US socialite jailed over brothers' hit-and-run death
Socialite Rebecca Grossman has been given a jail sentence of 15 years to life over a hit-and-run car crash that claimed the lives of two young brothers.
Mark and Jacob Iskander, who were 11 and eight respectively, were fatally hit in 2020 while crossing a road with their family in Westlake Village, California.
Grossman, the co-founder of the Grossman Burn Foundation, was convicted by a Los Angeles jury in February of charges including second-degree murder.
During the 60-year-old's sentencing, she apologised to the family but insisted she did not see the two young boys on the night of the crash.
Her lawyers argued during the trial that the boys were first struck by a vehicle driven by Scott Erickson, a former LA Dodgers baseball star. They said Grossman was driving behind it.
The court heard that the pair had been drinking cocktails earlier that day.
The explanation that Erickson's car hit the boys first was labelled a "ridiculous theory" by the prosecution, which also said Grossman was driving at almost twice the speed limit.
Erickson has denied wrongdoing.
Grossman was ultimately convicted of two counts each of second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter and one count of hit-and-run driving.
Ahead of the judge's sentencing, the prosecution argued that she had showed a "complete lack of remorse".
However, the judge rejected a request of a longer sentence of 34 years to life, saying she was not the "monster" the prosecution had made her out to be.
Grossman could be seen crying during the hearing, and said she would have sooner "driven into a brick wall" than hit the boys with her car.
She said she had been advised by her lawyers against contacting the victims' parents - something the boys' mother disputed.
Nancy Iskander said she saw Grossman outside the hospital's emergency room on the night of the crash. "She looked me in the eye!" she said, according to the BBC's US partner, CBC News. "You looked me in the eye. You knew they were dying."
Grossman co-founded the Grossman Burn Foundation with her husband, Peter Grossman. The organisation exists to support burns victims around the world.
