An 11-year-old boy had criss-cross abrasions on his body that matched the pattern on the grille of LA socialite Rebecca Grossman’s white Mercedes, a court has heard.
Mark Iskander was killed along with his brother Jacob, 8, after they were hit while crossing the road on September 29, 2020.
Wealthy socialite Rebecca Grossman, 62, is currently on trial for their murders. Dr. Matthew Miller, a forensic pathologist, told the court on Tuesday that the boys’ injuries were consistent with being hit at “high speed”.
Grossman cried as Deputy District Attorney Jamie Castro showed enlarged, graphic photos of Mark’s bruised and broken body, including his fractured skull and horribly deformed broken right arm.
“The pattern of injuries matches the pattern of the grill almost exactly,” said Dr. Miller, who worked for the LA County Coroner at the time, told the court.
A coroner testified that an 11-year-old boy killed in a car crash had an imprint on his body that matched the grill of the Mercedes grill of murder-accused LA socialite Rebecca Grossman. Pictured: Grossman (center) arrives at court with her husband Peter and their daughter
Grossman, 62, is charged with murder following the September 29, 2020 crash that killed Mark Iskander, 11, and his brother Jacob, 8
Grossman’s white Mercedes SUV is pictured shortly after the crash. Her legal team has argued that it was her lover who hit them in his car and suggested the grill pattern could have come from his car
Speaking about Mark’s horrific injuries, which also included the “complete separation of his spinal cord” plus serious other bone and pelvic fractures, Dr. Miller told the jury: ‘I would expect that he would have been knocked unconscious immediately and that he would have died within seconds. or minutes.
“His injuries were consistent with him being struck by a vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed.”
Prosecutors showed equally disturbing blown-up photos of Jacob as his battered and mutilated corpse lay bruised and bloody on the ground. The images were so moving that several jury members looked away.
The right side of his body and scalp showed extensive abrasions and abrasions. Both his legs were broken, as was his pelvis. But his most serious injury was the “complete dislocation of his spine and skull.”
“Not many people could survive such a catastrophic injury,” said Dr. Miller, adding that the few people who do survive are “completely paralyzed” from the neck down.
When asked by DDA Castro if Jacob’s injury was “consistent with a single vehicle collision at high speed,” Dr. Miller “Yes.”
Dr. Miller said Mark died of “traumatic blunt force injuries,” the same cause of death he attributed to eight-year-old Jacob Iskander.
Prosecutors believe Grossman was traveling at a speed of 80 mph at the time of the crash.
Dr. Matthew Miller, a forensic pathologist, told the court on Tuesday that the boys’ injuries were consistent with them having collided with each other at a ‘high speed’.
Nancy Iskander, Jacob and Mark’s mother, is seen at the Van Nuys courthouse. Grossman’s attorney tried to ban her from court after she began crying during evidence, arguing that her emotional display could prejudice jurors
Grossman, 62, is charged with murder following the September 29, 2020 crash that killed Jacob Iskander, 8, and his brother Mark
Prosecutors allege she was drunk and racing with her lover when the catastrophic collision occurred.
Grossman refutes the allegations and her defense claims it was her boyfriend, ex-professional baseball player Scott Erickson, 56, — with whom she had previously had margaritas — who first hit the children in his car.
Castro let Dr. Miller sees a video of the accident – taken by Grossman’s defense team – in which Scott Erickson’s black Mercedes SUV hits both boys and Mark is thrown high into the air and then lands on the hood of Grossman’s white SUV. behind.
The pathologist found the video “problematic” because the impact would likely throw Mark’s body forward and not high into the air. The video was “highly unlikely,” he said.
Under cross-examination by lead attorney Tony Buzbee, Dr. Miller admitted that he could not “definitely” say that both boys were not hit by two vehicles.
But he added: ‘No one could say for certain that they had been hit by two vehicles.’
Dr. Miller also admitted that Erickson’s Mercedes SUV has the same front grille as Grossman’s, so, the attorney said, “either could have caused the accident.”
Prosecutors called LA County Sheriff’s Office collision investigator and crash reconstruction investigator Robert Apodaca to the witness stand, where he told the jury that measurements he took at the crash scene showed that the impact of the crash left Mark 75 feet forward, while Jacob turned 70 feet to the right side of the road.
While prosecutors insist it was Grossman’s car that struck and killed the boys, her defense team claims it was the black SUV driven by her boyfriend, ex-pro baseball player Scott Erickson, 56 – with whom she had previously had margaritas. to blame
Iskander, the boys and her youngest son Zachary, 5, were crossing a marked crosswalk in Westlake Village when she looked up and saw “two SUVs coming toward her,” she testified.
He examined Grossman’s badly damaged car and concluded that “Jacob was struck by the headlight on the passenger side of the car and knocked aside.”
“I believe Mark was struck by the front of the vehicle, on the driver’s side,” he added.
Apodaca will testify Wednesday about his own calculations of the speed at which Grossman’s car was traveling, and the measurements he took from her car’s “black box” that show her speed just before the crash, which prosecutors say was as high as 80 mph. could be.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Grossman’s legal team attempted to remove the boys’ mother, Nancy Iskander, from the court after she collapsed during criminal Christopher Lee’s testimony about finding bloodstains on Grossman’s damaged white Mercedes after the tragic crash.
Grossman’s attorney John Hobson told the judge that “observable displays of emotion” in front of jurors “may affect the defendant’s fundamental right to a fair trial.”
The judge agreed but stopped short of removing the grieving mother, but she apologized before Dr. Miller began.