Photo: Corbin Carson, KFI News
VAN NUYS (CNS) - Rebecca Grossman, co-founder of the Grossman Burn Foundation, was convicted of second-degree murder and other charges Friday for running down two young boys in a Westlake Village intersection in 2020.
The nine-man, three-woman jury reached its verdict on the second day of deliberations, mulling the evidence for a total of about nine hours before rejecting a defense contention that Grossman's then-boyfriend, former Dodger Scott Erickson, was the one who fatally struck 11-year-old Mark Iskander and his 8-year-old brother, Jacob, on Sept. 29, 2020.
Grossman, 60, was convicted of two counts each of second-degree murder and vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and hit-and-run resulting in death.
She could face up to 34 years to life in state prison. She remained free throughout the trial on $2 million bond.
Grossman's daughter, Alexis, was visibly upset after the verdict was read, her mouth hanging open in the courtroom. The boys' mother was in tears.
Prosecutors argued during the trial that Grossman and Erickson had been out for drinks earlier that evening and were heading toward her nearby home in separate vehicles when Grossman's white Mercedes-Benz SUV struck the boys while they were crossing Triunfo Canyon Road with their parents in a marked crosswalk.
Sheriff's officials said six family members were crossing the three- way intersection -- which does not have a stoplight -- in the crosswalk when the mother heard a car speeding toward them and both parents reached out to protect two of their children, but the two boys were too far out in the intersection and were struck.
The older boy died at the scene and his 8-year-old sibling died at a hospital.
Grossman allegedly continued driving after striking the boys, eventually stopping about a quarter-mile away from the scene when her car engine stopped running, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.
Grossman's attorneys insisted during the case that it was Erickson who struck the boys first with his black SUV. Erickson was never called to testify in the case.
Grossman's lead attorney, Tony Buzbee, kicked off his closing argument Wednesday by asking jurors, "Where is Scott Erickson? Where is the guy?" in the first of repeated references to Erickson, whom the prosecution said was Rebecca Grossman's boyfriend at the time.
He told jurors that "Erickson hit the kids first," and questioned why the prosecution hadn't called the ex-baseball player during the case.
Prosecutors countered that there was "not a shred" of evidence that Erickson struck the children, with Deputy District Attorney Ryan Gould calling that a "ridiculous theory."
The deputy district attorney told jurors that the defense has the same right to bring people into court, prompting Grossman's attorney to quickly object that the defense "was not able to do that."
The prosecutor said Grossman hit the children as they were in a marked crosswalk and had a "duty to stop," but "never returned" to the scene. He said debris from the crash matched Grossman's white Mercedes-Benz SUV.
The deputy district attorney said that Grossman was "driving too fast," "knew that speed kills" and was "impaired."
Grossman lied about how many alcoholic beverages she consumed, according to the prosecutor, who acknowledged that a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy who performed a field sobriety test on Grossman had "made mistakes."
The prosecutor questioned whether it would be worse if the woman was sober when she made the decision to speed, saying that she was "flooring it."
The prosecution alleged that Grossman was speeding at 81 mph in a 45- mph zone just seconds before impact, and that data from the vehicle's so-called black box showing that she was driving 73 mph at the time of the crash was reliable.
In her closing argument Wednesday, Deputy District Attorney Jamie Castro told the jury that Grossman "continued driving as far as her car would let her" before the vehicle's engine cut off about one-third of a mile away.
But Grossman's lead attorney had told jurors in his closing argument that Grossman was traveling at 54 mph "at best" and that she didn't know why her airbags had deployed. He said the vehicle rolled to a stop after the collision, and disputed the prosecution's contention that she was impaired and fled the scene.
Buzbee alleged that authorities failed to properly investigate the crash and determine who actually hit the boys.
He called the case a "rush to judgment," saying they "put their blinders on" and didn't consider that anyone else might be responsible for the crash.
Again referring to Erickson, the defense attorney noted that "You couldn't keep me away from this courthouse" to clear his own name if someone were accusing him.
Earlier in the day Friday, Gould had asked Superior Court Judge Joseph Brandolino to order Grossman to be taken into custody. Gould said videos that were not allowed by the judge to be used in the trial were sent Thursday to a reporter after Grossman asked for a business card. The prosecutor called the move a direct violation of the court's protective order and that it could only be interpreted as an "attempt to influence the jury."
A bodycam video that had also been excluded from the trial also wound up on a Facebook page to which Grossman's daughter belongs, according to the prosecutor.
The judge -- who noted that jurors had been admonished not to go on the Internet or view media reports about the case -- declined to immediately order Grossman to be taken into custody. But he warned the defendant that she cannot provide evidence to reporters, telling her, "You just can't do it. ... You don't want to end up being remanded."
The jury got the case against Grossman shortly after 10 a.m. Thursday after hearing a rebuttal argument from the prosecutor, who urged the jury to "hold the defendant responsible for murdering Mark and Jacob."
At the end of the day Thursday, the jury asked to hear a read-back of trial testimony that centered on the placement of the pedestrians in the crosswalk, the position of the vehicles as they approached the crosswalk and what the victim's mother, Nancy, saw and heard immediately before, during and after she jumped out of the way with her youngest son to avoid being hit by the black SUV before Grossman's white Mercedes-Benz SUV passed through the crosswalk. The defense contended that the boys were not in the crosswalk when they were struck.
Jurors also asked to re-hear former Major League Baseball player Royce Clayton's response to Buzbee's question about why he and Erickson are no longer friends.
"I have kids ... I just don't understand how he could be so negligent and be responsible for running down kids," Clayton said in his testimony Jan. 29. The judge rejected a subsequent effort by Clayton to return to the stand to clarify what he meant.