Socialite Rebecca Grossman Writes Disgusting Letter From Prison to Mom of 2 Boys She Killed, Claiming She's The Victim, Civil Lawsuit
Just after 7 p.m. on a September evening, Jacob and Mark Iskander, their siblings, and parents went for an evening stroll to a nearby lake. The six-member family was crossing in a crosswalk at a three-way intersection when mother Nancy heard a speeding car coming their way.
She says her husband and daughter were farther from the street. She tried to signal to two approaching SUVs to slow down. She managed to grab one of her children and dive out of the way, but Jacob and Mark were hit. Mark Iskander died at the scene, and Jacob died later at the hospital. According to police, Mark was thrown 254 feet.
Nancy Iskander told police that two SUVs were "zig-zagging with each other as if they were playing or racing." She said the drivers didn’t stop at the intersection, not even when the 11-year-old was on the hood of the car. Deputies reportedly caught up with a white Mercedes with significant front-end damage a third of a mile from the scene.
Behind the wheel was Rebecca Grossman. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department believes the vehicle was traveling over 80 miles an hour. Grossman’s breathalyzer test after the crash showed a blood alcohol content of 0.076%, according to local news reports.
The legal limit in California is 0.08%. A blood sample taken three hours after the crash registered at 0.08%
Grossman was convicted and sentenced to 15 years to life in state prison. She is facing a wrongful death civil suit, now in it's sixth week.
Joining Nancy Grace Today:
- Matthew Mangino – Attorney, Former District Attorney (Lawrence County); Author: “The Executioner’s Toll: The Crimes, Arrests, Trials, Appeals, Last Meals, Final Words and Executions of 46 Persons in the United States;” X: @MatthewTMangino
- Caryn L. Stark – Psychologist, Renowned TV and Radio Trauma Expert and Consultant; Instagram: carynpsych/FB: Caryn Stark Private PracticeRobert Crispin – Private Investigator, Former Federal Task Force Officer for United States Department of Justice, DEA and Miami Field Division, Former Homicide and Crimes Against Children Investigator, “Crispin Special Investigations” CrispinInvestigations.com, Facebook: Crispin Special Investigations, Inc
- JoScott Morgan – Professor of Forensics: Jacksonville State University, Author, “Blood Beneath My Feet,” and Host: “Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan;” X: @JoScottForensic
- Joseph Tremblay – Senior Forensic Engineer and Accident Reconstructionist, Veritech Consulting Engineering
- Stacey D. Stewart – CEO of Mother Against Drunk Driving (MADD); Twitter: @maddnational
- Eamon Murphy – Writer for ‘The Acorn’ Newspaper in California; X: @EamonPMurphy
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2: Tonight we learn wealthy socialite a millionaire, Rebecca Grossman, writes
Speaker 2: a disgusting letter from behind bars to the mother of
Speaker 2: the two little boys she Rebecca Grossman murdered with her Mercedes,
Speaker 2: insisting she, Rebecca Grossman is the victim. I'm Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2: This is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for
Speaker 2: being with us. A millionaire socialite writes a horrific letter
Speaker 2: to the grieving mother of two little boys. Two little boys,
Speaker 2: They're precious that she Rebecca Grossman, mowed down at a
Speaker 2: high rate of speed after a boozy lunch with her lover,
Speaker 2: begging the mom to visit her behind bars. Why why,
Speaker 2: She insists that she wants the mom to quote see
Speaker 2: the circumstances that she, Rebecca is in. She amazingly also wrote,
Speaker 2: she Rebecca is the victim. Okay, let's just get our
Speaker 2: facts straight. Who is the victim? Here the victim. The
Speaker 2: victims are two little boys, Mark eleven and Jacob eight,
Speaker 2: walking across the street in a marked cross walk in
Speaker 2: Westlake Village with their mom and their little brothers and
Speaker 2: sisters when they were mowed down by Grossman's Mercedes Okay,
Speaker 2: what are the facts? Two little boys dead, ages eight
Speaker 2: and eleven, while this plastic surgeon's socialite.
Speaker 1: Wife is drag racing on the open road after a
Speaker 1: boozy lunch with her lover. Ah ah No, let me
Speaker 1: just take these words and fitted together in one sentence.
Speaker 1: A plastic surgeon, socialite wife mows down two little boys.
Speaker 3: There's so many questions, let's start it off. Listen.
Speaker 4: Just after seven pm on a September evening, Jacob and
Speaker 4: Mark Iskander, their siblings and parents, go for an evening
Speaker 4: stroll to a nearby lake. The boys enjoy rollerblading and skateboarding.
Speaker 4: The six member family is heading home, crossing in a
Speaker 4: crosswalk at a three way intersection when mother Nancy heard
Speaker 4: a speeding car barreling their way. The mom says her
Speaker 4: husband and daughter were further away from the street. She
Speaker 4: tries to signal to the two SUVs heading their way
Speaker 4: to slow down. She tried to pull the children back,
Speaker 4: only managing to grab one of them, a five year old,
Speaker 4: and dive out of the way. Jacob and Mark, who
Speaker 4: are farther out in the crosswalk, are hit. Mark Iskander
Speaker 4: dies at the scene. Jacob dies later at the hospital.
Speaker 4: According to police, p Mark was thrown two hundred and
Speaker 4: fifty four feet.
Speaker 1: Two hundred and fifty four feet. I've got an all
Speaker 1: star panel joining me, but first I want to go
Speaker 1: to private investigator. Former Federal Task Force officer for the
Speaker 1: USDJ Department of Justice with the DEA in the Miami
Speaker 1: Field Division. No lack of business in Miami Jade, former
Speaker 1: homicide investigator.
Speaker 3: You can find him at.
Speaker 1: Crispininvestigations dot com. Robert Crispin, have you ever? First of all,
Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty four feet a child is thrown
Speaker 1: through the air two hundred and fifty four feet. Wait, okay, now,
Speaker 1: I'm a lawyer. I'm not a sports broadcaster. But I
Speaker 1: was a cheerleader only because I didn't make the basketball team.
Speaker 1: One girl got cut me, so I became a cheerleader.
