A judge on Monday sentenced Rebecca Grossman to 15 years to life in prison for hitting two brothers while speeding in a Westlake Village crosswalk four years ago, calling her actions “reckless and unquestionably Negligently”.
Nancy Iskander, the mother of Mark Iskander, 11, and Jacob Iskander, 8, angrily asked for a sentence that reflects her sons death.
“She’s a coward,” Iskander said of Grossman.
But Brandolino said Grossman “is not the monster that prosecutors have portrayed him to be.”
Grossman, 60, who appeared in court with her hair pulled back in a ponytail and wore a brown shirt with a white T-shirt and slacks, agreed to pay $47,161.89 in restitution to the Iskanders. Her attorney said the co-founder of the Grossman Burn Foundation has donated $25,000 toward funeral expenses.
The verdict ends a nearly four-year criminal saga in which she refused to accept responsibility for the boy’s death and tried to manipulate the case in prison even after being convicted.
Dr. Peter Grossman (from right) leaves the Van Nuys courthouse with his two children, Nicholas and Alexis, on Monday after Rebecca Ger Rebecca Grossman was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for second-degree murder and other charges in the crash that killed two young men.
(Brian Vanderbrugge/Los Angeles Times)
“I never met anybody. I never met anybody,” Grossman said at the sentencing. “I would hit a brick wall…I don’t know why God didn’t take my life.”
After the accident, she said, she fell into a state of denial and closed herself off.
She looked at Nancy Iskander and said through tears, “My pain is only a fraction of your pain.”
After a six-week trial filled with dramatic testimony, Grossman was found guilty in February of two counts of murder, two counts of aggravated vehicular manslaughter and one count of hit-and-run in the September 2020 deaths of two children.
The boy’s mother testified during the trial that her older child was walking in front of her and her youngest son at a crosswalk on Treunford Canyon Road when she heard an engine roar. Two sport utility vehicles were speeding toward them.
Iskander dove into the water for safety and hugged her 5-year-old son. She said her next memory was of Jacob and Mark lying on the road.
Grossman drove behind former Dodgers player Scott Erickson, who had been drinking cocktails with Grossman at a nearby restaurant earlier in the day. According to evidence given at the trial, she was driving at speeds of up to 81 mph and traveled a further half mile before hitting the children.
Nancy Iskander and her husband Karim speak to the media after Rebecca Grossman was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison on Monday.
(Brian Vanderbrugge/Los Angeles Times)
Prosecutors Habib Balian, Ryan Gould and Jamie Castro wrote to the judge last week saying Grossman had shown no remorse. It said: “The defendant’s conduct from September 29, 2020 to today demonstrates a complete lack of remorse and a narcissistic sense of superiority, which can only lead to the conclusion that she does not deserve any leniency.”
On Monday, more than a dozen friends and family members of the Iskander family came before the judge to describe the hole left after the boy’s death and asked Grossman to impose a lengthy prison term.
Pastor Shami Delkskamp of Ascension Lutheran Church in Thousand Oaks said the fatal crash has traumatized the entire community, noting that many children are now afraid to walk in crosswalks. Drexkamp said a suspended sentence for Grossman “would be a slap in the face of justice.”
In 2020, 11-year-old Mark Iskander (left) and his brother Jacob were struck and killed by Rebecca Grossman at a marked crosswalk in Westlake Village.
(family photo)
Former nanny Natalie Nasheed said, “This senseless crime… took away two innocent souls.”
The boys’ uncle, Sherif Iskander, said Grossman was “trying to get away with murder,” describing him as self-centered and self-righteous.
“To this day, she has never apologized to our family,” he said.
The boys’ grandmother, Joyce Ghobrial, told the court: “I’m going to have to die in sorrow for the rest of my life.” Nancy Iskander’s voice shook as she stood up and touched her mother’s cheek. Come and comfort her.
Grossman knelt down in his seat and cried as Jacob’s best friend, Bodie Wallace, spoke. The 13-year-old said the song “10,000 Reasons” now makes him sad because he wonders “the 10,000 reasons why Ms. Grossman didn’t say ‘I’m sorry’ right away.”
Grossman’s attorneys, led by James Spertus, argued that the mother of two had no previous criminal record and should avoid jail time. They asked the judge to consider probation or a shorter sentence.
Her attorneys painted a different picture of Grossman, calling him a “humanitarian” dedicated to rescuing female burn victims and victims of domestic violence.
Speights said in a sentencing memorandum last week that while the Iskanders’ loss was “immeasurable,” the Grossmans experienced a different kind of loss: the loss of their mother of two, Grossman himself also lost his purpose in life and was “suffering tremendous pain.”
He included several letters from Grossman’s family and friends, including one from Grossman’s son Nick, who said: “Nothing can compare to what the Iskander family is going through, but since the accident Since it happened, I feel like the whole world hates my mom and everyone hates me.
“My mother is not the bad person that the media has portrayed her to be,” he told the court on Monday.
Grossman’s legal team played a 30-minute video that began with her husband, Dr. Peter Grossman, saying: “We don’t compare our pain to their pain.” In the video, daughter Alex Kesis told how her mother was abandoned by her father and molested by her mother’s boyfriend, “suffering all kinds of abuse at the age of 13.” Nick describes his mother as a “very spiritual person.”
Grossman dropped out of college because she couldn’t afford tuition and became a flight attendant before starting her own medical equipment business, her husband said. He also told the story of a girl from Afghanistan who was badly burned when they brought her home when she was only 10 years old.
“I give my heart and my love to Rebecca,” Zubaida, a now-adult burn victim, says in the video. “She’s my mother.”
But Nancy Iskander dismissed the case out of sympathy for Grossman. She said that while she was at the hospital, a doctor outside the emergency room, where she saw Grossman, asked her if she wanted to disconnect Jacob from life support.
“She looked me in the eyes,” the grieving mother said with tears in her eyes, her voice firm. “That’s when it was time to say something.”
