A prominant California socialite has appeared in court charged with killing two young boys during an alleged high-speed street race in a residential neighbourhood with former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson.
Rebecca Grossman, a co-founder of the Grossman Burn Foundation, allegedly ran over a pair of brothers, Mark, 11 and Jacob, 8, as she hit speeds of up to 81-mph in Westlake Village, near Los Angeles, on her way home from dinner.
The mother of the dead youngsters, Nancy Iskander found herself gulping back tears as she shared the harrowing details of her young sons’ tragic deaths to a California courtroom on Monday, in a preliminary hearing that could see a wealthy socialite stand trial for their murder.
Ms Grossman, who remains out on a $2m bail, faces 34 years to life in prison if she is convicted.
The 58-year-old and her team of attorneys are currently pleading that she’s not guilty to the charges of two counts of murder, two counts of vehicular man slaughter with gross negligence and one count of hit-and-run driving.
Providing a difficult testimony of the fatal 20 September 2020 crash, Ms Iskander described in painful detail how both Ms Grossman and Mr Erickson’s pair of SUV’s failed to stop at the intersection, while the socialite’s car reportedly continued to carry her son Mark a considerable distance after being struck before her vehicle came to a complete stop, The Los Angeles Times reported.
“They didn’t stop before the intersection. They didn’t stop at the intersection. They didn’t stop when an 11-year-old was on the hood of the car … Nobody stopped,” the disturbed mother recounted in a tearful account.
Ms Iskander was one of the first witnesses to take the stand in the Van Nuys courtroom where Judge Shellie Samuels will determine whether there is enough evidence to have the 58-year-old stand trial for the deaths of the 8-year-old Jacob and 11-year-old Mark.
Ms Iskander described to the courtroom how on the night of the crash, her family was engaged in activities that would be far from considered risky in the southern California residential neighbourhood. While she and her son Jacob rollerbladed, her 5-year-old son, Zackary, followed along on a scooter while Mark was on a skateboard.
Father Karim Iskander and their daughter were not far behind jogging, the Los Angeles Times reported.
While the first group made their way across the three-way intersection in a marked intersection at around 7.10pm, Ms Iskander described how the pair of luxury cars came racing down the road.
Ms Grossman is accused of speeding as fast as 81 mph in the neighbourhood on the night of the crash and going faster than 70 mph at the moment of impact.
Ms Iskander told the court that she initially dove to protect her 5-year-old when she saw the two cars barreling towards the crosswalk. When she looked up to survey the damage, she realised something terrible had happened to Mark and Jacob.
“I heard the noise and looked, felt and saw the car speeding,” Ms Iskander said. “I realised something happened to Mark and Jacob.”
Her two other sons, she said, were lying on the curb and down the road. Mark, she added, had “blood coming out of his mouth”.
“I see him every night,” she said.
While Mark was declared dead at the scene of the crash, Jacob was taken to a nearby hospital where he was announced dead some hours later.
Speaking to ABC 7 after Monday’s preliminary hearing, the mother and father of the grieving family told reporters that while the day’s testimonies had been “tough”, they thought it was worth it.
“We trust the justice system,” Karim told reporters. “And we are hopeful that she will, that we will get justice.”
The decision of whether Ms Grossman will stand trial rests in the hands of Judge Samuels, who will hear both sides of the case before arriving at her decision.
For Ms Grossman to be convicted of a second-degree murder charge, the district attorney must prove that she had been acting with malice and knew that driving above 70 mph in a residential area created a significant risk for human life.