Speaker 1: Isn't a football field one hundred yards? Okay? That's three
Speaker 1: hundred feet Okay, As you can tell by my stilted questions,
Speaker 1: they did not teach me that in law school. So
Speaker 1: this child is thrown nearly the length of a football field.
Speaker 5: Yeah not, you know, not uncommon for the pedestrian to
Speaker 5: be thrown a quite of a distance.
Speaker 6: This particular case.
Speaker 5: If you look at the crash impact on the Mercedes,
Speaker 5: it's pretty much a dead center shit.
Speaker 3: Robert Crispin.
Speaker 1: I appreciate all of your knowledge, but that was a
Speaker 1: yes no. This little child was thrown nearly the length
Speaker 1: of a football field.
Speaker 5: He was and that's a long way.
Speaker 1: Okay. Another quick question, This is a yes no too,
Speaker 1: Robert Crispin. Before you, you know, lay all your knowledge
Speaker 1: on me. Robert Crispin. Have you ever been out for
Speaker 1: a walk or a jog, maybe with your fan, and
Speaker 1: somebody speaks by and you try to say slow down
Speaker 1: or you gesticulate towards them. Has that ever happened to you?
Speaker 5: Of course, I think it's happened to everybody.
Speaker 3: Okay, did they stop? Did they slow down?
Speaker 5: Not at all?
Speaker 6: They're oblivion, not at all.
Speaker 3: In fact, they speed off.
Speaker 1: I tried to take the picture of a speeding car
Speaker 1: the other day. That's sped by Lucy and me as
Speaker 1: we were walking. As soon as I held my phone up,
Speaker 1: it scratched off.
Speaker 3: Crispin.
Speaker 1: So the mom can you imagine, there's all the children.
Speaker 1: Let's see, there's Mark eleven, Jacob eight, The parents are there,
Speaker 1: Kaem and Nancy. The brother, Zachary who's just five, the husband.
Speaker 1: They're all out for an evening stroll at a lake
Speaker 1: I don't think too far from their home, and this
Speaker 1: socialite married to a plastic surgeon, just stinking of money,
Speaker 1: comes flying by. And you can hear the car first,
Speaker 1: speeding because I can hear it when I'm with the
Speaker 1: twins and like, get off the roads, get over. I
Speaker 1: hear a car coming, and sure enough, here it comes
Speaker 1: barreling down. The mom heard it first and immediately starts
Speaker 1: trying to get everybody, and she couldn't get the two
Speaker 1: little boys fast enough. You think I've got those facts right,
Speaker 1: Robert Crispin.
Speaker 5: Listen, your facts are right, and I've you know, with
Speaker 5: my own son. When I'm out walking with him, he
Speaker 5: gets so far away and someone comes speeding by. I
Speaker 5: cannot imagine of how close she was to just potentially
Speaker 5: grabbing them and pulling them back, and not being there
Speaker 5: and watching that impact had to be horrific, horrific.
Speaker 1: And you know the other little brother, Zachary's five. He
Speaker 1: remembers this crystal clear. Okay, let me get back to
Speaker 1: the facts. Listen.
Speaker 7: Nancy Eskander tells police that two SUVs were speeding toward
Speaker 7: her family and we're quote zigzagging with each other as
Speaker 7: if they were playing racing. She says the drivers didn't
Speaker 7: stop at the intersection, not even when the eleven year
Speaker 7: old was on the hood of the car. She describes
Speaker 7: how eight year old Jacob was lying near the curb.
Speaker 7: Mark was in the road with a visibly broken arm
Speaker 7: and quote blood coming out of his mouth. She says
Speaker 7: her five year old watched paramedics perform CPR on his brother.
Speaker 7: When asked if she could see which driver or suv
Speaker 7: struck her son, is Scander said no, She was diving
Speaker 7: out of the way, pulling her five year old along.
Speaker 1: As I mentioned, with me an all star panel to
Speaker 1: make sense of what we know right now.
Speaker 3: But now I'm want to go to Amon.
Speaker 1: Murphy joining us investigative reporter writer for the Acorn Newspapers.
Speaker 3: Amen, thank you for being with us. Explain to me.
Speaker 1: What facts I've left out so far up to the
Speaker 1: point where CPR is being given by the EMTs.
Speaker 6: Well, Nancy, you basically you've got it right. It was
Speaker 6: evening a September twenty twenty. The family of the Eskander
Speaker 6: family were out for a walk. You know this is
Speaker 6: during COVID, so they're getting out getting some air. Nancy
Speaker 6: Escander is crossing the road. It's called Tranfho Canyon Road
Speaker 6: in Westlake Village. It runs right along the lake. She's
Speaker 6: crossing towards the lake with her three boys. She's got
Speaker 6: the youngest boy right at her hip and they're in front.
Speaker 6: The two older boys are behind her. That's Mark and Jacob.
Speaker 6: Her husband and their baby daughter are continue walking up
Speaker 6: the road. They don't cross, so there's some distance away.
Speaker 6: Nancy Eskander hears the roars of two engines, she says,
Speaker 6: and she turns and she sees these SUVs coming. She's
Speaker 6: able to jump out of the way of the first one,
Speaker 6: that's a black SUV with her youngest son, but then
Speaker 6: behind her the second car, which is a white Mercedes suv,
Speaker 6: hits the other two boys, and that's the one driven
Speaker 6: by Rebecca Grossman.
Speaker 1: Authorities say, oh, whoa, whoa wait, wait, wait, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: Aimon Murphy. First of all, Rebecca Grossmann, Okay, well she's
Speaker 1: beautiful number one, but she is married to a plastic surgeon.
Speaker 1: So I don't know how much of that is God given,
Speaker 1: not judging.
Speaker 3: Don't care.
Speaker 1: But you know, you normally think of a lady of
Speaker 1: her standing, her age, she's a grown woman. I don't
Speaker 1: really picture her zig zagging at what eighty plus miles
Speaker 1: an hour in a residential area, zig zagging like I'm
Speaker 1: fast and furious. You've seen that, right, I've seen all
Speaker 1: of them with my son. Okay, actually I liked them,
Speaker 1: so I can't really blame him. Amen, have you ever
Speaker 1: seen that? The zig zagging? And I'm trying to imagine
Speaker 1: I'm looking at her picture right now, this lady, Well,
Speaker 1: she's no lady. She's killer, according to me, zig actually
Speaker 1: zig zagging in a residential area at eighty plus miles
Speaker 1: an hour.
