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Rebecca Grossman trial: Jury selection begins
Rebecca Grossman has begun trial for a September 2020 crash that killed 11-year-old Mark Iskander and his 8-year-old brother, Jacob in Westlake Village. The trail began with jury selection.
The jury selection process began Tuesday in the trial of a co-founder of the Grossman Burn Foundation, who is charged with murder and other counts for allegedly running down two young brothers in a Westlake Village crosswalk and fleeing.
Superior Court Judge Joseph Brandolino instructed prospective jurors to fill out detailed questionnaires in the trial of Rebecca Grossman, telling them to return to the Van Nuys courthouse next Tuesday when they are expected to undergo questioning.
More than 50 other potential panelists were excused, with most of them claiming that it would be a hardship to serve on what the judge said he expected would be an approximately six-week trial.
One woman was excused after telling the judge that she lives in the same neighborhood as the victims' family and saying that she has "some strong feelings" that she thought would affect her ability to be impartial about the case.
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Another large group of prospective jurors is due in court Wednesday, with Brandolino expected to ask them to also fill out questionnaires.
Grossman, now 60, was charged in December 2020 with two felony counts each of murder and vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, along with one felony count of hit-and-run driving resulting in death in connection with the Sept. 29, 2020, deaths of 11-year-old Mark Iskander and his 8-year-old brother, Jacob.
The judge described the charges to the prospective jurors, along with the names of the two young victims without telling jurors the boys' ages.
Rebecca Grossman, co-founder of the Grossman Burn Foundation, arrives at Van Nuys Courthouse for her preliminary hearing in April 2022. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Prosecutors allege that Grossman drove at excessive speeds on Triunfo Canyon Road and struck the two boys as they were crossing the street with their parents in a marked crosswalk.
Sheriff's officials said after the crash that family members were crossing the three-way intersection -- which does not have a stoplight -- in the crosswalk when the mother heard a car speeding toward them and both parents reached out to protect two of their children, but the two boys were too far out in the intersection and were struck.
The older boy died at the scene and his 8-year-old sibling died at a hospital.
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Grossman allegedly continued driving after striking the boys, eventually stopping about a quarter-mile away from the scene when her car engine stopped running, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.
In a conversation with an operator through a Mercedes-Benz service following the crash, Grossman said she didn't know if she had hit anyone and that she was driving when her airbag exploded.
"I don't know what I hit," she said in the recording when a 911 operator was patched in and asked if she had hit a person.
Grossman is free on $2 million bond.
She was ordered to stand trial in May 2022 by Superior Court Judge Shellie Samuels, with Brandolino subsequently denying a defense motion to dismiss the murder charges.
The defendant -- who could face up to 34 years to life in prison if convicted as charged -- is the wife of Dr. Peter Grossman, who is the director of the Grossman Burn Centers and son of the center's late founder, A. Richard Grossman.
She is a co-founder of the Grossman Burn Foundation and a former publisher of Westlake Magazine.