Mark and Jacob Iskander
VAN NUYS (CNS) - In an emotion-packed hearing, Grossman Burn Foundation co-founder Rebecca Grossman was sentenced Monday to 15 years to life in prison for running down two young boys who were crossing a Westlake Village street with their family.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Joseph Brandolino rejected a prosecution request that Grossman be sentenced to 34 years to life, saying such a lengthy term is "just not warranted here."
The judge called the Sept. 29, 2020, deaths of Mark and Jacob Iskander, aged 11 and 8, an "unimaginable loss," but he noted Grossman's history of philanthropic activity and her lack of any prior criminal record. While conceding that the defendant engaged in "incredibly selfish behavior" after the crash, the judge added, "She's not a monster as the prosecution attempts to portray her."
Grossman, who will turn 61 on Friday, was convicted Feb. 23 of two counts each of second-degree murder and vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one count of hit-and-run driving. The judge ordered her to be taken into custody minutes after the jury's verdict, rejecting a request by one of her trial attorneys to allow her to remain free on $2 million bond while awaiting sentencing.
Tears flowed throughout the hours-long sentencing hearing that stretched into early Monday afternoon. Grossman could be seen crying during nearly all of the victim impact statements, and when her own two children spoke on her behalf in the Van Nuys courtroom.
When it was her turn to speak, Grossman turned toward the courtroom audience -- containing the boys' family -- and again fought through tears, and pleaded for the boy's mother, Nancy Iskander, not to leave the courtroom, as she was preparing to walk out.
Grossman said she wanted the family to know "how sorry I am."
She insisted that she was unable to reach out to the boys' family as the case was pending on the advice of the attorneys, who told her it would amount to "tampering with witnesses."
"I'm so sorry I wasn't able to reach out to you," Grossman said.
She also insisted that she never saw the boys in the street the night of the crash.
"God knows that I never saw anybody," she said. "I never saw anyone. I believe he knows the truth."
She added that she would have "driven into a brick wall" rather than strike two children.
"I will carry this with me (until) my dying breath," Grossman said, adding that her pain is "nothing" compared to the pain experienced by the victims' family.
Nancy Iskander said during the hearing that she disputes Grossman's contention that she was unable to say anything to Iskander or her husband, saying that they saw each other outside the hospital emergency room the night of the crash.
"She looked me in the eye!" Iskander said, her voice rising. "You looked me in the eye. You knew they were dying."
Of the defense's request that Grossman's sentences on the murder counts run at the same time if their requests for probation or sentencing on the less serious vehicular manslaughter charges were denied, the woman asked, "Do two children count for one?"
She declined to comment outside court on the sentence, imploring the public simply to "remember Mark and Jacob."
Of the defendant's statement in court, she said, "Mrs. Grossman never said I am sorry for what I did. She only said I'm sorry for what happened to you. That is not an apology."
The boys' uncle, Sherif Iskander, was among those calling for the maximum sentence for Grossman, calling her "self-centered," "entitled" and without remorse. But he said outside court that he believed the 15-year-to-life sentence was fair.
More than a dozen other people spoke on behalf of the victims' family, including the boys' maternal grandmother and two teachers, who spoke about the devastating loss of the boys.
Bodie Wallace told the judge that he had "lost my best friend, Jacob," and said what hurt the most is that the boys' little brother, Zachary - - who was with his mother just ahead of the boys in the crosswalk -- had to see what happened to his two older brothers. The victims' father was nearby pushing a stroller with the couple's youngest child, their daughter Violette.
Meanwhile, defense attorneys offered a video with a number of Grossman's family members, including her husband, Peter, and their two children, along with a number of friends and burn survivors, who spoke on her behalf.
Grossman's two children also offered emotional statements in court to support their mother.
"I'm so deeply sorry for everything that has happened," her teenage son, Nick, said during the hearing, which lasted well over three hours.
But he maintained that his mother is "not this bad person" and "does not deserve a high sentence at all."
His older sister, Alexis, told the boys' parents, "I am so sorry. I am so sorry for your loss."
She disputed allegations that her mother has not been remorseful, saying, "All of the pain she feels will never go away." She pleaded with the judge not to "take her away from me for too long."
Outside court, Deputy District Attorney Ryan Gould said the prosecution was "disappointed" with the sentence handed down by the judge.
"We don't think the judge gave a sentence that is appropriate in light of everything that Ms. Grossman has done," the prosecutor said, with colleague Jamie Castro noting that the sentence "effectively reflected one murder," with the judge ordering that the sentence on the second murder charge run at the same time as the first murder charge.
Gould had told the judge during the hearing that "the defendant deserves every day of the maximum sentence."
The prosecutor said that what happened "wasn't a tragic accident," but "was a preventable murder."
He noted that Grossman had written that she was "not a murderer" in a letter addressed to the judge.
"No, Rebecca Grossman, you are a murderer," Gould said, speaking directly to the defendant.
One of Grossman's new attorneys, Samuel Josephs, noted that "the pain and the loss in this case is overwhelming," but maintained that what happened was "absolutely a tragic accident."
He said Grossman's actions after the crash were consistent with someone who was in complete shock, and disputed claims that she had no remorse.
The defense attorney called his client a woman who has been committed "to a life of public service" for a very long time.
In their sentencing brief, Josephs and fellow defense attorney James Spertus wrote that Grossman has been "widely recognized for her work at home and abroad," saying she is a "survivor of childhood trauma and abuse" who had an "inner resilience that enabled her to see beyond her circumstances and find a greater purpose in service to others," including helping a young burn victim from Afghanistan to whom she and her husband became legal guardians and leading the Grossman Burn Foundation to help medically indigent and low-income families "connect to life-changing burn resources that would otherwise be out of reach."
Prosecutors said the boys were crossing the street with their family in a marked crosswalk when they were struck by Grossman's vehicle.
Gould told jurors in his closing argument that debris from the crash matched Grossman's vehicle and there was "not a shred" of evidence that Grossman's then-boyfriend -- former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson - - struck the children first with his black Mercedes-Benz SUV just ahead of Grossman's vehicle, as defense attorneys contended during the trial.
In their sentencing memorandum, Gould and Deputy District Attorneys Jamie Castro and Habib Balian wrote that Grossman "drove at extreme speeds on surface streets, was impaired and had both alcohol and valium in her system," and that the evidence presented during her trial indicated she "accelerated from 73 mph to speeds of 81 mph in a 45 mph zone just two seconds before the collision" and struck the boys while traveling at 73 mph.
The prosecutors wrote that she "didn't return to the scene" or offer any aid to the boys after the crash, which prosecutors say resulted in the airbag deploying in her white Mercedes-Benz SUV and the vehicle's engine to stop running about a quarter of a mile away from the scene.
In a letter to the Iskanders, Grossman wrote, "I wish God had given me the opportunity to give my life instead of that of Mark and Jacob's," and that she was "so sorry that I was portrayed as a monster to you."
She wrote the boys' parents that she wished she had testified in her own defense during the trial so she would have "the opportunity to share my heart with you," and that she wished they could "feel my heart."
She added in her letter to the boys' parents that she has had her eye on a house that could be bought and turned into a patient and family burn and trauma home, and wants to dedicate the home and name it after the two boys.