Speaker 6: Right, I'll say it's a problem in the LA area.
Speaker 6: I mean in this quiet, sleepy part of town. I mean,
Speaker 6: the first time I drove by this road, I saw
Speaker 6: numerous pedestrians, numerous cyclists. The thought of going eighty one
Speaker 6: miles an hour, which is the figure we've been given,
Speaker 6: that is that's unthinkable on that road, I mean completely unthinkable.
Speaker 6: But the judge in the preliminary hearing said that Grossman
Speaker 6: was playing a high speed game of chicken with the
Speaker 6: other driver in the incident. Scott Ericsson, and police said
Speaker 6: that they were racing from a restaurant to a house.
Speaker 6: The judge in the trial is taking a more skeptical
Speaker 6: stance towards that term, and street racing is not part
Speaker 6: of the charges in this case. But the prosecutor who
Speaker 6: has said it's not a grease style dropping of the
Speaker 6: handkerchief scenario, he doesn't want to have to stop a
Speaker 6: witness from using that word in the colloquial sense to
Speaker 6: describe what they saw as the mother in this case
Speaker 6: has done. The mother of the victims. But there is
Speaker 6: a history of speeding tickets in this driving record that
Speaker 6: was accompanied by a warning from the highway patrolman who said,
Speaker 6: you know you could kill somebody driving like this on
Speaker 6: the freeway.
Speaker 3: How do we know?
Speaker 1: He said that on one of her last spaiting tickets.
Speaker 1: Is it on bodycam?
Speaker 6: I'm not sure if it's on bodycam or if it was,
Speaker 6: a note was made of it. Some other way.
Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Gray.
Speaker 2: In the Last Days, a spoiled brat socialite old enough
Speaker 2: to know better, Rebecca Grossman writes the mother of for
Speaker 2: two little victims, ages eight and eleven, insisting that the
Speaker 2: mom come visit her behind bars to see how bad
Speaker 2: she's got it. It's really hard for me to take it.
Speaker 2: In that said, instead of what she is writing in
Speaker 2: her letters to the mom about her being the victim,
Speaker 2: this is what happened.
Speaker 3: Eighty one and a forty five.
Speaker 1: And when you say this sleepy little area of LA,
Speaker 1: for most people we think of LA. Although I live
Speaker 1: for there for a while, I do know that there
Speaker 1: are sleepy little areas. Most people think of, you know,
Speaker 1: the Walk of Fame. They think of downtown LA. What
Speaker 1: we see in movies and TV. What part of LA
Speaker 1: is a sleepy little borough.
Speaker 6: Well, this is not the city of Los Angeles. This
Speaker 6: is the absolute western edge of Los Angeles County. It's
Speaker 6: a city called Westlake Village, which is less than eight
Speaker 6: thousand people, and most of the city was annexed by
Speaker 6: Ventura County. It became part of Thousand Oaks. So it's
Speaker 6: a tiny, little affluent suburb just on the edge of
Speaker 6: the county. And you know, really the point of it is,
Speaker 6: it's not Los Angeles the city. You know, it's a
Speaker 6: different kind of a.
Speaker 1: Please you know, Amon Murphy, I'm trying to parse everything
Speaker 1: you're saying because you're giving me so much correct information.
Speaker 1: You said that La has a problem with drag racing
Speaker 1: or speed racing.
Speaker 3: I think that he said that, yeah, by gang members.
Speaker 3: I don't think of some plastic.
Speaker 1: Surgeon as old lady out there's dragging with her lover
Speaker 1: after they booze it.
Speaker 3: Up at lunch.
Speaker 1: That must have been some long lunch because now it's
Speaker 1: the evening and she's drag racing with her excuse me,
Speaker 1: alleged lover.
Speaker 3: Alleged.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen them in bed together. I don't know
Speaker 1: for sure that they're lovers. But that said, this grown
Speaker 1: lady drunk is skunk drag racing and mows all that.
Speaker 1: You know what money cannot buy class? That is for sure.
Speaker 6: What do you buy an AMG car for? I mean,
Speaker 6: one thing the prosecution wanted to bring in is the
Speaker 6: fact that she took a one day you performance drive
Speaker 6: course on a closed track in twenty eighteen, and the
Speaker 6: judge said, no.
Speaker 1: You wait, wait, you're awesome number.
Speaker 3: One a MG.
Speaker 6: Yeah, AMG. It's it's a high performance kind of a Mercedes.
Speaker 6: You know, these cars with the really loud engines, and
Speaker 6: so that if you buy one of these cars you
Speaker 6: can participate in a course on a closed racetrack where
Speaker 6: they kind of give you the you have an instructor
Speaker 6: and you have a chance to, you know, drive fast,
Speaker 6: and of course you're not on the streets, so it's
Speaker 6: not dangerous in that way. And you're told that the course,
Speaker 6: you know, this is you know, very controlled conditions. You
Speaker 6: can't drive like this in the real world. So she
Speaker 6: attended one of these in twenty eighteen, and prosecution had
Speaker 6: wanted to introduce this and bring this warning into show
Speaker 6: because greed racing in the legal sense is not part
Speaker 6: of the charges, but the prosecution means it in the
Speaker 6: more colloquial sense of two cars driving very quickly mirroring
Speaker 6: each other, something we see a lot on the freeway,
Speaker 6: and something that a witness in the case might say
Speaker 6: about this incident, as the mother of the victims has done.
Speaker 1: Joining us former prosecutor in Lawrence County, PA. Author of
Speaker 1: the Executioners told Wait for It, The Executioner's Told the crimes, arrest, Trials, appeals,
Speaker 1: last meals and final words of executed persons forty six
Speaker 1: people across the US.
Speaker 3: I love that title.
Speaker 1: You can find them at Mattmanngino dot com. Matthew Mangino.
