Socialite Rebecca Grossman was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for killing two young brothers in a 2020 hit and run.
Grossman, who turns 61 on Friday, was convicted of second-degree murder and other charges in February for the deaths of brothers Mark, 11, and Jacob Iskander, 8, in Westlake Village, outside Los Angeles.
She sobbed as she was sentenced to 15 years to life on Monday in front of a packed LA courtroom and the parents of the young victims, Nancy and Karim Iskander.
Grossman fatally struck the siblings while speeding behind a car driven by her then-lover Scott Erickson, a former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher, and then fled the scene.
Sentencing Grossman, Judge Joseph Brandolino said: ‘Her action was grossly negligent which led to the loss of two lives, and she engaged in incredibly selfish behavior
Rebecca Grossman’s daughter Alexis, husband Peter and son Nick arrived in southern California court wearing all black ahead of the killer socialite’s sentencing on Monday
The Iskander boys, Mark and Jacob, 11 and 8, died at the scene of the accident after Grossman’s Mercedes hit them at high speed
However, prosecutors noted she could be eligible for parole in six to seven years if she gains credit for good behavior.
‘We are disappointed today,’ said Deputy District Attorney Ryan Gould after the sentencing. ‘We don’t think the judge gave a sentence that was appropriate in light of everything Ms. Grossman has done and continues to do. Even when she spoke, she continued to fail to take any responsibility for what she did.’
Just before the judge handed down the sentence, Grossman addressed the Iskander family directly and was barely coherent because she was talking so loudly and weeping.
The boys’ mother, Nancy, got up and was about to leave the court when Grossman begged her to stay, saying she had been wanting to speak to her.
She begged her: ‘Please don’t leave. I’ve waited almost four years to reach out to you.’
Nancy sat back in her seat and put her head down in front of her as Grossman continued to speak directly to the grieving mother.
Grossman continued: ‘All l’ve ever wanted to do is to tell you how sorry I am. And I did write. I don’t know if the prosecution ever gave them to you. … They said I would be tampering with witnesses if I reached out to you. … I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to because I was threatened by the prosecutor.
‘I just wanted to be a human being. When I couldn’t be a human being and talk to you parent to parent, mother to mother… I wanted to leave this world because I didn’t want to be here anymore and you have to believe me. And I believe God is in this room right now, and I believe He knows the truth.
‘He knows that if I had seen anyone, I would’ve thrown myself to the brick wall. I wanted God to take my life. I don’t know why God didn’t take my life. I wish He would take my life. And if I could give my life right now and say to God, “Could you just please bring Mark and Jacob back,” I would tell God to take my life. I am so, so sorry!’
Struggling to catch her breath, Grossman continued and said she did not flee the scene and instead stayed by her car for 20 minutes and was in a ‘state of denial.
‘I just had a break with reality and everything was moving in slow motion. My pain is nothing compared to your pain. Not even a fraction. That’s why I wish there was something I could do.’
After she spoke, Grossman put her head down on the table and continued to heave and sob loudly.
Karim Iskander listened to Grossman, but did not look at her directly. He stroked his wife’s back as she continued to quietly sob into her hands.
Citing a lack of remorse for her actions, prosecutors had asked for the maximum penalty of two 15 years to life sentences to run consecutively – one for each young boy.
Grossman’s defense attorney, Samuel Josephs, asked the judge to consider leniency, arguing that the charges are in the ‘lowest end’ of the malice cases.
‘This was an absolutely tragic accident,’ Josephs said. ‘What Mrs. Grossman did at the scene is consistent with someone in complete shock.’
Josephs also added it was actually the prosecution who told his client not to contact the family, and that the prosecution was now trying to ‘weaponize’ this.
He said the prosecution and media have unfairly painted Grossman as a socialite.
‘To make it seem as if she has not wanted to address the family is simply not accurate. … This is a woman who has committed herself to the community for a long time. This is somebody who has cared deeply for people her entire life.’
