A distressed eyewitness saw a little boy fly into the air when he was fatally struck by a speeding Mercedes. Police said he was driven by a murderous socialite who was pursuing her lover.
Jack Sands recalled the horrific moment he saw Rebecca Grossman allegedly hit Mark Iskander and his brother Jacob with her white Mercedes in September 2020.
He told a Los Angeles court on Tuesday: ‘The black car tried to avoid the children by moving out of the way. But the white car was only a few meters behind me. I saw the white car hit one of the boys. I saw it fly to the right side of the road.”
Sands was a passenger in another car that was overtaken by the white Mercedes – allegedly driven by Grossman – and a black SUV owned by her lover Scott Erickson.
He said, “They were bumper to bumper.” Sands said he saw the Iskanders in the crosswalk with the older boys in the outside lane, following their mother and brother.
“I thought with that speed and force it was too late,” Sands said, adding that he saw Nancy Iskander grab her 5-year-old son Zachary and dive to safety before the SUVs shot through the crosswalk.
Rebecca Grossman, Dr. Peter Grossman and their daughter arrive for court at the Los Angeles Superior Courthouse on January 30, 2024 in Van Nuys, California
An eyewitness testified in court that he saw one of the boys go ‘into the air’ after the alleged car collision (photo: brothers Mark and Jacob Iskander, eight and 11)
The eyewitness testified that the white Mercedes SUV that Rebecca Grossman was driving struck one of the boys
He said he saw both cars “touch their brake lights” at the intersection, “but they kept going.”
When asked by Deputy District Attorney Ryan Gould if he saw an SUV stop or return to the tragic scene, Sands said, “No.”
And pointing to Grossman, Gould asked Sands if he had seen her return to the scene of the accident. Again he replied ‘No.’
When Gould asked him, “Did you see the black SUV hit a child?” he replied, “No, I just saw a white car hit a child.”
Lead attorney Tony Buzbee attempted to question Sands’ account of the accident by showing him a photo of the road leading to the crosswalk taken from the same place where Sands said he saw the accident happen.
When Sands had difficulty determining the exact location of the crosswalk in the photo, Buzbee said, “You don’t even know where the crosswalk is in this photo – how could you have seen a car hit a boy?”
But Sands insisted: “I saw the white car hit one of the kids.”
Sands friend Yasmin Eftekhari – who was driving the Infiniti car in which he was a passenger – caused some confusion in court when the eyewitness account she gave contradicted his testimony, although they both agreed they saw the white car hit one of the boys. .
While Sands had said the two SUVs were in the outside lane at the crosswalk, she said they were in the inside lane.
And when Sands said the black Mercedes was in the lead, she said the white Mercedes was in front when it hit one of the boys.
‘I saw the white vehicle drive towards the boy. He was hit and came to a stop on the right side of the road.”
When DDA Jamie Castro asked her, “Did you see the black car hit one of the kids?” she replied, “I didn’t.”
Earlier on Tuesday, a graphic photo of the crumpled, lifeless body of a young boy was shown in court, causing the child’s mother to run from the courtroom in tears.
“My Markie,” Nancy Iskander sobbed as she stood up and fled the Van Nuys courthouse after being confronted with the traumatic sight of her 11-year-old son Mark lying dead in the road after the crash that also killed her son Jacob, 8 , was killed.
The murder trial got off to a stormy start Friday, with prosecutors and defense arguing over what the jury could hear — and the defense claiming that an associate of the suspect “hid in the bushes” after the killings.
Earlier in court on Tuesday, a graphic photo of the crumpled, lifeless body of a young boy was shown, causing the child’s mother (pictured here with her family) to run from the courtroom in tears
The photo – shown to jurors by prosecutors – was taken by local Westlake Village resident Susan Manners shortly after the crash she also witnessed.
The murder trial got off to a stormy start Friday, with prosecutors and the defense arguing over what the jury could hear — and the defense claiming that an associate of the suspect “hid in the bushes” after the killings.
Prosecutors allege the married socialite had a drunken lunch with her former LA Dodgers star lover, Scott Erickson, before getting into her Mercedes SUV and fatally hitting the two boys in Westlake Village.
Grossman’s defense said in their opening statements Friday that they plan to show that it was Erickson — who was driving a separate vehicle at the time of the crash, after their lunch — who struck and killed the boys.
She remains married to famed plastic surgeon Dr. Peter Grossman, who has been filmed holding his wife’s hand as she arrives in court each day.