A Los Angeles socialite who was convicted of murder for killing two young boys with her car during a chase with her lover whined to the judge that she has suffered enough — then broke down as she was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
Rebecca Grossman, 60 — who killed brothers Jacob, 8, and Mark Iskander, 11, in a hit-and-run incident in 2020 — made a desperate plea to Superior Court Judge Joseph Brandolino to go easy on her as prosecutors demanded she receive the max of 34 years to life in state prison.
Her lawyers argued for her to be let off with probation.
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But Brandolino gave her 15 years to life, and ordered her to pay $47,000 in restitution — saying she was“not a monster as the prosecutors portrayed her to be.”
In giving her the more lenient sentence, the judge cited Grossman’s history as a philanthropist.
“I am not a murderer, and I ask you to recognize that true fact,” Grossman wrote in a letter to the judge — despite being convicted of second-degree murder in February.
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“My pain, my recognition of the pain the Iskanders suffer, and the pain I watch my family endure, are punishments that I already suffer and will for the rest of my life,” she added.
“Please consider this suffering when you consider what more punishment to impose on me in this case.”
Her husband, renowned plastic surgeon Dr. Peter Grossman, and her daughter, Alexis, and son, Nick, also submitted letters to the court along with about three dozen of Grossman’s supporters asking for a probationary sentence.
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All three also arrived for her sentencing Monday at court, where Rebecca Grossman faced the victims’ loved ones.
“My pain is a fraction of your pain,” Grossman said in tears to 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 as she claimed she went into a state of denial following the crash.
“I would have driven into a brick wall … I don’t know why God did not take my life.”
Iskander called on Brandolino to slap Grossman with a sentence that matched the tragic deaths of her two sons, according to the newspaper.
“She is a coward,” she reportedly said of Grossman.
Peter Grossman stood by his wife through her trial, despite revelations that she was drinking with her then-lover, former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson, before the crash.
Rebecca Grossman also continued to dodge responsibility in the letter, claiming that while the “tragic accident” that killed the brothers continues to haunt her, she “did not see anyone or anything in the road” on the day her car hit Jacob and Mark.
Prosecutors say she was racing Erickson in her Mercedes GLE 43 AMG and reached speeds up to 81 mph before the fatal crash.
“I can only imagine the pain that [the boys’ parents] Nancy and Karim Iskander feel minute by minute,” Grossman wrote. “I will carry my pain for the rest of my life.”
Grossman maintains that she was neither drunk nor impaired when Jacob and Mark were killed.
Prosecutors say the married philanthropist was drinking at brunch with her then-lover Erickson, and then proceeded to race him through a residential street, where she hit the boys, then fled.
“The voices demanding vengeance and retribution are reacting to the tragic loss of Mark and Jacob, but they do not fairly describe me or who I am. I am not a murderer,” she concluded.
The letter to the judge was notably similar to the one she wrote to Nancy and Karim Iskander, which the family claimed she made all about her and suggested she could buy a home and transform it into a family burn and trauma center dedicated to their sons.
The prosecution has slammed Grossman as a narcissist who believed her “wealth and notoriety would buy her freedom,” adding that she tried to blame the fatal crash on Erickson.
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“From the very beginning, the facts have been distorted and misrepresented, turning the tragic accident into murder and me into a cold-blooded killer,” she added.
“The defendant’s actions from September 29, 2020, through today show a complete lack of remorse and narcissistic superiority that leads to only one conclusion, that she is undeserving of any leniency,” prosecutors said.
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Along with the letter to the judge, a website was created titled, “Notes on Rebecca’s Behalf,” urging readers to not form a “biased opinion” of her and including testimonials from anonymous people imploring the state to take pity on her.
“This image of my mom being a rich entitled woman is absurd to me because she is the most humble and altruistic woman I’ve ever encountered,” Alexis wrote to the court.
“[A probationary sentence] would enable her to live out her remorse through continued service and contributions to society, particularly in ways that honor the memory of the Iskander children,” Peter wrote.
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Grossman was convicted in February on two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter and one count of hit and run.
Prosecutors said Mark and Jacob were crossing the street in the crosswalk with theirmother and younger brother when Grossman slammed into them and fled, leaving the boys for dead.
The socialite struck the boys with such force that the older brother flew more than 250 feet.
