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A judge sentenced a California philanthropist to 15 years to life in prison for murdering two children in a hit-run while she was driving a Mercedes SUV at more than 80mph (128km/h), prosecutors said.
The woman, Rebecca Grossman, 60, of Hidden Hills, California, west of Los Angeles, was convicted in February of two counts of murder, two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter and one count of hit-and-run driving resulting in death, prosecutors said.
Rebecca Grossman, left, and daughter head to the courthouse in the Van Nuys section of Los Angeles in February.Credit: AP
Evidence presented at Grossman’s trial indicated that she had accelerated to 81mph (130 km/h) from 73mph (117km/h) just two seconds before she hit the two children, Mark Iskander, 11, and his brother, Jacob, 8, in a 45mph zone in Westlake Village, California, on the evening of September 29, 2020, Los Angeles County prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
Witness testimony indicated that before the crash Grossman “appeared to be racing” another Mercedes SUV that was being driven by her boyfriend at the time, Scott Erickson, a former pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, prosecutors wrote in the memorandum. Grossman was “at a bare minimum, ‘playing’ with him, in a deadly game of chase,” prosecutors wrote.
Grossman also drank alcohol and took Valium before driving “to the point that she was impaired,” the memorandum said.
Her blood alcohol content on two preliminary screenings was 0.075 per cent and 0.076 per cent, just under the legal limit of 0.08 per cent, and on subsequent tests measured 0.08 per cent, 0.073 per cent and 0.074 per cent, the memorandum stated.
Mother of the deceased boys, Nancy Iskander speaks outside Van Nuys Courthouse.Credit: AP
After Grossman struck the boys, she did not return to the scene or call 911, prosecutors wrote. She later claimed that Erickson had hit the children, even though there was “not a shred of evidence to prove this to be true,” prosecutors wrote.
At her sentencing hearing on Monday (US time), Grossman addressed her driving, saying: “I never saw anyone. I would have driven into a brick wall,” The Los Angeles Times reported. Turning to Nancy Iskander, the boys’ mother, Grossman said: “My pain is a fraction of your pain,” the paper reported.