Attorneys for Hidden Hills socialite Rebecca Grossman have persistently maintained it was her then-lover, former Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson, who first struck two younger boys in a Westlake Village crosswalk, a deadly collision for which she now stands accused of homicide.
A district legal professional’s investigator, referred to as to testify at Grossman’s trial by the protection, leveled an extra cost at Erickson on Thursday — alleging he was “chilly plating,” or utilizing the identical license plate on two of the black Mercedes SUVs that he owns, one among which he was driving the evening the boys had been killed. The investigator mentioned the observe was a felony.
However whereas Grossman’s protection staff seized on the plating subject to color Erickson as a lawbreaker, the lead prosecutor dismissed the revelation as a years-old pink herring.
Grossman, 60, is accused of driving her white Mercedes SUV at speeds reaching 81 mph on Triunfo Canyon Street within the upscale suburban L.A. neighborhood, intently following the SUV pushed by Erickson.
Prosecutors allege that on Sept. 29, 2020, she went from having cocktails with Erickson at an area restaurant to racing behind him alongside the road, the place she struck Mark and Jacob Iskander, 11 and eight, as they made their approach by means of a marked crosswalk behind their mom and 5-year-old brother.
Grossman is charged with two counts of second-degree homicide, two counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, and one depend of hit-and-run driving leading to demise.
Erickson advised authorities he was driving his 2007 Mercedes on the time, and jurors have heard him deny on the witness stand having hit anybody.
Tony Buzbee, Grossman’s lead legal professional, mentioned that Erickson was really driving his 2016 black Mercedes GL 63 AMG, and that it struck the younger boys and vaulted one among them onto the hood of Grossman’s white Mercedes GLE 43. An accident reconstruction skilled testifying for the protection on Thursday mentioned that was what occurred.
Sheriff’s officers by no means inspected Erickson’s automobile, in response to testimony.
D.A. investigator Sergio Lopez testified that he was requested by his workplace to take a more in-depth take a look at Erickson’s two Mercedes, and obtained license-plate captures from the 2007 and 2016 automobiles displaying that they had the identical Nevada license plate.
“The problem with Mr. Erickson is utilizing the identical license for 2 automobiles,” Lopez mentioned when questioned by Buzbee. The investigator mentioned such faux plates had been simply obtained — he mentioned they could possibly be purchased on Etsy.
Mark, left, and Jacob Iskander.
(Iskander household)
Lopez testified that Erickson was “cold-plating to keep away from paying registration on the 2016 mannequin.”
Prosecutor Jamie Castro referred to as Lopez’s testimony a pink herring. Lopez confirmed that Erickson’s alleged cold-plating had occurred lengthy earlier than the 2020 incident.
“It has nothing to do with the collision?” Castro requested.
“Appropriate,” Lopez replied.
Buzbee then jumped up and requested, “The place is Scott Erickson?”
“No concept,” Lopez mentioned.
A lawyer representing Erickson couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.
Jurors on Thursday additionally heard from a young person who was enjoying tennis in Westlake Village on the evening of the collision. Dorsa Khoddami recounted listening to “alarming” sounds from a close-by roadway, adopted by a sudden hush.
“I pieced collectively it was a automotive accident,” Khoddami testified, describing how she and her mom, a doctor, dashed from the tennis courts to the accident scene.
She mentioned they arrived to search out Nancy Iskander, the boys’ mom, shoeless. The teenager testified that she tried at hand the girl some footwear that they had retrieved from the road.
“She began screaming, ‘These are my son’s footwear!’ And I instantly put them again,” mentioned Khoddami, who was 16 on the time. “My mother described it as a battle zone.”
Buzbee requested Khoddami whether or not she had heard two impacts, which might reinforce the protection argument that Erickson’s automobile had struck the kids first.
Khoddami testified that she’d heard an “alarming and loud” sound after which “one other sound occurred,” after which “everybody paused.”
Authorities discovered Grossman about three-tenths of a mile from the crosswalk after a gasoline cut-off security system brought on her automobile to grind to a halt. She advised a responding deputy, in addition to a 911 operator, that she didn’t know what had occurred.
The prosecution has mentioned Grossman was not as ignorant to the evening’s occasions as she claimed, pointing to a textual content {that a} buddy testified Grossman had despatched her in June 2022, almost two years after the boys’ deaths, during which she mentioned she’d seen Nancy Iskander — who was carrying inline skates — falling and had turned her head within the lady’s path for a quick second or two.
An skilled witness, nevertheless, bolstered the protection’s argument that Grossman was unaware of any impacts. William Broadhead, an engineering skilled on automotive airbags and restraints, advised jurors Thursday that drivers are shocked by the pressure of an airbag when it deploys.
Protection legal professionals wished to set off an airbag contained in the courtroom as an illustration for jurors, a transfer that was rejected by L.A. County Superior Court docket Choose Joseph Brandolino, who mentioned it could possibly be proven on video. The decide did say he would enable the managed firing of a seat-belt pretensioner, which mechanically tightens the belt in a collision, however security screens for the Sheriff’s Division nixed that concept.
“It stuns you. … It’s complicated for those who don’t know you’re in an accident,” mentioned Broadhead, describing the punch of the Mercedes dashboard and knee airbags and the noise of the belt pretensioner. “You don’t know if it’s a bomb or a sniper.”
The witness mentioned he wouldn’t count on that putting a pedestrian would trigger the baggage to inflate. Grossman’s “airbags fired defectively,” he concluded.
The prosecution and protection sparred over the supply of Grossman’s bruises, which Broadhead mentioned had been a results of being injured by an airbag.
Prosecutor Castro confronted him with a collection of textual content messages the Hidden Hills lady had despatched to a masseuse 10 days earlier than the accident. The messages included pictures and mentioned, “Subsequent time don’t therapeutic massage too exhausting. It’s essential loosen up. I’ve bruises.”
Buzbee, Grossman’s legal professional, belittled the testimony, saying,”We simply discovered one thing right here: Nicole has sturdy palms.”
He mentioned photographs confirmed bruises on his shopper’s face, arm and chest that weren’t there earlier than the evening of the collision.