Overview
- A Los Angeles County jury awarded the Iskander family $176 million after finding Rebecca Grossman and Scott Erickson negligent in the 2020 crosswalk deaths of brothers Mark and Jacob Iskander.
- Jurors concluded the two defendants acted with malice and ‘in concert’ with each other which opened a second phase of the civil trial to consider punitive damages and evidence about their assets.
- Grossman is already serving a 15-to-life prison term after her 2024 criminal conviction for the boys’ deaths and the civil verdict does not change her criminal sentence.
- Erickson was not criminally charged for murder but the jury found him civilly liable after trial testimony in which he admitted lying to police, deleting messages, and using ‘cold plating’ of license plates.
- Plaintiffs’ experts said Grossman’s SUV struck the boys at high speed in a 45-mph zone and did not stop for about a third of a mile while defense lawyers disputed the racing claim and raised issues about visibility and vehicle data.