'It's His Birthday,' Mom Of Slain Boys Cries Out At Grossman​ Hearing

AGOURA HILLS, CA — "Tell her that Jacob's birthday is this Friday. Tell her. It's his birthday," Nancy Iskander cried out from the front row of the Van Nuys West courthouse Tuesday at the woman who struck and killed her sons, Jacob, 8, and Mark, 11.

Iskander immediately apologized. Her hands were shaking. Tears trickled down her cheeks. It was unlike her to lose her cool in court, she said.

"I'm here instead of being with him. I'm seeing her. I don't want to see her, I want my son," she cried out, again apologizing to the District Attorney and courtroom bailiff.

Iskander and her supporters were hoping Judge Joseph Brandolino would set a trial date Tuesday morning. Iskander's supporters contend, Rebecca Grossman, the Los Angeles socialite facing murder charges for hitting and killing Iskander's sons in Westlake Village more than two years ago, is getting preferential treatment and using her status to evade justice. Brandolino on Tuesday scheduled a check-in for March 6.

In the meantime, Grossman's defense team will prepare and turn over expert reports, according to Deputy District Attorney Ryan Gould.

If her attorneys finalize their defense by April, Grossman will face trial in May, Gould said. Brandolino on Tuesday expressed an interest in speeding the process along.

Though Iskander's supporters said Grossman is being shown too much leniency, Grossman's attorneys maintain she was overcharged and advised against allowing "emotion to drive this case." Grossman is only guilty of traveling over the speed limit, her attorney Tony Buzbee claims.

"Traveling over the posted speed limit is simply not murder, no matter how the DA attempts to twist the facts for his own purposes," Buzbee said in a statement in June. "The prosecution’s continued insistence on making this a murder case by overcharging my client, a pillar of this community, with murder is nothing more than a transparent effort to force her to plea."

The case has enthralled the local community for years, and Tuesday's hearing triggered emotions as more than a dozen people supporting Iskander and Grossman gathered in the hallway outside the courtroom. Many of Iskander's supporters were wearing t-shirts and stickers with Mark and Jacob's faces on them.

Grossman approached Julie Cohen, a family friend of the Iskanders, and told her, I know you think you are doing the right thing, but you don't understand, Cohen said.

The bailiff ultimately separated Grossman's supporters from Iskander's after a tense hallway standoff.

The Charges

The crash occurred on Sept. 29, 2020 when Mark and Jacob Iskander were crossing the street with their mother and younger brother, Zachary in a marked crosswalk on Triunfo Canyon Road near Saddle Mountain Drive. Grossman's car approached at a high rate of speed and hit them, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office.

The wife of a prominent plastic surgeon and founder of the Grossman Burn Foundation, Grossman was charged in 2020 with two felony counts each of murder and vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one felony count of hit-and-run driving resulting in death, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office.

If convicted as charged, Grossman faces 34 years to life in prison. She had previously contested the murder charges and blood-alcohol evidence used in her case. The California Supreme Court in December denied Grossman's effort to have the two murder charges dropped, The Acorn reported.

Buzbee places primary culpability on the city of Westlake, claiming the site of the crash was known to be dangerous.

"It is now clear that one of the primary causes of the accident, in this case, was the dangerous aspects of the pedestrian crossing where it occurred," Buzbee said in a statement to Patch Tuesday. "It is our firm belief that criminal charges in this case should have never been brought, and we are confident that, once all the evidence is presented in court, Mrs. Grossman will have no culpability for this terrible tragedy."

Coming to court is always difficult because it brings back the memory of the crash, said Iskander. Facing Grossman days before his birthday was particularly painful.

She added that she was disappointed with a May trial date, which lines up with what would have been Mark and Jacob's elementary and middle school graduations this summer.

"I don't get a graduation, I get a trial," Nancy Iskander said.

Nancy Iskander will celebrate her late son's birthday by going out to dinner, she said. Visiting the cemetery is often too difficult on such days. She encouraged the community to remember the positive work that has resulted from the Mark and Jacob Iskander Foundation, which supports local foster children and children in Egypt.

Iskander urged her community to never forget how beautiful Mark and Jacob are, she said.