Witnesses testified Tuesday that Rebecca Grossman was chasing a friend’s SUV and driving on the Westlake Village road at 81 mph.
According to testimony, after beating the boys and flying a child into the air, she braked for a brief moment, but it didn’t stop.
Two witnesses on the second day of a hearing deciding whether Grossman, 58, should be tried on September 29, 2020 for the deaths of Jacob and Mark Iskander, ages 8 and 11. Canyon Road explained how her SUV cultivated the Triunfo pedestrian crossing. The boys were walking with their families around 7:10 pm, with a pedestrian crossing crossing the marked three-way junction, but there was no traffic light.
Crash experts also testified that if Grossman slowed from 73 mph (about 550 ft from the pedestrian crossing) to 45 mph, the children were already on the curb and would not attack them. ..
“If the car exceeds the speed limit for five seconds, there won’t be a collision,” said Michael Hale, a veteran collision investigator at a law firm in the Orange County district.
He testified that data extracted from Grossman’s Mercedes-Benz showed that she had the accelerator pedal on the floor and reached 81 mph about 1.5 seconds before the collision. According to the data, she tapped the brake for 1 second, slowed her down to 73 mph, and took her foot off the gas before hitting the boy.
Yasamin Eftekhari saw the two SUVs in the side mirrors of the car and explained that he passed at high speed and stepped on the brakes just before the pedestrian crossing. Grossman’s white Mercedes couldn’t avoid the boy.
“There was a family walking down the road. A white car struck two children on the road,” Eftekhari said. She said she braked again just before her vehicle hit the boy and after the impact.
“The first child beaten, he stood beside him [of the road].. I didn’t see the second child beaten, “Eftekhari testified. She stopped her car and dashed with her mother towards the five-year-old boy who survived near the curb. Her mother grabbed him and jumped out of the way. “I went and picked him up,” she said, wiping tears from her face.
She said she tried to distract the boy Zachary from the scene. “She was crying and screaming,” his mother, Nancy Iskander, testified.
Grossman, 58-year-old co-founder of the Grossman Burn Center, is with her husband, Dr. Peter Grossman. Indicted for two murdersDied in connection with the crash, with 2 counts of manslaughter with gross negligence, and 1 count of hit-and-run driving. Grossman faces 34 years of life imprisonment if convicted. She has pleaded not guilty to her and has paid $ 2 million in bail.
To be convicted of a second murder, prosecutors prove that Grossman acted with implied malicious intent, and driving at speeds of 70 mph or more in a residential area is life-threatening. You have to know that. The prosecutor said the history of Grossman’s speed violations and the warnings she received was a form of notification. She has two previous speeding tickets on the nearby highway at Kanan Road in Malibu the same year as 10 years ago.
On the second day of the preliminary hearing, tears broke out with Eftekhari at the witness stand, there were some breaks, and emotions rose again. “This is one of the most difficult cases I’ve been involved with,” said Judge Sherry Samuels of the Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Jake Sands, who was in the passenger seat of Eftekari, said Grossman’s Mercedes and a black SUV. Driven by former Dodger Scott Ericsson They came behind them “fast, above the speed limit, above the speed of the freeway, or faster”.
He said Ericsson’s SUVs would pass through them first, switch to the left lane, followed by Grossman’s white SUVs. Sands said they were about three feet apart.
As the SUV passed, Sands said he saw three boys and their mother crossing towards the lake on a pedestrian crossing. They were riding rollerblades, skateboards and scooters.
He said the driver stepped on the brakes when the black SUV first approached his family. “It just swung around the family and avoided it,” he testified.
Grossman’s Mercedes 430 GLE is just behind, and Sands testified that the driver “brake” through the pedestrian crossing.
“I saw one of the boys go to the right,” he said.
Mr Sands said he heard a collision and saw a boy Jacob thrown into the air fall to the ground in a bike lane near the right curb.
Sands said he saw another boy, Mark, further down the road near the median. After the shock, he testified, the white Mercedes brake light turned on again, but it didn’t stop.
During the cross-examination, Grossman’s lawyer repeatedly tried to portray Ericsson’s car as obstructing Grossman’s family’s view at the pedestrian crossing.
Grossman’s lawyer claimed she never left the scene and stopped at the end of the road, but was a deputy distant. Atty Ryan Gould repeatedly told two witnesses that she didn’t stop near the scene.
Eftekhari said the Grossman SUV braked “for a moment” after the boys were beaten, but continued to drive down the street.
Crash expert Hale said Grossman’s Mercedes shut off fuel to the engine after the crash and eventually stopped the driver. Such a fuel cutoff can prevent fire and apply the brakes.
On the first day of testimony, Nancy Iskander testified that neither Grossman nor Ericsson stopped. “They didn’t stop in front of the crossroads. They didn’t stop at the crossroads. They didn’t stop when the 11-year-old was on the bonnet of the car …. no one stopped.” Said.
This story was originally Los Angeles Times..