LOS ANGELES — Grossman Burn Foundation co-founder Rebecca Grossman — who was sentenced last week to 15 years to life in prison for running down two young boys crossing a Westlake Village street with their family — has been moved from a Los Angeles County jail to a prison in Central California.
The woman — who turned 61 last Friday — was transferred this week to Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, according to records from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
At Grossman’s June 10 sentencing, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Joseph Brandolino called the Sept. 29, 2020, deaths of Mark and Jacob Iskander, aged 11 and 8, an “unimaginable loss,” but he noted Grossman’s history of philanthropic work and her lack of any prior criminal record. While conceding that the defendant engaged in “incredibly selfish behavior” after the crash, the judge added, “She’s not a monster as the prosecution attempts to portray her.”
Prosecutors had sought a 34-year-to-life sentence, with Deputy District Attorney Ryan Gould telling the judge that “the defendant deserves every day of the maximum sentence.”
The defense countered by asking the judge to impose a probationary sentence or the lower state prison term of just over 12 years on the less serious vehicular manslaughter charges on which she was also convicted in connection with the boys’ deaths.
The judge opted to sentence Grossman to 15 years to life on one of the murder counts, with the 15-year-to-life sentence on the other murder charge to be served at the same time.
Brandolino rejected a request by Grossman’s new defense attorney, James Spertus, for her to be freed on bail pending her expected appeal of her conviction.
The judge had also rejected a request to allow Grossman to remain free on $2 million bond after she was convicted, ordering her to be taken into custody shortly after the jury’s Feb. 23 verdict.
Jurors found Grossman guilty of two counts each of second-degree murder and vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one count of hit- and-run driving.
In an emotion-filled sentencing hearing June 10, Grossman said she wanted the boys’ family to know “how sorry I am.”
She insisted that she never saw the boys in the street the night of the crash.
“God knows that I never saw anybody,” she said. “I never saw anyone. I believe he knows the truth.”
She added that she would have “driven into a brick wall” rather than strike two children.
“I will carry this with me (until) my dying breath,” Grossman said, adding that her pain is “nothing” compared to the pain experienced by the victims’ family.
The boys’ mother, Nancy Iskander, said during the hearing that she disputes Grossman’s contention that she was unable to say anything to Iskander or her husband, saying that they saw each other outside the hospital emergency room the night of the crash.
“She looked me in the eye!” Iskander said, her voice rising. “You looked me in the eye. You knew they were dying.”
Outside court that day, Iskander said, “Mrs. Grossman never said `I am sorry for what I did.’ She only said I’m sorry for what happened to you. That is not an apology.”
More than a dozen other people spoke on behalf of the victims’ family, including the boys’ maternal grandmother and two teachers, who spoke about the devastating loss of the boys.
Grossman’s two children, meanwhile, offered emotional statements in court to support their mother, with her teenage son, Nick, maintaining that his mother is “not this bad person” and “does not deserve a high sentence at all.”
His older sister, Alexis, disputed allegations that her mother has not been remorseful, saying, “All of the pain she feels will never go away.” She pleaded with the judge not to “take her away from me for too long.”
In their sentencing memorandum, Gould and Deputy District Attorneys Jamie Castro and Habib Balian wrote that Grossman “drove at extreme speeds on surface streets, was impaired and had both alcohol and valium in her system,” and that the evidence presented during her trial indicated that she “accelerated from 73 mph to speeds of 81 mph in a 45 mph zone just two seconds before the collision” and struck the boys while traveling at 73 mph.
The prosecutors wrote that she “didn’t return to the scene” or offer any aid to the boys after the crash, which prosecutors say resulted in the airbag deploying in her white Mercedes-Benz SUV and the vehicle’s engine to stop running about a quarter of a mile away from the scene.
Prosecutors said the boys had been crossing the street with their mother and younger brother 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 there was “not a shred” of evidence that Grossman’s then-boyfriend — former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson — struck the children first with his black Mercedes-Benz SUV just ahead of Grossman’s vehicle, as defense attorneys contended during the trial.
One of Grossman’s new attorneys, Samuel Josephs, noted during last week’s sentencing that “the pain and the loss in this case is overwhelming,” but maintained that what happened was “absolutely a tragic accident.”
He said Grossman’s actions after the crash were consistent with someone who was in complete shock, and disputed claims that she had no remorse.
In the defense’s sentencing brief, Josephs and Spertus wrote that Grossman has been “widely recognized for her work at home and abroad,” saying she is a “survivor of childhood trauma and abuse” who had an “inner resilience that enabled her to see beyond her circumstances and find a greater purpose in service to others,” including helping a young burn victim from Afghanistan to whom she and her husband became legal guardians and leading the Grossman Burn Foundation to help medically indigent and low-income families “connect to life-changing burn resources that would otherwise be out of reach.”