Rebecca Grossman ought to obtain consecutive life sentences within the murders of two brothers run down in a Westlake Village crosswalk as a result of she reveals no regret and refuses to simply accept accountability for the crash, prosecutors say.
However Grossman’s protection attorneys argue the philanthropic mom of two with no prior felony report must be spared jail time and as a substitute obtain probation.
Grossman was convicted in February of two counts of homicide, two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter and one depend of hit and run within the 2020 deaths of Mark and Jacob Iskander, ages 11 and eight.
Earlier than the crash, she had drunk at the least two margaritas and had Valium in her system as she raced her then-boyfriend, Scott Erickson, via the residential neighborhood, dashing as much as 81 mph in a 45-mph zone, based on proof offered at trial.
When she slammed into the Iskander brothers, who have been in a marked crosswalk, the pressure was equal to her Mercedes SUV being dropped from a 12-story constructing onto the boys, based on a movement filed by the prosecution looking for the utmost penalty in Grossman’s sentencing.
“The defendant’s actions from September 29, 2020, via immediately present a whole lack of regret and narcissistic superiority that results in just one conclusion, that she isn’t deserving of any leniency,” prosecutors Habib Balian, Ryan Gould and Jamie Castro wrote. “The defendant has frequently proven via her actions that she is deserving of most punishment.”
Grossman, they mentioned, “frequently refused to take accountability for her felony conduct and has refused to take accountability for the murders of Mark and Jacob Iskander. She has lived a lifetime of privilege and clearly felt that her wealth and notoriety would purchase her freedom.”
Prosecutors need Grossman, who’s scheduled to be sentenced Monday, to obtain two consecutive 15-years-to-life sentences plus 4 years for fleeing the scene. The 60-year-old would most likely spend the remainder of her life in jail with that sentence.
Mark Iskander, left, and his brother Jacob have been killed in 2020.
(Courtesy of the Iskander household)
As a substitute of taking a “modicum of accountability,” the spouse of Grossman Burn Facilities head Dr. Peter Grossman has blamed others, together with the victims — wrongly claiming the boys have been out of the crosswalk — their mom for strolling with them at nightfall and Erickson, whom she accused at trial of putting the boys first together with his SUV regardless of “not a shred of proof to show this to be true,” prosecutors say.
Prosecutors say that to make issues “much more egregious,” Grossman fled the scene regardless of admitting in a letter to the boys’ mother and father, Nancy and Karim Iskander, that she remembers seeing a boy fall from the sky and hit her automotive. Within the letter, Grossman wrote she even reached out to NASA and SpaceX as a result of she believed one thing had come down on her automotive.
Grossman’s historical past of dashing and a warning of its lethal penalties by a California Freeway Patrol officer after being ticketed in 2013 going 93 mph on the 101 Freeway must also be taken into consideration at her sentencing, the prosecution mentioned.
Balian and his colleagues additionally allege that Grossman obtained her household to lie out of desperation throughout the trial.
Calling it “a sheer act of cowardness,” prosecutors say Grossman obtained her daughter, Alexis, to perjure herself on the witness stand. The younger lady testified that she had seen Erickson hiding within the bushes watching deputies detain her mom and that he later got here to their home and threatened her and her household if she informed anybody she had seen him.
Moreover, the prosecution mentioned that even after being scolded by the decide for orchestrating witness tampering from jail, Grossman “conspired with a buddy to contact the Iskanders by scheming to offer them a necklace.” The jewellery had the boys’ birthstones, and prosecutors say Grossman was attempting to have it anonymously delivered final month.
However Grossman’s new authorized crew, led by James Spertus, has requested the decide to contemplate probation with a suspended sentence or a shorter jail time period.
The protection paints a far totally different image of Grossman, portraying her as a “humanitarian” who labored to avoid wasting feminine burn victims and victims of home violence. She grew up with a father who was hardly ever round, and when he was, he was abusive throughout her impoverished childhood in Texas.
Spertus’ movement by no means acknowledged any crime — a transfer doubtless with a watch towards an attraction following a failed bid earlier this week to get a brand new trial.
Whereas acknowledging the Iskanders’ loss is “incalculable,” Spertus wrote in a sentencing memorandum that the Grossmans have skilled a special loss: the lack of a mom to her two youngsters, whereas Grossman herself has misplaced her goal in life and “bears overwhelming disappointment, despair and remorse for her function within the tragedy.”
Spertus hooked up a number of letters from Grossman’s household and mates, together with one from Grossman’s son, Nick.
“Nothing compares to what the Iskanders are going via, however ever because the accident, it’s simply felt just like the world hates my mother and everyone seems to be in opposition to our household. It’s like they only need the worst model of the story and have by no means appeared into who she actually is and all of the issues she’s completed her whole life, each single day.
“They’ve made her right into a monster,” he mentioned.
Spertus argued that Grossman is a first-time offender who lived an exemplary life and donated $25,000 anonymously to the funeral bills of the kids.
“This isn’t somebody who has not demonstrated any lack of regret,” Spertus wrote.
In looking for leniency in sentencing, the protection lawyer mentioned that Grossman was deserted by a bodily abusive father after which molested by her mom’s boyfriend at age 11. Her mom had psychological well being struggles, and as a teen, Grossman needed to name 911 a number of instances after discovering her mom mendacity on the ground unconscious and “almost lifeless,” having taken tablets.
It was these experiences that led Grossman to assist get burn remedy for Zubaida, a younger lady from Afghanistan disfigured in an accident with a kerosene lamp. The Grossmans ultimately would turn out to be her authorized guardian after they took her into their residence, and it could encourage the creation of the Grossman Burn Basis, Spertus mentioned.
In a letter to the courtroom, Zubaida known as Grossman her “American mom,” saying she has liked and nurtured her “like nobody else ever has.” Grossman’s work with one other younger lady from Afghanistan disfigured by an abusive husband resulted in her main a world initiative to cease violence in opposition to ladies, Spertus mentioned within the submitting.
Grossman’s lawyer requested the decide to contemplate probation in subsequent week’s sentencing, despite the fact that he acknowledged it’s not the usual for implied malice homicide.
If the decide does ship her to jail, Spertus requested that he give a selected sentence utilizing the vehicular manslaughter counts and leaving the scene whereas omitting the sentence within the homicide counts; that may be a most of 12 years and 4 months behind bars.
Barring that, Spertus requested if Grossman is given life sentences, they need to run concurrently.
