Attorneys for Hidden Hills socialite Rebecca Grossman have constantly maintained it was her then-lover, former Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson, who first struck two younger boys in a Westlake Village crosswalk, a deadly collision for which she now stands accused of homicide.
A district lawyer’s investigator, referred to as to testify at Grossman’s trial by the protection, leveled an additional cost at Erickson on Thursday — alleging he was “chilly plating,” or utilizing the identical license plate on two of the black Mercedes SUVs that he owns, certainly one of which he was driving the night time the boys had been killed. The investigator stated the apply was a felony.
However whereas Grossman’s protection staff seized on the plating problem to color Erickson as a lawbreaker, the lead prosecutor dismissed the revelation as a years-old purple herring.
Grossman, 60, is accused of driving her white Mercedes SUV at speeds reaching 81 mph on Triunfo Canyon Street within the upscale suburban L.A. neighborhood, carefully following the SUV pushed by Erickson.
Prosecutors allege that on Sept. 29, 2020, she went from having cocktails with Erickson at an area restaurant to racing behind him alongside the road, the place she struck Mark and Jacob Iskander, 11 and eight, as they made their approach by means of a marked crosswalk behind their mom and 5-year-old brother.
Grossman is charged with two counts of second-degree homicide, two counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, and one rely of hit-and-run driving leading to dying.
Erickson instructed authorities he was driving his 2007 Mercedes on the time, and jurors have heard him deny on the witness stand having hit anybody.
Tony Buzbee, Grossman’s lead lawyer, stated that Erickson was truly driving his 2016 black Mercedes GL 63 AMG, and that it struck the younger boys and vaulted certainly one of them onto the hood of Grossman’s white Mercedes GLE 43. An accident reconstruction knowledgeable testifying for the protection on Thursday stated that was what occurred.
Sheriff’s officers by no means inspected Erickson’s automobile, in line with testimony.
D.A. investigator Sergio Lopez testified that he was requested by his workplace to take a more in-depth take a look at Erickson’s two Mercedes, and obtained license-plate captures from the 2007 and 2016 autos exhibiting they’d the identical Nevada license plate.
“The problem with Mr. Erickson is utilizing the identical license for 2 autos,” Lopez stated when questioned by Buzbee. The investigator stated such pretend plates had been simply obtained — he stated they may very well be purchased on Etsy.
Mark, left, and Jacob Iskander.
(Iskander household)
Lopez testified that Erickson was “cold-plating to keep away from paying registration on the 2016 mannequin.”
Prosecutor Jamie Castro referred to as Lopez’s testimony a purple herring. Lopez confirmed that Erickson’s alleged cold-plating had occurred lengthy earlier than the 2020 incident.
“It has nothing to do with the collision?” Castro requested.
“Right,” Lopez replied.
Buzbee then jumped up and requested, “The place is Scott Erickson?”
“No concept,” Lopez stated.
A lawyer representing Erickson couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.
Jurors on Thursday additionally heard from a young person who was taking part in tennis in Westlake Village on the night time of the collision. Dorsa Khoddami recounted listening to “alarming” sounds from a close-by roadway, adopted by a sudden hush.
“I pieced collectively it was a automotive accident,” Khoddami testified, describing how she and her mom, a doctor, dashed from the tennis courts to the accident scene.
She stated they arrived to search out Nancy Iskander, the boys’ mom, shoeless. The teenager testified that she tried handy the girl some footwear they’d retrieved from the road.
“She began screaming, ‘These are my son’s footwear!’ And I instantly put them again,” stated Khoddami, who was 16 on the time. “My mother described it as a battle zone.”
Buzbee requested Khoddami whether or not she had heard two impacts, which may reinforce the protection argument that Erickson’s automobile had struck the kids first.
Khoddami testified that she’d heard an “alarming and loud” sound after which “one other sound occurred,” after which “everybody paused.”
Authorities discovered Grossman about three-tenths of a mile from the crosswalk after a gas cut-off security system brought about her automobile to grind to a halt. She instructed a responding deputy, in addition to a 911 operator, that she didn’t know what had occurred.
The prosecution has stated Grossman was not as ignorant to the night time’s occasions as she claimed, pointing to a textual content {that a} pal testified Grossman had despatched her in June 2022, almost two years after the boys’ deaths, wherein she stated she’d seen Nancy Iskander — who was sporting inline skates — falling and had turned her head within the lady’s course for a short second or two.
An knowledgeable witness, nevertheless, bolstered the protection’s argument that Grossman was unaware of any impacts. William Broadhead, an engineering knowledgeable on automotive airbags and restraints, instructed jurors Thursday that drivers are surprised by the drive of an airbag when it deploys.
Protection attorneys wished to set off an airbag contained in the courtroom as an illustration for jurors, a transfer that was rejected by L.A. County Superior Courtroom Decide Joseph Brandolino, who stated it may very well be proven on video. The choose did say he would permit the managed firing of a seat-belt pretensioner, which robotically tightens the belt in a collision, however security screens for the Sheriff’s Division nixed that concept.
“It stuns you. … It’s complicated should you don’t know you’re in an accident,” stated Broadhead, describing the punch of the Mercedes dashboard and knee airbags and the noise of the belt pretensioner. “You don’t know if it’s a bomb or a sniper.”
The witness stated he wouldn’t count on that placing a pedestrian would trigger the baggage to inflate. Grossman’s “airbags fired defectively,” he concluded.
The prosecution and protection sparred over the supply of Grossman’s bruises, which Broadhead stated had been a results of being injured by an airbag.
Prosecutor Castro confronted him with a sequence of textual content messages the Hidden Hills lady had despatched to a masseuse 10 days earlier than the accident. The messages included pictures and stated, “Subsequent time don’t therapeutic massage too arduous. That you must loosen up. I’ve bruises.”
Buzbee, Grossman’s lawyer, belittled the testimony, saying,”We simply discovered one thing right here: Nicole has sturdy arms.”
He stated photos confirmed bruises on his shopper’s face, arm and chest that weren’t there earlier than the night time of the collision.
