Socialite Rebecca Grossman gets 15 years to life for role in crash that killed 2 boys

LOS ANGELES — Southern California socialite Rebecca Grossman, who was convicted of second-degree murder and other charges stemming from a crash that killed two brothers as she sped through a crosswalk four years ago, was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison on Monday.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Joseph Brandolino sentenced Grossman, 60, the founder of the Grossman Burn Foundation, to two concurrent terms, plus another concurrent three years for fleeing the scene of the fatal crash, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Grossman was convicted in the September 2020 deaths of Mark Iskander, 11, and Jacob Iskander, 8, according to the newspaper. She has already served 111 days in jail, KTTV reported.

Grossman agreed to pay $47,161.89 in restitution to the Iskander family, according to the Times. Her attorneys said she had already donated $25,000 for funeral expenses.

After a six-week trial, Grossman was convicted in February of two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter and one count of hit and run with fatality, according to the newspaper.

Nancy Iskander, the mother of the boys, testified that her older children were walking ahead of her as she walked in a marked crosswalk with her youngest son on Sept. 29, 2020, the Times reported.

Nancy Iskander testified that she heard “engines roaring” and that two sport utility vehicles were speeding toward them. She dived for safety with her 5-year-old son and said her next memory was of the two older boys, who were struck and lying on the highway, according to the newspaper.

They were struck by Grossman’s Mercedes-Benz SUV, KNBC-TV reported.

According to evidence presented at the trial, Grossman was driving as fast as 81 mph and traveled another half-mile after striking the two boys, according to the Times. The other vehicle was driven by former major league baseball pitcher Scott Erickson, who allegedly had been drinking cocktails with Grossman at a nearby restaurant.

Grossman’s blood alcohol content on two preliminary screenings was .075 percent and .076 percent, just under the legal limit of .08 percent, and on subsequent tests measured at .08 percent, .073 percent and .074 percent, according to The New York Times.

Grossman later claimed that Erickson had hit the children, but prosecutors said there was “not a shred of evidence to prove this to be true,” the newspaper reported.

Grossman’s attorneys were seeking a sentence of either probation or a state prison term of slightly more than 12 years on the vehicular manslaughter charges, according to the television station.

“I never saw anyone,” Grossman said during her sentencing, the Times reported. “I would have driven into a brick wall. ... I don’t know why God did not take my life.

“My pain is a fraction of your pain,” she said as she faced Nancy Iskander.

“She is a coward,” Iskander said of Grossman after the sentencing, according to the newspaper.

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