Rebecca Grossman faces sentencing Monday

LOS ANGELES – Sentencing is set Monday for Rebecca Grossman, co-founder of the Grossman Burn Foundation, who wrote that she was “not a murderer” despite her conviction for second-degree murder and other charges stemming from an accident that killed two young boys in Westlake Village.

Prosecutors are asking Superior Court Judge Joseph Brandolino to sentence Grossman to 34 years to life in prison, writing in a sentencing memorandum that she “more than deserves” the maximum sentence for the deaths of Mark and Jacob the September 29, 2020. Iskander, 11 and 8 years old.

Defense attorneys are seeking a probation sentence or prison term of just over 12 years for the less serious manslaughter charges.

Grossman, who turns 61 on Friday, was convicted Feb. 23 of two counts each of second-degree murder and gross negligent vehicular manslaughter and one count of hit-and-run driving. The judge ordered her taken into custody minutes after the jury's verdict, rejecting the request of one of her lawyers arguing to allow her to remain free on $2 million bail while awaiting sentencing.

In a typed letter to the judge, Grossman wrote: “…I am not a murderer and I ask you to acknowledge this true fact.” My pain, my recognition of the pain that Iskanders suffer and the pain that I look at my family. to endure, are punishments that I already suffer and will suffer for the rest of my life. Please consider this suffering when considering what additional punishment to impose on me in this case.

In the letter submitted with the defense sentencing brief, Grossman wrote: “As God is my witness, I did not see anyone or anything on the road. I swear, I would have driven my car into a tree to avoid hitting two little boys.”

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She wrote that her “involvement in the tragic accident that resulted in the deaths of Mark and Jacob haunts me every day, and I can only imagine the pain that (the boys' parents) Nancy and Karim Iskander feel minute by minute ”, and that “I will carry my pain for the rest of my life.”

Grossman wrote that she wrote a letter and left roses at the scene of the accident, and that she “relived the shattering split-second of the accident over and over again in my head a million times.” But she maintained that she “was not driving under the influence of alcohol or impaired, and I was not racing.”

“…From the beginning, the facts were twisted and distorted, turning this tragic accident into a murder and me into a cold-blooded killer,” she added. “The voices calling for vengeance and retribution are responding to the tragic loss of Mark and Jacob, but they do not accurately portray me or who I am. I am not a murderer.”

In their sentencing memorandum, assistant prosecutors Ryan Gould, Jamie Castro and Habib Balian wrote that the defendant's actions since the night of the accident “demonstrate a complete lack of remorse and a narcissistic superiority that does not lead to to only one conclusion, namely that she deserves no punishment.” clemency.”

“The defendant never showed even the slightest ounce of remorse for her choices on September 29, 2020. She never took any responsibility. Instead, she only blamed others,” prosecutors wrote. “She blamed the victims, arguing that they were out of the crosswalk, had flown in front of her car and that their mother had been negligent in crossing the street with her children as it was getting dark outside .”

Prosecutors wrote that she also blamed her ex-boyfriend, former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson, and claimed he hit the children first “when there was no not a shred of evidence to prove that this was true.”

“She lived a life of privilege and clearly felt that her wealth and notoriety would allow her to buy her freedom… This was not a tragic accident as the defense continually insists, it was murder “, prosecutors wrote.

Assistant prosecutors argued that she was “driving at extreme speeds on the streets, was impaired and had both alcohol and valium in her system,” and that evidence presented at her trial indicated that she “accelerated from 73 mph to a speed of 81 mph.” a 45 mph zone just two seconds before the collision” and hit the boys while they were traveling at 73 mph.

Prosecutors wrote that she “did not return to the scene” and did not offer help to the boys after the crash, which prosecutors say led to the airbag in her being deployed. White Mercedes-Benz SUV and the vehicle engine stopped for about a quarter of an hour. one kilometer from the scene.

Prosecutors also wrote that Grossman had a “lengthy record of Vehicle Code violations” that includes a 2013 conviction for driving more than 65 mph in connection with a traffic stop by a California Highway Patrol officer on the Highway 101.

Prosecutors wrote that Grossman “still refuses to take responsibility for her actions” in a letter she wrote to the boys' parents, in which she “talks about herself and how the system failed her to fall”.

In the letter to the Iskanders, Grossman wrote, “I wish God had given me the opportunity to give my life instead of Mark and Jacob's,” and that she was “so sorry to have been described as a monster “.

She wrote to the boys' parents that she wished she had testified in her own defense at the trial so that she had “the opportunity to share my heart with you” and that she wished they could “feel my heart “.

She added in her letter to the boys' parents that she had her sights set on a house that could be purchased and converted into a home for burn and trauma patients and families, and that she wanted to dedicate the house and give it the name of the two boys.

In their sentencing brief, her new defense attorneys, James Spertus and Samuel Josephs, countered that “there was a terrible accident and that Ms. Grossman is responsible for the accident, but that the criminal behavior does not warrant a sentence of life imprisonment or the type of long prison. term reserved for the most cruel and heinous crimes.

Defense attorneys wrote in their motion that the judge could impose probation with a suspended prison sentence, writing that “a sentence of probation is the only way to allow him to spend the rest of his life trying to make up for this tragedy.” The judge could otherwise sentence her to 12 years and four months for the vehicular manslaughter charges — instead of convicting her on the murder charges — or else carry out the sentences on the counts of murder at the same time since “they involved the same acts, were committed at the same time, in the same place and indicate a single period of aberrant behavior”, according to the file filed by the defense.

Spertus and Josephs wrote that Grossman was “widely recognized for her work at home and abroad”, saying she was a “survivor of childhood trauma and abuse” who had an “inner resilience that gave her allowed her to see beyond her situation and find a greater purpose in serving others,” including helping a young burn victim from Afghanistan for whom she and her husband became legal guardians and directing the Grossman Burn Foundation to help medically indigent and low-income families “connect to life-changing burn resources that might otherwise be out of reach.” »

The defense attorneys' sentencing filing also includes letters from about three dozen of Grossman's supporters, including her husband, Peter, who wrote that a probationary sentence “would allow him to live out his remorse by continuing his service and contributing to society, particularly in ways that honor the memory of the Iskander children. Her 19-year-old daughter, Alexis, wrote: “This image of my mother being a rich and entitled woman is absurd to me because she is the most humble and selfless woman I have ever met” and that she “does not deserve to be in prison”, while the accused's son, Nick, wrote that she is “truly the kindest, most caring, most empathetic and selfless person” that “the world revolves around helping others.

At a hearing Monday, the judge denied a motion for a new trial filed by her current attorneys, who replaced the team of attorneys that represented her at trial.

Jurors deliberated for about nine hours before rejecting the contention of his lead attorney, Tony Buzbee, that Erickson, who was driving a black Mercedes-Benz SUV directly in front of Grossman's vehicle, hit the boys first.

Prosecutors said the boys were crossing the street with their family in a marked crosswalk when they were struck by Grossman's vehicle. Gould told jurors in his closing argument that debris from the crash matched Grossman's vehicle and that there was “not a shred of” evidence that Erickson hit the children.

The victims' mother, Nancy Iskander, was in tears after the first guilty verdict was announced in February.

Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse shortly after the verdict, she said she had no hatred for Grossman and said it was heartbreaking to see the defendant led away in handcuffs.

She said she felt like she was attending her sons' funerals every day she showed up to court for the trial.

“It (the trial) was not easy, but it will allow me to turn the page,” she said at the time.