Speaker 1: We both tried a lot of homicide cases. To show
Speaker 1: intent to a jury, you can show them intent either
Speaker 1: implied or express express means. I say, Jackie, I'm going
Speaker 1: to shoot you dead right now, and I shoot her dead.
Speaker 1: That's not going to happen because I need you desperately.
Speaker 1: And there is implied intent, such as as you choose
Speaker 1: to get stink and drunk, walk to your car, insert
Speaker 1: in the key, start the ignition, put it in reverse,
Speaker 1: put it in drive, hit the gas, or let me
Speaker 1: give an easier one. With implied intent, I go and
Speaker 1: I practice shoot at a range for twenty hours. Then
Speaker 1: I go by, let's just go with a glock. Then
Speaker 1: I stop my husband, who I find out has been
Speaker 1: cheating not true, and then I get him in the
Speaker 1: crosshairs and I spy on him till he comes out
Speaker 1: of the office and I train across the parculant. Boom, egone.
Speaker 1: All right, So that is implied intent. It was a
Speaker 1: very long drawn out plan, even though I didn't expressly
Speaker 1: say it. I think here I would argue to the jury.
Speaker 1: I show them this picture of her car totally bashed
Speaker 1: in in the front, and go through what all she
Speaker 1: did before she landed right here, all the warnings, all
Speaker 1: the speeding tickets, all the booze that afternoon, I'd say
Speaker 1: that's implied intent, right.
Speaker 8: You know, second degree murder in California is you have
Speaker 8: to show.
Speaker 6: Melice of forethought.
Speaker 8: You don't have. You don't show deliberation or premeditation, just
Speaker 8: that that malice. And in drinking where you have a
Speaker 8: blood alcohol content three hours later the zero point zero eight,
Speaker 8: which is clearly indicative that it would have been higher
Speaker 8: at the time you were driving, and that you're driving
Speaker 8: eighty miles an hour and a forty five mile an
Speaker 8: hour zone where there are pedestrians frequently in that area
Speaker 8: is enough to show malice. I mean, plus her history
Speaker 8: of driving at an excess of speed at times all
Speaker 8: amounts to her malice. She's gross neglig and she's reckless
Speaker 8: in getting behind the wheel and driving at that speed
Speaker 8: in an area in which there frequently are people and
Speaker 8: young people exercising involved in recreation. And because of that,
Speaker 8: there's ample evidence to convict her of second degree murder.
Speaker 1: Well, now we're getting a whole spin on it, and
Speaker 1: luckily for tuitously today we have with us a premier
Speaker 1: accident reconstruction as senior engineer co owner of Vera Tech
Speaker 1: Consulting Engineering at Vera Tech eng for Engineering dot com.
Speaker 1: Joseph Tremblay Joseph, I got a few things to run
Speaker 1: by you, But first, Stacy Stewart, the CEO of Mothers
Speaker 1: Against Drunk Driving MAD, which has now taken off across
Speaker 1: this country and as a veritable force against drunk driving.
Speaker 1: Stacy Stewart Aman Murphy, isn't it true that she would
Speaker 1: not willingly give a blood draw and that she wouldn't quote,
Speaker 1: really blow into the breathalyzer.
Speaker 6: I've heard that about them, that she wasn't really blowing
Speaker 6: and that's why they wanted to get the blood. And
Speaker 6: while you had those readings that were point oh seventy six,
Speaker 6: and then later on the blood draw reading is higher.
Speaker 6: She did not give consent to have the blood drawn.
Speaker 6: She said she wanted to ask her her husband when
Speaker 6: they said will you consent to this? So instead there
Speaker 6: was a forced blood draw. She was taken to the
Speaker 6: hospital by the police and there her blood was taken
Speaker 6: and that's where they got the point oh eight result.
Speaker 1: Okay, Stacy Stewart joining US CEO of Mothers Against Drunk
Speaker 1: driving mad stacy. If she's point eight hours later, once
Speaker 1: she gets to the hospital and they perform the blood draw,
Speaker 1: there's no telling what she was because alcohol dissipates in
Speaker 1: the body in fact.
Speaker 9: Right, and if she was at point oh eight three
Speaker 9: hours after the crash occurd, then she was significantly higher
Speaker 9: than that presumably at the time of the crash. I'm
Speaker 9: sure I know that that's what the prosecutors will will argue.
Speaker 9: And one of the things I think, one of the
Speaker 9: things that I think a lot of people Nancy don't
Speaker 9: understand is that even at levels less than point oh eight,
Speaker 9: drivers aren't paired. You know, there's a there was a
Speaker 9: bill introduced in California, and there's one that's been introducing
Speaker 9: other states trying to move the legal limit to point
Speaker 9: oh five blood alcohol concentration level, because all the studies
Speaker 9: that we have seen have shown that the risk of
Speaker 9: crash is significantly higher at point oh five, seven times
Speaker 9: higher as compared to for drivers that are at anywhere
Speaker 9: from point oh five to point oh eight, as.
Speaker 10: Compared to drivers with no alcohol in their system.
Speaker 9: So we know that at any level of drinking and
Speaker 9: get and driving, a driver can be impaired. And can
Speaker 9: and dangerously put themselves at risk or others, as is
Speaker 9: the case here obviously from the facts that we know.
Speaker 6: There's one other thing to say here, Nancy, which is
Speaker 6: that the psychochology report also showed a small amount of value.
Speaker 6: So the prosecution is going to say that there's an
Speaker 6: interaction between the value and the alcohol which increases the
Speaker 6: impairment effect, even if you have a level of reading
Speaker 6: that is not all that high in terms of the
Speaker 6: legal limit, Nancy.
Speaker 9: One thing I would just say about that is go ahead.
Speaker 9: One of the things I would just say about that
Speaker 9: point is that we are seeing a concerning trend of
Speaker 9: what we call poly use, so the use of alcohol
Speaker 9: and other substances like prescription drugs, value like cannabis.
Speaker 10: So in state that has.
Speaker 9: Also legalized marijuana where it's more widely available, moving the
Speaker 9: blood alcohol concentration level to point oh five, it's even
Speaker 9: more critical because multiple substances can lead to even more
Speaker 9: impairment by drivers, and we're seeing a disturbing trend about
Speaker 9: that where we've seen an increase.
