Rebecca Grossman, accused of operating down two younger boys in a Westlake Village crosswalk, gained’t be testifying in her homicide trial.
In a near-whisper, the Hidden Hills resident advised the decide Tuesday that she was opting to not tackle jurors. Grossman’s lead legal professional, Tony Buzbee, then rested the protection. With that transfer, Friday’s emotional testimony from Grossman’s daughter Alexis grew to become the final phrase from protection witnesses.
Closing arguments will likely be offered Wednesday within the six-week trial, which has included graphic particulars, emotional outbursts and harrowing, usually shocking testimony.
Alexis Grossman advised jurors on Friday that the evening Mark Iskander, 11, and his brother Jacob, 8, have been run down in a crosswalk, she had a daunting encounter with former Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson, with whom her mom was romantically concerned. The 19-year-old mentioned that after the crash, she noticed Erickson hiding behind a close-by tree. She testified that he smelled of alcohol and threatened to “wreck” her and her household if she advised investigators what she’d seen.
On Tuesday, looking for to counter {the teenager}’s testimony, prosecutors known as on Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Cody Gaudet, who testified that nobody had been reported hiding within the space the place Alexis Grossman mentioned she noticed Erickson.
“No one known as in somebody hiding within the bushes,” Gaudet testified. “We go to calls like that on a regular basis in Westlake Village.” He mentioned residents of the upscale L.A. neighborhood are vigilant and that an individual hiding close to the scene of a fatality would have drawn deputies’ consideration.
Buzbee requested the deputy if an individual may have parked on a facet street.
“They may,” Gaudet replied.
Rebecca Grossman, 60, faces two counts of second-degree homicide, two counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one rely of hit-and-run driving. She’s accused of driving her white Mercedes SUV in a 45-mph zone on Triunfo Canyon Street at speeds reaching 81 mph earlier than hitting the brothers whereas touring at greater than 70 mph. Prosecutors say the boys have been following their mom and 5-year-old brother via a crosswalk.
Rebecca Grossman and daughter Alexis head to Van Nuys Courthouse West final week.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Occasions)
Investigators testifying for the prosecution advised jurors that Grossman wouldn’t have hit the boys if she had been driving on the velocity restrict. They mentioned that after the collision, she didn’t cease for three-tenths of a mile, after her airbags had deployed and the car’s gas cut-off security system brought on the SUV to return to a halt.
Alexis Grossman’s tearful testimony was offered to bolster the protection argument that Erickson — not Rebecca Grossman — was the primary to strike the boys on the evening of Sept. 29, 2020.
Rebecca Grossman had been with Erickson that evening at a Westlake Village restaurant, the place they’d cocktails. She was following carefully behind Erickson when she drove via the crosswalk.
Buzbee has maintained that it was the black Mercedes SUV pushed by Erickson that first hit the brothers and that one boy was tossed onto Grossman’s hood. He offered witnesses who testified that she was driving responsibly, was not impaired and was touring at not more than 52 mph. The protection additionally contends that the incident occurred outdoors the crosswalk.
On Friday, in Grossman’s first touch upon the six-week trial, she advised a Occasions reporter that prosecutors didn’t care about attending to the underside of what occurred. Via tears, she mentioned the prosecutors “aren’t reality seekers” as they blocked efforts by her attorneys to ask questions on proof that was barred earlier than trial by the decide.
Again and again on Tuesday as he questioned witnesses, Buzbee requested if Erickson’s 2016 Mercedes AMG GL63 had been examined — the first investigators have admitted they didn’t accomplish that — and requested if efforts have been made to seek out Erickson.
Jurors have heard testimony that Erickson advised investigators he was driving a 2007 Mercedes the evening of the incident; pictures from video present it was extra doubtless his 2016 Mercedes. An investigator admitted that he discovered Erickson used the identical license plate on each automobiles — if true, a felony offense.
On Tuesday, a crash reconstruction knowledgeable for the prosecution pushed again towards statements by a protection knowledgeable witness that the invention of one of many our bodies 254 toes from the crosswalk was as a result of it rolled after being struck. John Grindey, a former California Freeway Patrol officer, mentioned there was no proof to help that situation.
Buzbee offered a chart to point out what he mentioned was conflicting testimony within the case. Witnesses had differed on the lane the place the boys have been struck and what number of impacts occurred. Some mentioned the left lane, some the correct, and a few heard or noticed one or two impacts.
The chart included a picture of a person scratching his head. Deputy Dist. Atty. Jamie Castro objected to the picture, which Buzbee mentioned was of himself. Grindey commented that it “seems to be you.”
“And plenty of us,” retorted Buzbee as he continued to try to sow seeds of doubt.
Michael Hale, an Orange County district legal professional’s investigator, additionally took the witness stand Tuesday, looking for to refute protection specialists who claimed that the knowledge recorder, or “black field,” from Grossman’s Mercedes AMG GLE43 was inaccurate.
Prosecution witnesses testified that black field knowledge confirmed that the Mercedes reached 81 mph earlier than flippantly braking and putting the boys at 73 mph.
Protection specialists mentioned they believed the knowledge have been unreliable as a result of the system confirmed a median velocity over the car’s lifetime of greater than 500 mph.
Hale insisted that the information on the acceleration of Grossman’s car have been correct.
Questioning Hale, Buzbee instantly switched the main focus to Erickson’s car, asking the witness: “Had been you ever requested to seek out Erickson’s automotive and see what the entrance finish regarded like?”
Hale replied that he was not.