Rebecca Grossman’s daughter Alexis, husband Peter and son Nick arrived in southern California court wearing all black ahead of the killer socialite’s sentencing on Monday
The boys’ parents Nancy and Karim Iskander are seen arriving in court Monday
Grossman’s children, Nick and Alexis, wiped tears from their eyes as they listened to their mother beg for forgiveness. Both also appeared in a 30-minute video prepared by the defense team for the hearing.
Alexis, 19, implored the judge to show leniency and spoke about her fear that her mother would take her own life.
Rebecca Grossman sobbed loudly as Alexis told how her mother was repeatedly emotionally and physically abused even before she turned 13. Alexis said Grossman’s mother had a boyfriend who molested Grossman when she was 11.
Alexis also added she did not lie on the stand as the prosecution had alleged.
‘Mommy, you’re my best friend,’ Alexis said in tears before she turned and begged, ‘Please don’t take her away from me too long.’
Earlier during Monday’s hearing, the boys’ mom Nancy Iskander screamed at Grossman while speaking directly to her for the first time, recalling how she had to make the horrifying decision to take Jacob off life support after Mark was declared dead at the scene.
Pointing at Grossman, Nancy said she saw Grossman at the hospital where Jacob was fighting for his life.
The brokenhearted mother continued: ‘She looked at me in the eye. She didn’t get on her knees and she is saying she wished she could speak to me. You could’ve have. She cannot claim, “I wanted to speak to Nancy.”‘
Nancy continued, yelling at Grossman, ‘You were there! You looked me in the eye. You knew they were dying!’
According to prosecutors, Grossman did not return to the scene or stop her vehicle until it became disabled on its own from the crash.
Speaking to the court, Nancy recalled waiting for Jacob to take his last breath at the hospital.
‘He was turning blue and I had to leave the room,’ she added.
Rebecca Grossman, clad in brown jail wear and her hair pulled back in a tight pony tail, sobbed loudly and looked directly at Nancy as the grieving mother pointed at her.
In a shocking moment, Nancy said that, despite her anger, she loves the woman who took her sons’ lives.
‘I will say though I love her,’ Nancy said. ‘I do love Rebecca Grossman after all she did but I don’t believe what they say about her because her actions speak about her.’
Grossman hasn’t been pictured today because she was taken into custody after her conviction in February and has been in jail ever since.
On the opposite side of the court sat the boys’ parents. Wearing a button with her two boys’ pic on her shirt, Nancy was in tears as she took her seat in the courtroom audience.
Grossman repeatedly shook her head and cried as more than a dozen victim impact statements were read in court. Statements were read by Mark and Jacob’s uncle, grandmother, teachers, a pastor and neighbors.
The packed courtroom was moved to tears as the Iskander boys’ grandmother, Joyce, told the judge how the tragic deaths has affected their entire family.
Prosecutors allege Grossman got her family to lie for her during her trial, including her daughter Alexis, seen on Monday
Dr Peter Grossman, right, daughter Alexis, 19, left, and son Nick have continued supporting the socialite, and were in court for her sentencing on Monday. They are pictured in February
Joyce Ghobrial, the mother of Nancy Iskander, said she quit her job and moved to live with her daughter and son-in-law to help raise her grandchildren.
The grieving grandmother’s voice cracked as she struggled to hold onto the microphone and talked about how Grossman didn’t readily take responsibility for the tragedy.
Members in the audience on both sides broke down in tears as Joyce struggled to get her words together. Even one of Grossman’s attorneys, Lara Gressley, wiped tears from her face as the elderly woman spoke.
‘I have people asking how I am doing … I am grieving,’ Ghobrial said. ‘If not for her car, we would still be looking for the murderer.’
The wife of prominent Los Angeles burns doctor, Grossman fatally struck the siblings while speeding behind a car driven by her then-lover Scott Erickson, a former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher.
She was not charged with being under the influence, but former baseball player Royce Clayton testified he had joined her and Erickson at a nearby restaurant where Erickson had two margaritas and Grossman had one.
Prosecutors presented evidence that the data recorder in Grossman’s white Mercedes showed she was speeding at up to 81 mph and tapped her brakes, slowing her to 73 mph, less than two seconds before a collision that set off her airbags.
