LOS ANGELES (CN) — The mother of two young children who were struck by a car and killed while crossing the street in 2020 offered emotional testimony in court on Monday, the second day of a jury trial that began Friday.
Nancy Iskander began sobbing when she was asked to identify a photograph of a shredded blue shirt.
"That is Jacob’s shirt," she said through tears.
Rebecca Grossman, the 60-year-old wife of renowned plastic surgeon Dr. Peter Grossman, is accused of second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run, since she fled the scene after prosecutors say her car smashed into Mark and Jacob Iskander, ages 11 and 8. According to prosecutors, Grossman was driving recklessly, speeding while intoxicated from drinking 1 1/2 margaritas and taking valium.
Nancy Iskander, the boys' mother, had been crossing the street with Mark and Jacob when they were hit. Nancy was on rollerblades, just ahead of them along with her youngest son, 5-year-old Zachary, who was riding a scooter. Mark was riding a skateboard, while Jacob was also on rollerblades. Nancy and Zachary were nearly to the other side of the road when she noticed a black SUV barreling down the street.
"It’s then that I first saw the racing cars," Nancy said, referring to two cars — white SUV driven by Grossman, and a black SUV driven by Scott Erickson, a former baseball player with whom Grossman was in a romantic relationship. Both cars were speeding and zig-zagging between lanes, and appeared to be racing each other, or playing in some way. The black SUV came at them first.
"I put my hand up in the air, but it was two seconds until the black car made it to the crosswalk," Nancy testified. "I still see it in my dreams, the black bumper, coming to kill me and Zachary." Nancy grabbed Zachary and dove out of the way, landing in a bike lane near the curb.
From the ground, Nancy said, she turned around to see the white car fly through the crosswalk at the exact point her children were.
"I heard a loud noise," she said, a crash. "It was loud. I don’t know if I have more words to describe it.
"Then the driver of that car kept going. Then things became quiet. No one stopped. No tried to help."
She looked up and saw Jacob lying by the side of the road, eyes closed, still. "He looked like he was fine. I said, 'I’m sure he’s fine.'"
She looked around for Mark, and saw him lying further up the road.
"There was blood coming out of his mouth," she said. "Every bone in his body was broken. And I knew he died. I knew Mark had died."
Grossman's defense attorneys have boldly argued that Erickson's car hit Mark and Jacob first, and then Grossman's as well. This, they argue, means the jury should acquit Grossman. On Friday, they played a computer animated rendering of what they believe happened the night of the crash.
On Monday, prosecutors showed Nancy Iskander that same video and asked if it was accurate.
"No, that has nothing to do with what I saw happen to myself and my children," she said. "Complete science fiction."
Asked if the black SUV could have hit anyone, she replied, "I definitely saw the black SUV cross the intersection without hitting anyone. It would have killed me. I was able to see it cross without extra noise."
On cross-examination, defense attorney Tony Buzbee played for Iskander video footage from a security camera somewhere up the road, showing seven cars pass by within 32 seconds of each other.
"I don’t know where this video is from," an indignant Iskander told Buzbee. "I don’t understand things in this video. But I know what I saw. And I care about the lives of my kids. And I know who killed them. I'm the one that loves them most on the face of this earth."
Buzbee pressed on, asking Iskander if she noticed three cars following Grossman's.
"I was screaming," said Iskander, almost in disbelief at being asked to recall the moment. "My kids just died before my very eyes."
The attorney was no less successful when trying to ask Iskander about the bumper of the black SUV.
"Sir," she said, "I understand what you're here to do. Try to understand. I’m a mother. A car just ran over your two kids. Do you think — I know that she killed them. I love them the most. I know you’re a parent. You have kids. So please understand."
In Buzbee's opening statement, he suggested the Iskanders had crossed the street somewhat out of the crosswalk. When questioned about that by prosecutors, Nancy replied, "I was in the crosswalk. I’m 100% sure it was in the crosswalk — for all of them."
Later in the morning, an old friend of Erickson's, Royce Clayton, took the stand. Clayton had been at the Mexican restaurant Julio's with Grossman and Erickson right before the crash. Prosecutors called him to establish that Grossman had had her second drink of the evening at Julio's.
On cross-examination, Buzbee asked Clayton why Clayton hadn't returned any of the defense team's phone calls.
"I didn’t have another thing to say that would help you," he said.
But what followed may have helped add weight to Erickson's culpability in the tragedy.
"Are you still friends with Scott Erickson?" Buzbee asked.
"No," Clayton replied, stone-faced.
"Why not?"
Clayton paused, overcome with emotion. The two had been friends for about 30 years.
"I have kids," Clayton finally said. "I just don’t understand how he could be so negligent, and be responsible for running down kids."
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