A textual content message written by Rebecca Grossman, who’s on trial for the homicide of two boys killed in a automobile crash, reveals how the Hidden Hills socialite briefly turned her head whereas driving, distracted by a girl sporting inline skates.
Prosecutors this week used Grossman’s personal phrases to explain the Sept. 29, 2020, collision that killed 11-year-old Mark Iskander and his 8-year-old brother, Jacob.
“I do take accountability,” Grossman wrote in a June 2022 textual content message to a pal, Rose Wiltshire. “I turned my head to the correct most likely one or two seconds longer than I ought to have once I noticed a girl crashing on rollerblades on the correct facet of the highway.”
On the time of the crash, Nancy Iskander was sporting inline skates as she started to cross Triunfo Canyon Highway at Saddle Mountain Drive in Westlake Village. Iskander mentioned her youngest son, Zachary, was subsequent to her on his scooter; older sons Mark, on a skateboard, and Jacob, sporting inline skates, have been forward within the marked crosswalk.
Iskander beforehand testified that she heard revving engines and appeared as much as see a black sport utility automobile rushing towards the intersection. She grabbed Zachary, then 5, and pulled him to security because the SUV barreled previous.
However one other SUV — a white Mercedes — was following intently behind, Iskander mentioned. That automobile was pushed by Grossman.
“I didn’t comprehend it on the time but it surely was the mother,” Grossman mentioned to Wiltshire, who testified Wednesday concerning the messages from her pal of 20 years. “This grabbed my consideration because it most likely would anybody else’s. I suppose [I] turned my head over my shoulder as a result of the airbag burst on the left facet of my face and the decrease bag fractured my foot. Sure. I want I had not turned my head.”
Grossman, 60, 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 in reference to the collision. The homicide counts are considerably unprecedented, as she was not charged with driving beneath the affect, usually used to show gross negligence in vehicular fatalities.
Prosecutors, nevertheless, have argued that Grossman was impaired. She had been consuming cocktails with Scott Erickson, a former pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, earlier than the erstwhile lovers raced again from a restaurant in separate automobiles, heading to Grossman’s lakeside house. A breathalyzer take a look at on the scene confirmed that Grossman had a blood alcohol degree of about 0.075%; a blood take a look at three hours later got here again at 0.08%, California’s authorized restrict. Valium was additionally present in her system, two criminalists have testified.
However by Grossman’s personal admission, she was distracted.
“I wasn’t texting or reaching for something,” she instructed Wiltshire in one other textual content. “I used to be shocked by the mother crashing on her rollerblades.”
Tony Buzbee, Grossman’s lead legal professional, acknowledged that his consumer’s phrases revealed she was distracted — however not that she struck the boys.
“That’s precisely what occurred, and that makes a number of widespread sense,” Buzbee mentioned. “If I see a girl falling on Rollerblades, I’ll faucet my foot on the brake, proper?”
However Grossman instructed a distinct story when talking with a Mercedes dispatcher and a 911 operator the night time of the crash, saying she didn’t know what had occurred, solely that her airbag had exploded. Her automobile had been disabled by a system override after her airbag deployed following a collision; she coasted to a cease a couple of third of a mile from the crash scene, the place Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies discovered her alongside the SUV, which had seen front-end injury.
Grossman’s Mercedes SUV after the 2020 crash.
(Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division)
Earlier within the trial, Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Ryan Gould performed a tape of Grossman telling an operator: “I used to be driving down the highway, unexpectedly, my bag exploded.” A 911 operator on the road with the Mercedes consultant requested, “Did they hit an individual? They mentioned the 2 children have been hit on Rollerblades?” Grossman replied, “No.”
When Deputy Michael Kelley carried out a area sobriety take a look at on the scene, Grossman repeatedly requested concerning the youngsters, saying her husband — Dr. Peter Grossman, who runs the Grossman Burn Heart — might assist them.
The “black field” information from Grossman’s automobile confirmed that she was rushing, at as much as 81 mph, on the quiet residential avenue and barely braked earlier than “two strikes with small objects,” in keeping with testimony from a crash investigator.
However Buzbee has argued that Grossman’s automobile was not the primary to hit the brothers. He has repeatedly indicated that Erickson’s black Mercedes, which sped via the intersection forward of Grossman’s, struck each youngsters, throwing Jacob to the curb and Mark excessive into the air earlier than he landed within the path of her SUV.
Jeffrey Muttart, a site visitors accident reconstruction professional, testified Thursday that Erickson instructed an investigator “he didn’t hit anyone” however did see two boys within the crosswalk and a reflective scooter — which Zachary Iskander had been driving.
Erickson was charged with a misdemeanor rely of reckless driving, which was dismissed after he made a public service announcement concerning the significance of protected driving.
However Buzbee has continued to forged blame for the deaths on Erickson. He beforehand alleged {that a} sheriff’s investigator by no means checked the retired World Collection winner’s automobile after the crash and took his phrase in a telephone interview that he was driving his 2007 Mercedes SUV on the time. The protection legal professional says Erickson was as an alternative driving a 2016 Mercedes-AMG.
When Buzbee requested Muttart whether or not he was conscious that Erickson was driving the newer automobile, the professional mentioned he was not.
Muttart testified that Grossman’s extreme velocity led to the crash that killed the boys.
“It boils down to hurry,” he mentioned.
Displaying Grossman’s mind-set is essential to prosecutors’ efforts to show that the crash quantities to second-degree homicide. Deputy Dist. Atty. Jamie Castro beforehand argued that textual content messages Grossman despatched confirmed she knew the doubtless lethal penalties of rushing.
Sheriff’s Deputy Julius Gomez testified that he had accessed her cellphone, and he confirmed jurors a few of her messages. One was despatched to a pal a month earlier than the crash. In it, Grossman shared a narrative about younger soccer gamers who misplaced management of a rushing automobile, crashed right into a tree and burned to dying.
On Thursday, jurors heard that Grossman had beforehand been ticketed for rushing. California Freeway Patrol Officer Robert Leffler testified that on March 10, 2013, he stopped Grossman doing 92 mph on the 101 Freeway in Agoura Hills.
“She apologized; her husband was referred to as into work, and he or she was dashing to get her youngsters,” Leffler mentioned. After writing the quotation, Leffler mentioned, he warned Grossman concerning the risks of driving at such speeds, saying it can lead to deaths. A “pissed off” Grossman, he mentioned, instructed him she “hopes I don’t want the companies of the burn heart sooner or later.”
However Buzbee fired again, questioning Leffler’s seemingly good recall of a site visitors cease from greater than a decade in the past, asking, “You simply remembered that?”
The legislation enforcement officer mentioned information accounts of Grossman’s case had triggered his reminiscence, and he “instantly acknowledged the title” — recalling her Vary Rover SUV, extreme velocity and remark. He went via 1000’s of ticket stubs at his house and located hers, he mentioned.
However beneath Buzbee’s cross-examination, he couldn’t recall tickets he wrote earlier than or after Grossman’s.
