Rebecca Grossman, accused of running over two young children in a Westlake Village crosswalk, will not testify at her murder trial.
Almost in a whisper, the Hidden Hills resident told the judge Tuesday that she preferred not to address jurors. Grossman's lead attorney, Tony Buzbee, rested the defense. By that measure, Friday's emotional testimony from Grossman's daughter Alexis became the defense witnesses' last word.
Closing arguments will be presented Wednesday in the six-week trial, which has included graphic details, emotional outbursts and harrowing, often surprising testimony.
Alexis Grossman told jurors Friday that the night Mark Iskander, 11, and his brother Jacob, 8, were run over in a crosswalk, she had a terrifying encounter with former Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson, with whom his mother had a romantic relationship. The 19-year-old said that after the accident, she saw Erickson hiding behind a nearby tree. She testified that he smelled of alcohol and threatened to “ruin” her and her family if he told investigators what he had seen.
On Tuesday, to counter the teen's testimony, prosecutors called Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Cody Gaudet, who testified that no one had been reported hiding in the area where Alexis Grossman said she saw Erickson.
“No one called out to someone hiding in the bushes,” Gaudet testified. “We take calls like that all the time in Westlake Village.” He said residents of the exclusive Los Angeles neighborhood are vigilant and that a person hiding near the scene of a death would have caught the attention of agents.
Buzbee asked the officer if a person could have parked on a side street.
“They could,” Gaudet responded.
Rebecca Grossman, 60, faces two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one count of hit-and-run driving. She is accused of driving her white Mercedes SUV in a 45 mph zone on Triunfo Canyon Road at speeds reaching 81 mph before hitting the brothers while she was traveling more than 70 mph. Prosecutors say the children followed their mother and five-year-old brother through a crosswalk.
Rebecca Grossman and her daughter Alexis headed to Van Nuys Courthouse West last week.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Investigators who testified for the prosecution told jurors that Grossman would not have hit the children if he had been driving the speed limit. They said that after the collision, she did not stop for three-tenths of a mile, after her air bags deployed and the vehicle's fuel shut-off safety system caused the SUV to stop.
Alexis Grossman's tearful testimony was presented to bolster the defense's argument that Erickson, not Rebecca Grossman, was the first to hit the children on the night of September 29, 2020.
Rebecca Grossman had been with Erickson that night at a Westlake Village restaurant, where they had cocktails. She was following closely behind Erickson when she crossed the crosswalk.
Buzbee has maintained that it was the black Mercedes SUV driven by Erickson that struck the brothers first and that a child was thrown onto Grossman's hood. He presented witnesses who testified that she was driving responsibly, was not under the influence of alcohol and was traveling no faster than 52 mph. The defense also maintains that the incident occurred outside the crosswalk.
On Friday, in Grossman's first comment about the six-week trial, he told a Times reporter that prosecutors didn't care about getting to the bottom of what happened. Through tears, he said prosecutors “are not truth seekers” as they blocked his attorneys' efforts to ask questions about evidence that the judge had prohibited before the trial.
Over and over again Tuesday, while questioning witnesses, Buzbee asked if Erickson's 2016 Mercedes AMG GL63 had been examined (the lead investigators admitted they had not) and asked if efforts were made to find Erickson.
Jurors have heard testimony that Erickson told investigators he was driving a 2007 Mercedes the night of the incident; Video footage shows it was most likely his 2016 Mercedes. An investigator admitted that he discovered Erickson used the same license plate on both vehicles; If true, a serious crime.
On Tuesday, a prosecution accident reconstruction expert rejected claims by a defense expert that the discovery of one of the bodies 254 feet from the crosswalk was because it rolled after being hit. John Grindey, a former California Highway Patrol officer, said there was no evidence to support that scenario.
Buzbee presented a chart to show what he claimed was conflicting testimony in the case. Witnesses disagreed about which lane the children were hit and how many impacts occurred. Some said it was in the left lane, others in the right lane, and some heard or saw one or two impacts.
The graphic included an image of a man scratching his head. Deputy District. Lawyer. Jamie Castro objected to the image, which Buzbee claimed was of himself. Grindey commented that “it appears to be you.”
“And a lot of us,” Buzbee replied as he continued to try to sow seeds of doubt.
Michael Hale, an investigator for the Orange County district attorney, also took the stand Tuesday, trying to refute defense experts who claimed that the data recorder, or “black box,” in Grossman's Mercedes AMG GLE43 was inaccurate.
Prosecution witnesses testified that black box data showed the Mercedes reached 81 mph before braking slightly and hitting the children at 73 mph.
Defense experts said they believed the data was unreliable because the system showed an average speed over the vehicle's life of more than 500 mph.
Hale insisted that the data about the acceleration of Grossman's vehicle was accurate.
Upon questioning Hale, Buzbee immediately shifted the focus to Erickson's vehicle, asking the witness, “Were you ever asked to find Erickson's car and see what the front end looked like?”
Hale said no.
