Called to the stand as the defense’s first witness, the director of the Grossman Burn Centers testified Tuesday that he had been in a vehicle hundreds of times when his wife, Rebecca, was behind the wheel but that he didn’t recall whether she drove over the speed limit.
Rebecca Grossman is charged with two counts each of murder and vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one felony count of hit-and-run driving resulting in death in connection with a Sept. 29, 2020, crash in Westlake Village that killed 11-year-old Mark Iskander and his 8-year-old brother, Jacob.
The prosecution alleges that Grossman was speeding at the time she hit the boys, with Deputy District Attorney Ryan Gould telling jurors that Grossman was “flooring it” to get herself up to 81 miles per hour on a 45-mile-per-hour street and driving just over 70 mph at the time of impact. The older boy died at the scene and his 8-year-old sibling died at a hospital.
Grossman’s attorneys insisted she was not the driver responsible for the deadly crash, which they contend occurred outside a crosswalk. Lead defense attorney Tony Buzbee — who contends that Grossman was driving 52 mph “at best” — pointed the blame at former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson, whom he alleges was driving a black Mercedes SUV just ahead of Grossman’s white Mercedes SUV.
Erickson was described by the prosecutor as Grossman’s boyfriend at the time.
Grossman’s husband, Dr. Peter Grossman, said he learned from their daughter about the deadly crash, telling jurors that his wife was “almost inconsolable, crying, trembling, incredibly emotional” when he picked her up at a women’s center in Lynwood about 30 hours after the crash.
He said he subsequently took photos of bruising and contusions to her body the following morning when she complained of soreness and pain.
Under cross-examination by Deputy District Attorney Jamie Castro, the woman’s husband said he had been in a vehicle “hundreds of times” while she was driving.
“I don’t have a recollection of that,” he said, when the prosecutor asked if his wife was “somebody you knew to drive over the speed limit.”
At a hearing outside the jury’s presence, prosecutors indicated that Rebecca Grossman had received four speeding tickets between 2000 and 2020. But jurors did not hear about the tickets during questioning of Grossman’s husband.
The doctor described his wife — whom he married in 2000 — as “the engine” that makes the Grossman Burn Foundation work, but said the two had begun dating others after deciding to separate within their own home.
He testified that he had never met Erickson but knew that his wife had decided to date him, saying that he had seen Erickson’s vehicle — which he described as a newer model black Mercedes-Benz AMG.
He said under cross-examination that he knew his wife and Erickson had spoken after the collision, but said he wasn’t aware when asked if the two had maintained their romantic relationship for a long time after the collision.
The doctor acknowledged that he maintains a good relationship with his wife despite their separation and has been in court every day during the trial.
Meanwhile, a private investigator working for the defense told the Van Nuys jury that five pieces of vehicle debris from the crash scene, including two Mercedes-Benz emblems, were missing when he went to the Lost Hills sheriff’s station last week to examine evidence.
In testimony last month during the prosecution’s portion of the case, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Rafael Mejia told jurors that he didn’t find any evidence indicating that more than one vehicle was involved in the collision, saying he saw only debris from a white vehicle.
Mejia said he found Grossman about three-tenths of a mile away standing outside her white Mercedes-Benz SUV, which had front-end damage.
“She told me that her vehicle was disabled by Mercedes-Benz,” Mejia told jurors, saying that the airbags had gone off and that Grossman told him that she had hit something but she didn’t know what she struck.
Under questioning by Deputy District Attorney Jamie Castro, the sheriff’s deputy said he didn’t find any debris consistent with a black SUV or any kind of black vehicle.
“We didn’t see any indicators there was another vehicle,” Mejia said, indicating that the debris at the scene indicated a white vehicle had been involved.
The deputy said a Mercedes-Benz emblem was found among the debris at the scene of the collision, adding later on cross-examination that another Mercedes-Benz emblem was discovered. He noted that the auto chain has multiple emblems on their vehicles.
Of his interaction with Grossman, the deputy said, “She kept telling me to call her husband. … Her husband could help those kids.”
He said he smelled “alcohol coming from her person,” and contacted a unit to come to perform a DUI investigation.
The deputy said he saw a person who identified herself as Grossman’s daughter and said she was there to pick up her mother. He said he told her that she couldn’t go home with her. He said he never saw a man hiding in the bushes watching the police investigation, and would have considered that highly suspicious.
The prosecutor told jurors in his opening statement that blood testing done on Grossman after the crash determined she had alcohol and Valium in her system, but that she is not charged with driving under the influence. Jurors don’t need to find her guilty of that in order to convict her of the charges, he said.
In his opening statement, Grossman’s attorney alleged that Erickson’s vehicle went through the intersection 2 1/2 seconds before Grossman and hit the two children first. He told jurors that Erickson stopped up the road, hid in the bushes and watched after the collision.
Under cross-examination, the deputy said he wasn’t aware that a black SUV had gone through the intersection mere seconds before Grossman.
He acknowledged that the first debris from the crash was found 50 feet away from the crosswalk, and said he relied in giving his estimate of the point of impact on the accounts of witnesses who indicated that the victims were in the crosswalk when they were hit. He noted that there was no fluid found in the crosswalk.
The deputy said he had considered the possibility that more than one vehicle was involved in the collision with the boys, but ruled it out, saying that all of the debris was “consistent with a white vehicle.” He said he believed the crash was caused by the vehicle “traveling at an unsafe speed,” and added that he stands by that conclusion.
Grossman is free on $2 million bond. She could face up to 34 years to life in state prison if convicted as charged.