Rebecca Grossman sentenced to prison after saying she had suffered enough

US News

From Ronny Reyes

A Los Angeles socialite convicted of murder for killing two young boys during a car chase with her lover lamented to the judge that she had suffered enough – before he sentenced her to 15 years to life in prison.

Rebecca Grossman, 60, who killed brothers Jacob, 8, and Mark Iskander, 11, in a hit-and-run accident in 2020, desperately appealed to Supreme Court Justice Joseph Brandolino for leniency as prosecutors sought the maximum sentence of 34 years to life in prison.

Her lawyers argued for her to be released on parole.

But Brandolino sentenced her to 15 years to life in prison and ordered her to pay $47,000 in restitution, arguing that she was “not a monster as prosecutors had portrayed her.”

“I am not a murderer and I ask you to acknowledge that fact,” Grossman wrote in a letter to the judge – even though he was convicted of first-degree murder in February.

“My pain, my recognition of the pain suffered by the Iskanders and the pain suffered by my family are punishments that I am already suffering and that I will continue to suffer for the rest of my life,” she added.

“Please consider this suffering when you consider what punishment you will impose on me in this case.”

Her husband, renowned plastic surgeon Dr. Peter Grossman, as well as her daughter Alexis and son Nick, along with about three dozen of Grossman’s supporters, also filed letters with the court calling for a suspended sentence.

All three appeared in court on Monday for the sentencing, where Rebecca Grossman faced the victims’ relatives.

“My pain is only a fraction of your pain,” Grossman tearfully told the young victims’ mother, Nancy Iskander, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“I never saw anyone. I never saw anyone,” Grossman also reportedly said in court, claiming she fell into a state of denial after the accident.

“I would have hit a wall… I don’t know why God didn’t take my life.”

According to the newspaper, Iskander asked Judge Brandolino to give Grossman a sentence that was appropriate for the tragic deaths of her two sons.

“She is a coward,” she is said to have said about Grossman.

Peter Grossman stood by his wife throughout the trial, even though it was revealed that she had been drinking with her then-lover, former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson, before the accident.

Rebecca Grossman also evaded responsibility in the letter, claiming that the “tragic accident” that killed the brothers still haunts her, but that she “didn’t see anyone or anything on the road” the day her car struck Jacob and Mark.

The prosecution states that she was racing against Erickson in her Mercedes GLE 43 AMG and reached speeds of up to 130 km/h before the fatal accident.

“I can only imagine the pain (the boys’ parents), Nancy and Karim Iskander, are feeling minute by minute,” Grossman wrote. “I will carry this pain with me for the rest of my life.”

Grossman insists she was neither drunk nor impaired when Jacob and Mark were killed.

Prosecutors said the married philanthropist had a drink with her then-lover Erickson at brunch and then sped with him down a residential street, hit the boys and then fled the scene.

“The voices calling for vengeance and retribution respond to the tragic loss of Mark and Jacob, but they do not adequately describe me or who I am. I am not a murderer,” she concluded.

The letter to the judge bore striking similarities to the letter she had written to Nancy and Karim Iskander, in which the family claimed to have made the letter entirely personal to them and suggested they could buy a house and turn it into a family burn and trauma center for their sons.

The prosecution accuses Grossman of being a narcissist who believed that her “wealth and fame would buy her freedom.” She tried to shift the blame for the fatal accident onto Erickson.

“From the beginning, the facts were twisted and misrepresented, turning the tragic accident into a murder and me into a cold-blooded killer,” she added.

“The defendant’s actions from September 29, 2020 to the present demonstrate a complete lack of remorse and a narcissistic sense of superiority that leads to only one conclusion, namely that she does not deserve any leniency,” prosecutors said.

Along with the letter to the judge, a website called “Notes on Behalf of Rebecca” was created, which urges readers not to form “prejudiced opinions” about her and includes testimonials from anonymous people who beg the state to show compassion for her.

“The image of my mother as a rich, spoiled woman is absurd to me because she is the most humble and altruistic woman I have ever met,” Alexis wrote to the court.

“(A suspended sentence) would enable her to live out her remorse through continued service and contribution to society, particularly in a way that honors the memory of the Iskander children,” Peter wrote.

Grossman was found guilty in February of two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of involuntary manslaughter and one count of hit-and-run.

Prosecutors said Mark and Jacob were crossing the street in the crosswalk with their mother and younger brother when Grossman collided with them and fled, leaving the boys to die.

The celebrity hit the boys with such force that the older brother flew over 75 meters.