Speaker 10: In impair driving fatalities.
Speaker 9: It's thirty five percent even over the past five few years.
Speaker 10: So we're seeing an increasing trend, and.
Speaker 9: Of course this multiple use of substances is obviously an
Speaker 9: issue that we have to address.
Speaker 3: JUSTINH.
Speaker 1: Stott Morgan joining US Professor Forensics, Jacksonville State University, author
Speaker 1: A Blood Beneath My Fate on Amazon, and star of
Speaker 1: a hit series Body Bags with Joe Scott Morgan Scott,
Speaker 1: Why and how does all that alcohol dissipate in just
Speaker 1: three hours?
Speaker 11: Well, it's metabolic change or or processing rather, so your
Speaker 11: body is actually metabolizing this alcohol that has been ingested previously.
Speaker 11: And that's why you know, once someone has become inebriated
Speaker 11: over a period of time, once they stop drinking, it
Speaker 11: stands to reason that the body is still processing all
Speaker 11: of this alcohol that's contained in the body of the ethanol,
Speaker 11: and as it's being burned off in the body, you
Speaker 11: begin to kind of return back to a level of normalcy,
Speaker 11: but it takes a while for it to all get
Speaker 11: out of your body. And so what's key here is
Speaker 11: when you are in law enforcement and you're attempting to
Speaker 11: conduct a test on an individual to measure it, you're
Speaker 11: fighting you're fighting against time here because you can't fight
Speaker 11: metabolism in the body. So it's a race. So the
Speaker 11: longer you wait, the less the level will be. But
Speaker 11: you know, you kind of project this back. If you're
Speaker 11: talking about three hour delay, you can kind of hypothesize
Speaker 11: that the level would have been much higher and with
Speaker 11: a much greater level of impairment as well. And you
Speaker 11: couple that with value, and it's a deadly mix.
Speaker 1: The grieving parents of two little boys mowed down dead
Speaker 1: by a wealthy socialite, Rebecca Grossman, Oh well, it was
Speaker 1: a horrific, horrific hit and run. Waited nearly four years
Speaker 1: to see her finally convicted by a jury and sent
Speaker 1: to jail for fifteen years to life. Don't worry, she'll
Speaker 1: get our early. But now they're hitting her and her
Speaker 1: family where it hurts them the most. In the bank account.
Speaker 1: That's right. The parents have filed an unlawful death civil
Speaker 1: lawsuit against a Grossman. They've even asked an LA judge
Speaker 1: to let them probe the finances of Grossman, who is
Speaker 1: estimated to be worth at least twenty million dollars. This
Speaker 1: after they have been forced to endure losing their two
Speaker 1: beloved little boys, Mark eleven and Jacob eight. Take a
Speaker 1: listen to Captain Salvador Materira.
Speaker 12: Two cars were racing. We believe speed is a factor,
Speaker 12: alcohol is a factor. The family were in a marked
Speaker 12: a crosswalk, clearly marked. As she realized there are two
Speaker 12: car speeding her way, she was able to reach out
Speaker 12: and grab one of her children off of a razor scooter,
Speaker 12: pulled the child back with the stroller, with another child
Speaker 12: a stroller as the car entered the intersection and hit
Speaker 12: the other two boys.
Speaker 1: What more do we know about what happened when these
Speaker 1: two little boys were mowed down dead? Listen to our
Speaker 1: friends at crime online.
Speaker 4: Deputies reportedly catch up with the white Mercedes with significant
Speaker 4: front end damage a third of a mile from the scene.
Speaker 4: Behind the wheel is Rebecca Grossman. A deputy describes finding
Speaker 4: the vehicle stopped at the curb and Grossman saying she
Speaker 4: didn't know why her airbag had been triggered. As Grossman
Speaker 4: speaks to a nine to one to one operator, she's
Speaker 4: asked if she hit someone. Grossman can be heard saying,
Speaker 4: I don't know what I hit.
Speaker 13: One of the boys struck in the crosswalk is pronounced
Speaker 13: dead on the scene, according to KCl, and another boy
Speaker 13: dies in the hospital. Police were able to arrest fifty
Speaker 13: seven year old Rebecca Grossman, a well known figure in
Speaker 13: the community who appeared on KCl in the past as
Speaker 13: the founder and chair of the Grossman Burne Foundation. She's
Speaker 13: also been recognized for her humanitarian work around the world.
Speaker 13: Captain Salvador Besara says it is senseless and could have
Speaker 13: been avoided by ordering an uberg or calling a friend.
Speaker 13: Rebecca Grossman did not stay on the scene. She was
Speaker 13: arrested a quarter of a mile away.
Speaker 1: So Amon Murphy from the Acorn Newspapers. She flees the
Speaker 1: scene and it sorts, saying I don't know what I hit.
Speaker 1: She's in the wide high powered Mercedes with all of
Speaker 1: the damage to the front right in the middle of
Speaker 1: the grill.
Speaker 6: That's right. She kept driving. The engine was cut off
Speaker 6: remotely because the airbag had deployed, so the car eventually
Speaker 6: stopped and she was found by deputy.
Speaker 1: That's probably the only reason she stopped. A supposed the
Speaker 1: car forced her to stop when the airbag deployed. With
Speaker 1: me is Joseph Trimblay, a premier accident reconstruction, a senior
Speaker 1: engineer co owner Veritech Consulting Engineering. Joseph, I wanted you
Speaker 1: to hear these facts, so you could give me your analysis.
Speaker 3: What do you think.
Speaker 14: Well, let's talk about that car a little bit more
Speaker 14: and the damage to the front end. It's pretty obvious
Speaker 14: that there's significant damage to both the front clip and
Speaker 14: the hood, which is very consistent with contact made between
Speaker 14: the car and a pedestrian in this case.
Speaker 1: Oh right, I see what you're talking about when you
Speaker 1: say the front grill or I say grill and you
Speaker 1: say hood. You know, if you look at that picture,
Speaker 1: Joseph Tremblay, and of course I'm a civilian in this matter,
Speaker 1: it looks like there is a spot where a boy's
Speaker 1: body could lay, almost.
Speaker 3: Like a hammock has been formed in her hood.
