The mother of two boys who died when they were hit at an intersection in Westlake Village gave tearful testimony about the last minutes of her sons’ lives during a trial against the drivers of the cars that were speeding through that intersection.
Nancy Iskander told jurors she was crossing the street with her three sons when she was forced to grab her youngest son and dive to avoid being hit by a black Mercedes SUV. He said he then saw his two older sons disappear when a speeding white Mercedes car ran over the intersection.
“I was crossing the street. I wasn’t crossing the racetrack,” he testified Tuesday in the capital trial of his son’s convicted killer, Rebecca Grossman, and former Dodgers shortstop Scott Erickson. The lawsuit seeks $100 million from Grossman, Erickson and their insurance companies.
In 2024, Grossman was convicted of manslaughter during a trial in which experts said he was driving up to 81 mph and traveled a quarter of a mile after hitting the children before his car shut off. He is serving a sentence of 15 years to life in prison.
In the trial, Iskander recalled the shock of losing his sons Mark, 11, and Jacob, 8, on September 29, 2020, when they were walking near a private pool and two Mercedes SUVs came speeding down the road.
Iskander said he saw a black sports car “roaring” toward the Westlake Village intersection where he and his three sons were crossing. He said he grabbed his 5-year-old son, Zachary, and pulled him to safety as the SUV driven by Erickson entered the marked Triunfo Canyon Road.
“I can still see that bump,” he said. “I see you in my nightmares.” A black car drove past the marked road at “crazy speed,” he said.
But another SUV — a white Mercedes driven by Grossman — followed close behind, Iskander said. His older sons were close to the middle man, one riding a skateboard and the other a skateboard, as the cars seemed to run up and down them, he said.
“A white car passed where Mark and Jacob were, then I looked back and didn’t find them, I started screaming,” he said.
“I went down the street, I saw Mark, bleeding from the mouth, and his shoes were not on him,” he said. “I saw that he was broken, and I saw that he was dead … I just knew, I don’t know how, as a mother.
Then he found Jacob. “Jacob looked like he was sleeping,” he recalled. “I kept thinking there was no way God would take them both.” A trained pharmacist, Iskander checked and felt his heart beating. For a moment, he was alone, as no car stopped, he added.
“I was completely shocked,” he recalled. When paramedics arrived, they covered Mark with a sheet and began CPR on Jacob. Paramedics took the little boy to Los Robles Medical Center. She and her husband, Karim, followed in a police car.
Mark, left, and Jacob Iskander.
(Iskander family)
“If he succeeds, he will be paralyzed from the neck down,” said the doctor. “His spine was separated from his head, they took us to say goodbye to him, I told him that I am proud of him and I love him.”
Iskander recalled seeing Grossman in the emergency room, handcuffed. “He knew who I was because he was looking at me,” he testified. “He just looked me in the eyes. … I was shocked, he seemed to be his age.” He added, “I thought it must have been new to drive that way.”
According to testimony, Erickson and Grossman were drinking margaritas somewhere before getting into their cars and heading to Grossman’s house to watch the presidential debate.
Sheriff’s investigators said Grossman was driving more than 70 mph when he hit the boys. But Erickson, in testimony last week, insisted that, when he was walking in front of him, he was doing about 50 mph. A civil complaint accuses the two of racing that day, but Erickson told jurors they weren’t.
Rebecca Grossman, and her daughter, are headed to the Van Nuys Courthouse in 2024. Grossman is serving a sentence of 15 years to life in prison.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Erickson testified that he missed the two brothers but did not see what was happening in his rearview mirror. He testified that he was on the phone with Grossman after the accident and asked, “Did you see the boys?”
Grossman replied, “Boys … ,” and hung up, Erickson told jurors. During the criminal trial, Grossman’s attorneys alleged that it was a retired SUV that hit the boys first, throwing them into their client’s path. Still, the jury sentenced Grossman to death.
Iskander, in the witness stand on Tuesday, agreed with his lawyer Brian Panish, who promised to show that the pot and his girlfriend at the time were both guilty because they were running on a residential street.
“I remember that day every day,” she said. “I’m a really broken mother. Part of me died with them.” Her husband kept the bedrooms in their Westlake Village home the same way. The couple now lives in Massachusetts.
“No parent wants to forget their child,” he explained. “Because it is flesh and blood and what is more important than life.”
Iskander became emotional as he described his last Mother’s Day.
“This year was very difficult … My daughter, who is 7 years old, made a card for me at school,” she said. “He put a pink heart on it, and put ‘Mark and Jacob. Happy Mother’s Day, Mom.’ It just hit hard.”
