes, together with two emblems, had been discovered on the crash scene, however investigators discovered no components from different autos.
Mejia additionally stated that he noticed what gave the impression to be blood spatter on Grossman’s car, however that he didn’t have the fabric analyzed.
Mark and Jacob Iskander.
(Iskander Household)
Previous to the crash, Grossman and Erickson had been consuming cocktails at a close-by restaurant, Julio’s Agave Grill, based on court docket information. Grossman was separated from her husband, Peter, on the time.
Becoming a member of them was one other retired baseball participant, Royce Clayton, who testified that Erickson drank two margaritas and Grossman one. All of them agreed to satisfy afterward at Grossman’s residence and watch a presidential debate, he stated.
Clayton, now the baseball coach at Oaks Christian Faculty in Westlake Village, testified that he by no means went to Grossman’s residence as a result of he discovered of the crash after talking with Erickson by cellphone just a few hours later. When requested whether or not he was nonetheless buddies with Erickson, who has denied any wrongdoing, the previous All-Star shortstop stated, “No.”
“I’ve children. … I simply don’t perceive how he may very well be so negligent and be liable for operating down children,” Clayton stated.
The comment ignited such concern that Clayton requested to be put again on the witness stand to clarify he was not implicating Erickson.
After sturdy objections from Grossman’s authorized staff, Los Angeles Superior Court docket Decide Joseph Brandolino on Thursday stated prosecutors couldn’t recall Clayton. Clayton left the courthouse loudly complaining to an legal professional that he needed the jury to grasp his phrases.
Prosecutors haven’t charged Grossman with driving underneath the affect, however a criminalist testified Friday that blood work taken three hours after the crash registered her blood alcohol stage at 0.08%. She additionally had Valium in her system on the time of the deadly incident, prosecutors allege.
Jurors repeatedly watched video of a sobriety check given to Grossman, although Deputy Michael Kelley conceded that he didn’t observe precise nationwide requirements, together with requiring that she stroll a line and timing her throughout a one-legged stand.
However prosecutors don’t want to indicate she was impaired. To get a second-degree homicide conviction, Gould and fellow Deputy Dist. Atty. Jamie Castro should show that Grossman acted with implied malice and knew the act of driving at a excessive pace in a residential space was harmful to human life.
Subsequent week, prosecutors plan to current proof from a black-box knowledge recorder {that a} deputy beforehand testified reveals Grossman reached as much as 81 mph moments earlier than the crash.
Buzbee, nonetheless, stated that his consultants will present the info are unreliable and corrupted.
The protection plans to name Alexis Grossman, the defendant’s daughter, to testify she noticed Erickson within the bushes after the crash. Grossman’s staff may even must substantiate a declare made throughout opening statements that Erickson was driving a 2016 AMG Mercedes SUV with a V8 engine, not a 2007 Mercedes SUV as he advised authorities.
Buzbee in pretrial motions sought approval to enter pictures of the 2016 car into the document.
“We’re far forward of the place we thought we might be at this level, primarily due to the proof elicited throughout cross-examination of just about each witness,” he advised The Occasions.
“We look ahead to presenting our aspect of the case sooner or later. The place is Scott Erickson?”