In their sentencing memos, prosecutors said Grossman also allegedly ‘conspired with a friend to contact the Iskanders by scheming to give them a necklace,’ which had their sons’ birthstones, and was trying to have them anonymously delivered last month.
‘The defendant’s actions from September 29, 2020, through today show a complete lack of remorse and narcissistic superiority that leads to only one conclusion, that she is not deserving of any leniency,’ said prosecutors Habib Balian, Ryan Gould and Jamie Castro in an affidavit obtained by the DailyMail.com.
‘The defendant has continually shown through her actions that she is deserving of maximum punishment.’
They added: ‘She has lived a life of privilege and clearly felt that her wealth and notoriety would buy her freedom.’
The defense has framed Grossman as a ‘humanitarian’ who helped burn victims and survivors of domestic violence and grew up being abused and impoverished in Texas.
Her lead attorney James Spertus acknowledged the Iskanders’s loss was ‘incalculable,’ but added the Grossmans have experienced a different type of loss.
In a letter to the judge pleading for mercy, Grossman wrote: ‘I am not a murderer, and I ask you to recognize that true fact.
‘My pain, my recognition of the pain the Iskanders suffer, and the pain I watch my family endure, are punishments that I already suffer and will for the rest of my life.
‘Please consider this suffering when you consider what more punishment to impose on me in this case.
‘As God is my witness, I did not see anyone or anything in the road. I swear to you, I would have driven my car into a tree to avoid hitting two little boys.’
Grossman’s son Nick wrote in a letter to the judge: ‘Nothing compares to what the Iskanders are going through, but ever since the accident, it’s just felt like the world hates my mom and everyone is against our family.
Grossman’s white Mercedes SUV is pictured moments after the crash
Grossman was separated from her husband at the time of the crash and was dating Scott Erickson, who her defense claimed had been the one who hit the boys
‘It’s like they just want the worst version of the story and have never looked into who she really is and all the things she’s done her entire life, every single day. They’ve made her into a monster.’
Actress Frances Fisher, who starred in the 1997 blockbuster movie Titanic, also wrote a letter of support for Grossman and called the socialite a ‘kind’ and compassionate ‘angel’ who helped her after she sought treatment from Grossman’s husband, who is a renowned plastic surgeon at the specialized and famed burned unit in West Hills, California.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, also allege Grossman got her family to lie for her during her trial, including her daughter Alexis.
She has already been accused of using dirty tactics to try to get her convictions overturned. Prosecutors previously said that from jail she told her husband, and daughter to hunt down jurors and seek out witnesses to try to get them to change their testimony and sway Judge Brandolino into giving her a new trial.
Grossman also allegedly told her daughter Alexis to publicly release a sheriff’s deputy’s body-camera video that had been sealed by the judge.
Despite Judge Brandolino sealing the jurors’ contact information, at least two jurors reported three other members of the jury were contacted by Paul Stuckey, a private investigator ‘for the family,’ according to prosecutors.
Grossman’s lead defense attorney during the trial, Tony Buzbee, repeatedly blamed her then-lover Erickson for the deaths, suggesting the retired baseball player’s car hit Jacob, hurling him to a curb, and then hit Mark, throwing him into the path of Grossman’s Mercedes.
An attorney for Erickson has said the former ballplayer denies contributing in any way to the tragedy. Erickson was initially charged with a misdemeanor count of reckless driving but it was dismissed after he made a public service announcement, the Times said.
Nancy Iskander testified that the black SUV did not hit her sons but could have hit her and her 5-year-old son, Zachary. She said she dove out of the way and pulled Zachary to safety.
The mother said she did not see Mark and Jacob being struck but three eyewitnesses testified they saw a white or light-colored vehicle hit the boys.
Grossman’s husband, Dr. Peter Grossman, who is the medical director of the Grossman Burn Centers, was called to testify by his wife’s defense. The Grossmans are founders of the Grossman Burn Foundation, which promotes care and support of burn survivors.
Peter Grossman said he and his wife were separated at the time, living separate lives under the same roof while dating other people. His wife was involved with Erickson in 2020, he testified.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk