For months, Nancy Iskander got here to courtroom hoping to get justice for her two younger sons, who had been struck and killed by philanthropist Rebecca Grossman as she drove her SUV by a Westlake Village crosswalk.
Iskander provided graphic, wrenching testimony about witnessing Grossman’s Mercedes rushing towards the boys as they took a household stroll of their neighborhood. At sentencing on Monday, she recounted how Grossman refused to apologize on the hospital that evening.
Now, Iskander says she is disgusted with how the case ended.
Los Angeles Superior Court docket Decide Joseph Brandolino on Monday sentenced Grossman to 2 concurrent phrases of 15 years to life, with three concurrent years for fleeing the scene of the deadly crash. Meaning Grossman will serve 15 years to life. She had been dealing with 34 years to life in jail.
“I really feel this was a stab within the coronary heart to me that he counted these two beautiful boys as one child,” mentioned Iskander, who felt the sentences ought to have been imposed consecutively, one for every of her sons. “These are two completely different lives. These are two boys, they usually don’t go two-for-one.”
Greater than a dozen of the Iskanders’ family and friends members got here earlier than the decide to explain the ache attributable to the deaths of Mark, 11, and Jacob, 8, and ask that Grossman obtain a prolonged jail time period.
The co-founder of the Grossman Burn Basis was convicted in February of two counts of second-degree homicide, two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter and one depend of hit-and-run with fatality within the September 2020 killings of the 2 kids.
“There isn’t any such factor as killing them a bit of bit,” Iskander mentioned. “She killed them.”
Prosecutors have repeatedly mentioned Grossman has proven no regret for the crimes.
However earlier than her sentencing Monday, she stood in a Van Nuys courtroom to make one remaining plea — to Iskander.
When the grieving mom stood to depart, Grossman urged her to remain.
“Please don’t go away,” she mentioned. “I’ve waited virtually 4 years to achieve out to you.”
Iskander sat again in her chair and put her head down.
Karim and Nancy Iskander greet supporters outdoors Van Nuys courtroom Monday.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Occasions)
“All l’ve ever needed to do is to let you know how sorry I’m,” Grossman mentioned in a raspy voice.
She mentioned she had lengthy hoped to speak to Iskander “father or mother to father or mother, mom to mom.”
“I’m so, so sorry,” she mentioned. “My ache is nothing in comparison with your ache — not even a fraction.”
On Monday, Iskander spoke forward of Grossman’s sentencing of the night she rushed to the hospital after the crash. Mark was killed on affect, “each bone in his physique … damaged,” Iskander testified throughout Grossman’s trial. Jacob, 8, was combating for his life within the emergency room.
Deputies had introduced Grossman to the identical hospital to be handled after the collision on Triunfo Canyon Street. The 2 ladies noticed one another there.
“She regarded me within the eye,” Iskander mentioned, her voice rising with emotion as she stared at Grossman within the courtroom. “That was your alternative. You regarded me within the eye. You knew they had been dying.”
“She is a coward,” Iskander mentioned of Grossman.
Grossman and Iskander had spent six weeks in courtroom throughout the homicide trial, however this was the second each may talk about what sort of sentence Grossman ought to obtain.
Ultimately, Los Angeles County Superior Court docket Decide Joseph Brandolino’s sentence didn’t fulfill prosecutors, who mentioned the punishment was not acceptable.
In courtroom papers main as much as the sentencing, the L.A. County district legal professional’s workplace mentioned Grossman had proven a “full lack of regret and narcissistic superiority that results in just one conclusion, that she just isn’t deserving of any leniency.”
The decide, nevertheless, mentioned that whereas Grossman’s conduct was “reckless and unquestionably negligent,” she is “not a monster because the prosecutors portrayed her to be.”
Dr. Peter Grossman leaves a Van Nuys courthouse with kids, Nick and Alexis after his spouse Rebecca Grossman was sentenced to fifteen years to life in jail Monday.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Occasions)
Till Monday, Grossman had mentioned little publicly in regards to the case.
In addressing Iskander, she insisted she was sorry, saying she wished she had died as an alternative of the boys.
“If I may give my life proper now and say to God, ‘May you simply please carry Mark and Jacob again,’ I’d inform God to take my life,” she mentioned.
For his or her mom, nevertheless, Grossman’s feelings didn’t really feel real. “Her crying was all present to me yesterday.”
Grossman’s household provided testimonials in an effort to point out the great in her. Her son, Nick, advised the courtroom: “My mom just isn’t the unhealthy particular person the media has painted.”
His feedback didn’t sway Sherif Iskander, the boys’ uncle, who mentioned Grossman had “tried to get away with homicide.”
Nancy Iskander and her husband, Karim, suppose the sentencing additionally sends the mistaken message about fleeing the scene of a crash. By not tacking on the extra years for the hit-and-run conviction, the decide “is telling the general public it’s OK to hit and run,” Iskander mentioned. She and her husband are actually honoring the reminiscence of their sons with a basis to assist underserved kids.
The sentencing has left her “vastly disillusioned within the justice system,” she mentioned.
“Nobody is entitled to kill anybody and run away,” Iskander mentioned. “I’m nonetheless on the lookout for the day she admits she did it.”
