US3 min(s) read
Published 15:53 06 Jun 2026 GMT
The attorney of the family of two boys who were killed after being hit by a car driven by a Los Angeles socialite has spoken out after they were awarded $176 million.
Mark and Jacob Iskader, aged 11 and eight, were crossing the street with their mother and their younger brother Zachary when they were hit and left for dead in the Westlake Village on September 29, 2020.
The car that hit them had been driven by Rebecca Grossman, 62, who was allegedly playing "a high-speed game of chicken" with her former boyfriend and ex-Dodgers baseball player, Scott Erikson.
Grossman was later sentenced to a 15-year-to-life sentence for Mark and Jacob's murders, while Erikson avoided criminal charges by agreeing to film a public information video about careful driving.
Grossman was handed two felony counts of murder, two felony counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, and one felony count of hit-and-run driving resulting in death in February 2024, after she left the scene after hitting the children with her car.
On Wednesday June 3, a jury found that Grossman and Erikson had been negligent and acted with malice when they chose to race one another after allegedly drinking margaritas at a restaurant nearby, per the Independent.
Reacting to the jury's decision and the subsequent award of $176 million to the family, Los Angeles civil litigator Neama Rahmani told The Los Angeles Times that the case “had everything you need for a nuclear verdict,” as it involved the deaths of two children, “a parent and child who witnessed their deaths," along with allegations of driving under the influence and racing in the street.
The Iskander family’s attorney, Brian Panish, revealed that he'd actually asked for the family to be awarded $375 million, and shared a heartbreaking statement about the large settlement sum.
Panish reportedly asked the jury: "Is that a lot of money? Yeah. But it’s a tremendous loss… What could be worse for a parent than to see your kids run down by a drunk driver?"
During Grossman's trial, Nancy - the children's mother - had claimed the two cars were "zig-zagging" between lanes "as if they were playing", and Grossman did not stop after hitting the two boys.
She was apprehended by police a third of a mile down the road after the collision, with Nancy adding: "They didn’t stop before the intersection. They didn’t stop at the intersection. They didn’t stop when an 11-year-old was on the hood of the car... Nobody stopped."
Nancy later said that seeing Grossman in handcuffs did not bring her comfort, adding: "No one wishes that on anyone. I promise I do not have any hate for her. My heart broke for her children... It wasn’t easy, but it will bring me closure."
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