Rebecca Grossman trial: Mercedes car parts found at fatal scene

People place flowers along a metal fence with other flowers.

Jan. 31, 2024 4:27 PM PT

Pieces of debris from the scene where two boys were fatally struck in a Westlake crosswalk were from a white Mercedes, the same type of vehicle Rebecca Grossman was driving the night of the crash, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy testified during the L.A. socialite’s trial Wednesday.

Grossman faces murder charges in the deaths of brothers Mark and Jacob Iskander, 11 and 8, who were run down while crossing Triunfo Canyon Road at Saddle Mountain Drive with their mother on Sept. 29, 2020.

Grossman and her then-boyfriend, Scott Erickson, a former pitcher for the Dodgers, raced through the intersection that evening after having drinks at a nearby restaurant, prosecutors say.

Grossman’s defense team says Erickson’s vehicle — a black Mercedes SUV — struck the children first, flipping one of the boys into the air before he bounced off Grossman’s hood.

But Deputy Rafael Mejia told jurors that investigators “found debris from a white Mercedes” at the scene, adding, “We did not find debris from another vehicle.”

Prosecutors showed the courtroom an image of a Mercedes emblem lying on the blacktop, and Mejia later testified there were two emblems from the luxury car line found at the scene.

A car with a smashed-in grille on a street at night

Grossman’s SUV stopped three-tenths of a mile from the marked crosswalk. The vehicle was powered down by its safety system because its airbags deployed, court records show.

Mejia testified that he found Grossman standing in front of her Mercedes, a short distance from the crash site. The SUV had visible front-end damage, including a buckled fender on the passenger side, which sheriff’s officials photographed.

“She told me her vehicle was disabled by Mercedes-Benz and her airbags went off, and she did not know what was going on,” Mejia said. “She said she hit something, but she didn’t know what she hit.”

When a Mercedes operator called the vehicle after it was disabled, they looped in a 911 dispatcher, who asked whether the impact that deployed the airbags was connected to a nearby crash in which two children had been struck.

Mejia said he noticed what appeared to be blood spatter on Grossman’s vehicle, but acknowledged that he did not have the material analyzed.

He told jurors that after his initial contact with Grossman, she begged him to allow her to call her husband, Dr. Peter Grossman, who is head of the Grossman Burn Center.

“Her husband could help the kids,” Mejia said.

The deputy also said Grossman “had the smell of alcohol coming from her person.”

According to court records, Grossman, 60, and Erickson, 55, had been drinking cocktails at a restaurant before the crash. They were with retired baseball player Royce Clayton, who testified Monday that Erickson drank two margaritas and Grossman one. He said Grossman did not seem to be impaired when she left the eatery.

Though she is not charged with driving under the influence, prosecutors say Grossman was impaired. An on-site breathalyzer test showed a blood-alcohol content of 0.076%, slightly below California’s legal limit of 0.08%. A blood sample taken three hours after the crash registered at the 0.08% mark. In addition, Valium was found in her blood.

Grossman’s legal team has sought to undermine Mejia’s credibility, noting that the law enforcement officer is accused of inappropriately distributing photos from Kobe Bryant’s fatal helicopter crash and gave inconsistent testimony in civil litigation by the star’s widow, Vanessa Bryant.

But jurors on Wednesday heard nothing of Mejia’s questionable conduct after Superior Court Judge Joseph Brandolino ruled it was not relevant to this trial.

Tony Buzbee, Grossman’s lead attorney, asked Mejia during cross-examination whether he was aware that a black Mercedes had also been involved in the deadly incident. In the immediate aftermath of the crash, Mejia said, he was not.

But Mejia said he didn’t believe another Mercedes struck the boys because such an impact would have disabled the vehicle the same way Grossman’s SUV was internally shut down. He also said Grossman never mentioned another car during his initial investigation that night.

The deputy testified that Grossman’s daughter, Alexis Grossman, came to the site where her mother’s vehicle was stopped, which was near their lakeside home, and asked to take her home. He told her she couldn’t talk to her mother at that point. He also acknowledged that she informed him that Erickson had been traveling with her mother that evening but in a separate vehicle.

Buzbee has argued that Erickson “stopped down the road and hid in the bushes and watched.”

The lawyer also repeatedly tried to cast doubt on where prosecutors say the boys were struck, saying the first debris reportedly found by Mejia was 50 feet from the crosswalk.

On Monday, the children’s mother, Nancy Iskander, testified that she found Jacob near the curb after seeing a white Mercedes speed through the intersection and hearing a loud crash. Authorities say he was thrown about 50 feet. She said that it looked as though he was sleeping, and that she put her ear to his chest and heard his heart beating. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead a few hours later, sheriff’s officials said in a news release.

Mark was 254 feet away — a distance a deputy who specializes in crash incidents previously testified was the farthest he has known a human to be tossed in a crash. His body was crumpled, and blood was pouring out his nose, his mother recounted. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

“Every bone in his body was broken,” she testified.