In sometimes emotional and tense testimony, former Major League Baseball player Royce Clayton told jurors in a wrongful death trial that Scott Erickson said he had been racing down the road before a fatal crash.
Erickson, a defendant in the lawsuit, spoke to Clayton over the phone that night, Clayton said from the witness stand in a Van Nuys courtroom on May 1. Erickson told his longtime friend that he and Rebecca Grossman, his then-girlfriend, were driving in separate vehicles from a restaurant to Grossman’s home near Westlake Lake on Sept. 29, 2020.
Mark and Jacob Iskander, 11 and 8, were crossing Triunfo Canyon Road with their mom and younger brother when they were struck and killed just after 7 p.m.
“I don’t know if he used the word racing, but they were traveling at a high rate of speed,” Clayton said.
Erickson, also a former MLB player, saw children in the crosswalk and said he swerved to avoid hitting them, according to Clayton. Erickson told him that Grossman, co-founder of the Grossman Burn Foundation, was driving right behind him. Clayton testified that Erickson said he saw her hit the children.
The Iskander family sued Grossman and Erickson seeking damages. Grossman’s vehicle recorded speeds up to 81 mph in the 45 mph zone seconds before the crash. She was driving 73 mph at the time of the collision, an expert testified.
On Friday, Clayton took the stand, one of more than a dozen witnesses in the first full week of the trial, which included video testimony from Rebecca Grossman’s daughter Alexis.
In 2024, a jury found Rebecca Grossman, wife of plastic surgeon Dr. Peter Grossman, guilty of second-degree murder, hit-and-run driving and other charges. She was sentenced to 15 years to life and recently petitioned the California Supreme Court to review her case. An appeals court upheld her murder conviction in March.
In 2021, Erickson was charged with reckless driving, a misdemeanor. The court ordered judicial diversion, and the case was later resolved, officials said.
Jury hears Alexis Grossman’s testimony
Witnesses from the Westlake Village neighborhood testified they saw and heard speeding vehicles before the crash. One cyclist said he was whipped by a “vortex of wind” as the vehicles passed by him.
Another witness, a driver, told jurors he heard two vehicles revving their engines on another road, before they reached Triunfo Canyon Road. The two SUVs took off, one cutting him off just a few feet from the front of his car, the driver said.
The Iskanders were in the crosswalk when witnesses said they saw vehicles speeding toward them. The black SUV, reportedly driven by Erickson, reached the crosswalk first. The boys’ mom, Nancy Iskander, grabbed her youngest son, the closest to her, and dove out of the path of the black vehicle, she said during Grossman’s criminal trial.
Nancy Iskander looked up and saw the white SUV pass the spot where Mark and Jacob had been, she said.
Jurors last week watched a video of Alexis Grossman answering lawyers’ questions earlier this year. She was 16 at the time of the crash and also testified in her mother’s criminal trial two years ago.
Alexis said she had been at the Grossman’s home by the lake that evening and had driven to meet a food delivery driver when she spotted her mom, her mom’s damaged SUV and police cars, she said. She got out and started to run toward her mom.
She remembered screaming, “Mommy, mommy, mommy,” she said, in the video recording.
A deputy stopped her, and Alexis told the attorneys that she couldn’t remember his exact words but said he told her that she couldn’t talk to her mom and should go home. Before she left, Alexis said she saw Erickson watching from a spot off the side of the road.
Clayton says Erickson told him about the crash
Clayton told attorneys that he had answered questions from investigators “countless” times since the crash. The first time he spoke to police was shortly after Sept. 29, 2020, after Clayton had reached out to a close family friend who was former law enforcement.
“You put yourself in the place of those parents that lost their children, and it’s unimaginable,” Clayton said. “I know as a parent I would want some type of closure or some type of conclusion as to what happened.”
Clayton was with Erickson at a restaurant before they left to meet up with Rebecca Grossman at a nearby spot. After drinks, they planned to head to Grossman’s house, eat tacos and watch the presidential debate, he said. Erickson and Grossman drove separately, and Clayton had stopped at a store to buy shrimp.
When Clayton called Erickson to get the address, Erickson told him there had been “a horrible accident.”
Erickson’s attorney questioned Clayton about whether his client ever used the word racing, asking repeatedly what specifically Erickson had said. Clayton said again that he didn’t recall whether Erickson said racing.
But Erickson’s description indicated that he was in front of Grossman, driving at a high rate of speed, racing or flying down the street, Clayton said.
Cheri Carlson is a reporter for the Ventura County Star. Reach her at cheri.carlson@vcstar.com.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Clayton, Alexis Grossman give week 1 testimony in Grossman civil trial
Reporting by Cheri Carlson, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
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