Grossman Burn Foundation co-founder Rebecca Grossman was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison with the possibility for parole on Monday for killing two young boys in a car crash in Westlake Village.
Grossman was traveling 81 mph when she struck and killed 11-year-old Mark Iskander and his 8-year-old brother Jacob in a marked crosswalk in 2020. The case, which saw repeated attempts from Grossman and her defense to shift blame in the killings, ended with her conviction of second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run in February.
Grossman's legal team had sought to blame her ex-boyfriend, Scott Erickson, who they alleged actually struck the boys first in his black SUV. But jurors rejected that argument.
Grossman, who is about to turn 61, has remained in custody since the verdict after the judge rejected a request for her to remain free in lieu of a $2 million bond before being sentenced.
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On Monday, the court heard emotional victim impact statements from Nancy Iskander, the boys’ mother, and other family members ahead of sentencing. "She is a coward," Nancy Iskander said, directing her words at Grossman, according to the L.A. Times.
The boys’ grandmother, Joyce Ghobrial, told the court: "I am just living the rest of my life to die grieving."
Prosecutors had asked that Grossman be sentenced to 34 years to life, the maximum allowable, writing in a memorandum that she has consistently shown a lack of remorse and is “more than deserving” of the highest term for the deaths of Mark and Jacob Iskander.
Grossman must also pay more than $47,000 in restitution to the Iskander family.
In a letter to the court ahead of the sentencing hearing, Grossman maintained that she is “not a murderer,” despite her conviction, adding that prosecutors distorted the facts of the hit-and-run case throughout the trial.
Last week, Grossman's attorneys, James Spertus and Samuel Josephs, called it “a terrible accident,” but that it did not warrant what could effectively be a life sentence “or the type of lengthy prison term reserved for the most callous, heinous crimes."
L.A. County District Attorney George Gascón disagreed, saying he was deeply disappointed in the outcome of the sentencing hearing.
“Our office recommended that Ms. Grossman was sentenced to 34 years to life in prison,” he said. “The loss of these two innocent lives has devastated their family and our community.”