Speaker 14: Yeah, that's correct, and I think that's probably what happened
Speaker 14: in this case, is that one of the little boys
Speaker 14: actually ended up on the hood, as tragic as that sounds,
Speaker 14: and was carried by the car for a significant distance
Speaker 14: after impact. And another thing that's interesting to note on
Speaker 14: that picture that you're referring to, where you see the
Speaker 14: front end damage, you also see underneath the car there's
Speaker 14: a puddle of fluid, almost as if perhaps the car
Speaker 14: sustains some sort of mechanical damage from this contact, and
Speaker 14: not only was the car disabled because of the airbag deployment,
Speaker 14: it may not have been drivable at all because of
Speaker 14: the coolant leak. That's probably what happened here.
Speaker 1: Hell, I'm trying to furiously take notes as you write.
Speaker 1: It's amazing to me that her defense is that it
Speaker 1: was her boyfriend that did it, the one driving the
Speaker 1: other car. When they pull this vehicle over, she had
Speaker 1: been forced to stop, either from the fluid leakage or
Speaker 1: because the airbag deployed. She did you hear this part
Speaker 1: to you, Robert Crispin. She wouldn't quote really blow into
Speaker 1: the breathalyzer, don't you know.
Speaker 3: It's because she knew she was.
Speaker 1: Drunk, and she thought by just going and not really
Speaker 1: blowing into it fully, she might beat the breathalyzer.
Speaker 5: So listen, the breathalyzer machines are very accurate, and they're
Speaker 5: very sensitive, and they're built for people that are going
Speaker 5: to do that. So clearly, it obtained a reasonable sample
Speaker 5: to come up with an indication and a reading being
Speaker 5: the point zero seven to six. So yes, I've had
Speaker 5: a bunch of people, and I've arrested over one hundred
Speaker 5: people for DUI in my career. Yes, people always try
Speaker 5: to do that, They always try to very lightly blow,
Speaker 5: but these machines are built for that. They sense that
Speaker 5: the machines aren't stupid. So if I could just add
Speaker 5: one thing about the point when she went up to
Speaker 5: the point eight, and I think your doctor will also
Speaker 5: be able to confirm with this. You can drink alcohol
Speaker 5: and have three drinks right now and getting your car
Speaker 5: two seconds, which is a very stupid thing to do,
Speaker 5: but you can drive a half a block away and
Speaker 5: get home and you're probably still under the legal limit because,
Speaker 5: as the doctor says, the alcohol hasn't processed your body. Clearly,
Speaker 5: she was going up in her BAC level or her
Speaker 5: blood alcohol level, which I surmise is why the prosecution
Speaker 5: did not charge her with DUI because at the time
Speaker 5: she took that first test. Now maybe it was a
Speaker 5: PBT test, maybe it was a roadside test, I don't know,
Speaker 5: but whatever machine she blew into, and then they took
Speaker 5: the other blood tests at the hospital, I believe in
Speaker 5: the three hours and the doctor can confirm us her
Speaker 5: blood alcohol level was going up. And I have a
Speaker 5: feeling that the prosecution said err on the side of
Speaker 5: caution because they're going to say she wasn't DUI at
Speaker 5: the time of the crash. At the time of the crash,
Speaker 5: that's a big deal at the time of the crash.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that explains why they didn't charge her driving under
Speaker 1: the influence because they that count it could taint or
Speaker 1: poison the rest of the counts. They absolutely know they
Speaker 1: can prove to be UI. Yeah, to be DUI across
Speaker 1: the country, you got to be in most jurisdics, just
Speaker 1: point zero eight. And at first she blew point zero
Speaker 1: seven six, which rounds up to point eight.
Speaker 3: But that's not good enough. When she gets.
Speaker 1: To the hospital she does the blood test shows point
Speaker 1: zero eight. I personally trust a blood test more than
Speaker 1: the breathalyzer, and the breathalyzer may have hit low because
Speaker 1: she's going not really blowing into it. But we're gonna
Speaker 1: hear more about that during the trial. You know another thing,
Speaker 1: and I'm very curious about this. I'll throw this to
Speaker 1: Joseph Tremblay. Our accent reconstruction is joining us. A former
Speaker 1: LA County sheriff's deputy specializes in traffic crashes, testified at
Speaker 1: a preliminary hearing his name Robert Appadaka, that he had
Speaker 1: never seen a person thrown two hundred and fifty four
Speaker 1: feet my impact, it's the farthest he has ever known
Speaker 1: a human to be thrown in a crash.
Speaker 14: What about it, Tremblay, I think that is a significant distance,
Speaker 14: and I am also very surprised at that distance. That's incredible,
Speaker 14: And I think there's probably two factors that really contributed
Speaker 14: to that number. And the first was that as we
Speaker 14: touched on earlier, I think one of these pedestrians, one
Speaker 14: of these little boys, was actually up on the hood
Speaker 14: for a distance while the car was driving. And you know,
Speaker 14: this car is going pretty fast seventy eighty miles per
Speaker 14: hour according to evidence, and it doesn't take a whole
Speaker 14: lot of time to cover that kind of distance. So
Speaker 14: there was probably a portion of that two hundred and
Speaker 14: fifty four feet in which the little boy was on
Speaker 14: the hood and then was vaulted off of the hood
Speaker 14: at some point and then you know, unfortunately came to
Speaker 14: rest where he did. But both of those factors kind
Speaker 14: of contribute to that distance. And I want to I
Speaker 14: want to swing back and talk about this car a
Speaker 14: little bit more. One thing that's kind of unique to
Speaker 14: Mercedes is Mercedes has done a lot of safety improvements
Speaker 14: to their vehicles because they know that pedestrian accidents are very,
Speaker 14: very dangerous and they're usually fatal, and it's it's very
Speaker 14: serious when these occur. So the one of the safety
Speaker 14: features on all Mercedes cars ever since twenty nineteen is
Speaker 14: called pre Safe and that's a that's a system that's
Speaker 14: designed to detect pedestrians. Now, the only way that that
Speaker 14: system will work is if the car is traveling forty
Speaker 14: five miles per hour or less. So it goes to
Speaker 14: stay that we could consider if this driver, Grossman, if
Speaker 14: she was traveling the speed limit, this accident may have
Speaker 14: never happened.
Speaker 1: Wow, I didn't know about pretty Safe on Mercedes. Crime
Speaker 1: stories with Nancy Grace and an obvious refusal to accept
Speaker 1: any responsibility for murdering eight year old Jacob and older
Speaker 1: brother Mark eleven with her Mercedes there in Vteria, California,
Speaker 1: she writes to the mother of the victims, asking the
Speaker 1: mother to come and visit her behind bars to see
Speaker 1: how bad she's got it. It's really a lot to
Speaker 1: take in because these are the real facts. What is
Speaker 1: a grown woman doing drag racing drunk as a skunk
Speaker 1: and high as a kite off of valium and booze.
Speaker 1: Karen started joining me, renowned psychologists joining us out of
Speaker 1: the Manhattan jurisdiction at karenstart dot Com. Karen with the Sea, Karen,
Speaker 1: what's the grown woman doing drag racing with her alleged lover?
Speaker 1: And this guy is no schlump La Dodgers, play with
Speaker 1: the La Dodgers and with the New York Yankees, and
Speaker 1: he's having this alcohol soaked lunch with this married multimillionaire
Speaker 1: and then they decide to go drag racing.
Speaker 5: Really, well, you're.
Speaker 15: Not talking about the kind of grown woman that we
Speaker 15: would imagine that they've been spending the whole afternoon having
Speaker 15: a great time drinking. Allegedly he's an ex lover and
Speaker 15: where I don't know, supposedly for trist I don't know
Speaker 15: what they were doing. But she's not a sedate, controlled person.
Speaker 15: She now has value in her system. She's drinking, she's
Speaker 15: having this great time with an ex lover, and she's
Speaker 15: just letting loose. What's really telling.
Speaker 16: To me, I don't know about this isn't my expertise,
Speaker 16: but the fact that she said, I don't know what
Speaker 16: I hit to me is saying that she knows she
Speaker 16: hit something, she just doesn't know what it is that
Speaker 16: she hit.
Speaker 1: I mean, get real, Karen Stark, come on, please get
Speaker 1: out of that ivory tower. She drives what was it
Speaker 1: a quarter of a mile? A half a mile, Emon Murphy,
Speaker 1: right with the little boy on her hood? Exactly how
Speaker 1: far did she drive? Amon with the boy on the hood?
Speaker 6: Well, I'm not the detail about the boy on the
Speaker 6: hood has been contested a bit.
Speaker 3: What does the state say.
Speaker 6: I mean, initially, I'm not. I don't want to say
Speaker 6: the say that the figures in the past, because they've
Speaker 6: been they've been challenged. I mean the car, the car
Speaker 6: continued driving before she stopped, either a quarter mile or
Speaker 6: a half mile, so she was you know, she was continuing.
Speaker 1: Well, where was the little boy's body found?
Speaker 6: There was? One of them was found in the crosswalk basically,
Speaker 6: and another was found around two hundred two hundred some
Speaker 6: feet away.
Speaker 3: Okay, Tremblay, that's to you.
Speaker 1: The little boy was found two hundred feet away, at
Speaker 1: least two hundred feet away. So she drove two thirds
Speaker 1: of a football field with the boy on her hood.
Speaker 3: What she couldn't see that?
Speaker 11: Oh?
Speaker 14: I think she's oblivious, and it really surprises me that
Speaker 14: not only did she not see these two little boys
Speaker 14: before impact. I mean, this is a wide open intersection,
Speaker 14: and it's a very well lit, well marked crosswalk. It's
Speaker 14: got there's flashing lights overhead. You can see it for
Speaker 14: about one thousand.
Speaker 6: Feet before you get to it.
Speaker 14: So it's let's let's make sure that that's a point
Speaker 14: that we talk about here, is that there's no visual
Speaker 14: obstructions to what you know she can see. But not
Speaker 14: only that after impact she's completely oblivious. There's there's a
Speaker 14: little boy on her hood and she continues to drive.
Speaker 14: That's that's how serious this is. That's that's just plain egregious.
Speaker 3: You know, Matthew Mangino.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the defense shoots themselves in the foot, and I
Speaker 1: think that happened here because the defense came up with
Speaker 1: a new theory as defense claiming the alleged lover he's
Speaker 1: the one that was driving her Mercedes as they were
Speaker 1: drag racing and chasing each other through this residential neighborhood.
Speaker 1: And now the prosecutor, Jamie Castro, will argue that she,
Speaker 1: Rebecca Grossman, and the professional athlete.
Speaker 3: Scott Erickson had been in a sex affair.
Speaker 1: They said they were not going to bring it up
Speaker 1: until she's now blaming him, claiming it has now become
Speaker 1: relevant because the defense intends to argue that the black
Speaker 1: car is at issue in this particular scenario and that
Speaker 1: they had swapped. So by coming up with this defense,
Speaker 1: now their sex affair is going to come into evidence.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it will. And as you said, it wasn't the
Speaker 8: state's intention to bring up the affair until they tried
Speaker 8: to put forward this defense that he was driving her vehicle.
Speaker 8: So that whole issue with regard to their relationship is
Speaker 8: now something that can be brought before the jury. And obviously,
Speaker 8: you know, a jury's going to make a decision here
Speaker 8: and they're going to consider it the fact, but they
Speaker 8: also are going to consider the credibility the believability of witnesses.
Speaker 1: The mother of the two little boys who were mowed
Speaker 1: down dead actually runs out of the courtroom sobbing. Aimon
Speaker 1: Murphy joining us investigative reporter writer for the Acorn Newspapers,
Speaker 1: go ahead.
Speaker 6: Well, Nancy, we heard from the mother of the victims,
Speaker 6: Nancy Ascander, who described having to jump out of the
Speaker 6: way of an oncoming black suv with her youngest son,
Speaker 6: now a white suv coming just up behind it ran
Speaker 6: through the intersection where her other two boys were. She
Speaker 6: didn't see it hit them, but she heard a crash
Speaker 6: as it went by, and then they'd been struck. At
Speaker 6: one point, after she had testified, they were photographs shown
Speaker 6: that another witness had taken them the aftermath of the scene,
Speaker 6: including of a broken skateboard, her oldest son, Mark had
Speaker 6: been on a skateboard, and also of Mark's body, and
Speaker 6: Nancy Askander at that point cried out her son's name,
Speaker 6: Mark's name and had to leave the courtroom in distress.
Speaker 6: We also heard from some other witnesses of the collisions.
Speaker 6: None of them saw the white car hit both of
Speaker 6: the boys, but two of them saw the white car
Speaker 6: hit one of the boys, and none of them attributed
Speaker 6: any impact to a black vehicle, which has been the
Speaker 6: defense's claim that the black car driven by Grossman's then boyfriend,
Speaker 6: Scott Erickson, was responsible for hitting the boys. We also
Speaker 6: saw the defense very aggressively across examined two investigators, one
Speaker 6: of whom did the initial crash report. They were going
Speaker 6: after his measurements of the debris, which led to his
Speaker 6: conclusion that speed was the cause of the accident, as
Speaker 6: well as his conclusion that all the was consistent with
Speaker 6: the white Mercedes. He was also the same officer to
Speaker 6: initially come into contact with Rebecca Grossman and her disabled
Speaker 6: white Mercedes after the accident, and then the officer who
Speaker 6: conducted the field sobriety test under cross examination acknowledged that
Speaker 6: not all of the tests were conducted according to the book,
Speaker 6: which casts some doubt onto his conclusions that she was
Speaker 6: impaired when he arrested her. Testimony has gotten up to
Speaker 6: the point where Rebecca Grossman's blood was drawn at the
Speaker 6: hospital after a warrant was obtained to do a blood draw.
Speaker 6: So next they're going to get into the chemist's account
Speaker 6: of the test results, which is important because that result
Speaker 6: is what was at the point eight level. Three hours
Speaker 6: after the incident. The breathalyzer results were point seven to
Speaker 6: six and point seven to five, which are just below
Speaker 6: that threshold for impairment. You can still be impaired technically
Speaker 6: below that limit, but it's going to be important for
Speaker 6: the prosecution to get that test established at that point
Speaker 6: oh level. And the defense is going to go after
Speaker 6: the blood draw and the testing.
Speaker 1: Method you know Stacy Stewart's CEO, when we get mothers
Speaker 1: against Drunk Driving MAD, I don't get why, after all
Speaker 1: the publicity that MAD has generated, people still drive drunk.
Speaker 9: You know.
Speaker 10: It's it's it's a problem.
Speaker 9: And as I mentioned earlier, Nancy, we're seeing the numbers
Speaker 9: going in the wrong direction. A thirty five percent increase
Speaker 9: in the past several years is astounding, and I think
Speaker 9: one of the things that's really important is it's really
Speaker 9: time for us to revisit the laws and.
Speaker 10: The technology that we have in place. I just was
Speaker 10: just listening to the technology in Mercedes.
Speaker 9: You know, even that technology is not sufficient to stop
Speaker 9: to something like this.
Speaker 10: But I do want Unanel and others to know that.
Speaker 9: In twenty twenty one, November twenty twenty one, the Halt
Speaker 9: Actless passed. It is new legislation that now requires passive,
Speaker 9: advanced and paer driving prevention systems to be integrated into
Speaker 9: all new cars starting in twenty twenty six. This is
Speaker 9: passive technology that would detect impair driving. And it's these
Speaker 9: kinds of cases that this technology, if it were in place,
Speaker 9: would have prevented anyone getting behind a wheel at the
Speaker 9: level of illegal impairment would not be allowed to operate
Speaker 9: their car. And right now, Matt's biggest priority is getting
Speaker 9: this technology implemented, getting the while legislation implemented. We're in
Speaker 9: the process of public commentary right now. This is a
Speaker 9: huge win, but it's not a win for drivers and
Speaker 9: for public safety if we every day that we don't
Speaker 9: have this technology included in cars.
Speaker 10: But we are close to it.
Speaker 9: And frankly, this kind of prevention system would have been
Speaker 9: enormously helpful to have saved the lives of these two
Speaker 9: precious little boys.
Speaker 3: Well, you're right, You're right, Stacy Stewart.
Speaker 1: Hey know what else would have been helpful if Rebecca
Speaker 1: Grossman hadn't gotten drunk as a skunk at lunch and
Speaker 1: hot behind the wheeld of her high powered Mercedes.
Speaker 2: The mom of the two little boys testified on the
Speaker 2: stand she heard engines roaring as two vehicles sped toward them.
Speaker 2: She the mom grabbed her baby, leaped out of harms
Speaker 2: away to save the baby, but couldn't get the other
Speaker 2: two sons walking just ahead of her, Mark and Jacob.
Speaker 2: Her next memory, she told the jury, was seeing her
Speaker 2: boys lying motionless in the road.
Speaker 13: I think about every milestone that I've lost every day.
Speaker 4: Anyone here maybe heard this over, I feel that I
Speaker 4: am dad.
Speaker 2: Rebecca Grossman, speeding in her Mercedes SUV at over eighty
Speaker 2: one miles an hour and a forty five zone, plowed
Speaker 2: straight through the crosswalk. Then she continued driving half a
Speaker 2: mile before her vehicle shut down.
Speaker 1: On its own.
Speaker 2: She actually tried to get away in the last months
Speaker 2: in appellet court rejected Grossman's claim that the evidence supported
Speaker 2: at most manslaughter. They rejected it no problem, the boy's
Speaker 2: mother stated, in response to these letters, quote, I'm still
Speaker 2: trying to process how someone could make such a request.
Speaker 2: While I can only imagine how difficult her life behind
Speaker 2: bars must be, the truth is this, I would trade
Speaker 2: places with her in a heartbeat. I would live in
Speaker 2: any prison cell, under any conditions, for the rest of
Speaker 2: my life if it meant my beautiful boys could be
Speaker 2: alive again, laughing, dreaming, growing up, and chasing every beautiful
Speaker 2: future they deserved. Well, we wait as justice unfolds. Nancy
Speaker 2: Grace's crime stories, signing off goodbye friend,