A civil jury in Los Angeles found Rebecca Grossman, a California philanthropist, and Scott Erickson, a former Major League Baseball pitcher, negligent in the deaths of two young brothers and awarded the victims’ family $176 million.
The jury also ruled on Wednesday that Ms. Grossman and Mr. Erickson, her boyfriend at the time, acted with malice.
Ms. Grossman has been serving a 15-year prison sentence, which she was handed in June 2024 for the murders of Mark Iskander, 11, and his brother, Jacob, 8. The boys died in a hit-and-run collision at a crosswalk while Ms. Grossman was driving a Mercedes sport utility vehicle at more than 80 miles per hour.
On the evening of Sept. 29, 2020, Ms. Grossman hit the two boys in a 45-m.p.h. zone in Westlake Village, Calif., according to a sentencing memorandum from 2024. She had accelerated to 81 m.p.h. from 73 m.p.h. two seconds before the fatal collision, the memorandum also said.
Ms. Grossman was convicted in February 2024 of two counts of murder, two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter and one count of hit-and-run driving resulting in death.
She filed an appeal in June 2024. The Los Angeles County District Attorney said in March of this year that an appellate court had upheld Ms. Grossman’s double murder convictions for the hit-and-run.
Mr. Erickson was charged with a misdemeanor count of reckless driving, but that charge was dismissed after he recorded a public service video about safe driving, his lawyer, Mark Werksman, said in June 2024.
Nancy Iskander and Karim Iskander, the boys’ parents, brought the civil case against Mr. Erickson, Ms. Grossman and Peter Grossman, her husband, whose car she was driving when she struck the boys. Ms. Grossman also drank alcohol and took Valium before driving, “to the point that she was impaired,” the 2024 memorandum said.
The jury said in its verdict that Mr. Grossman had given Ms. Grossman permission to drive the vehicle.
Witness testimony indicated that before the crash Ms. Grossman “appeared to be racing” the car being driven by Mr. Erickson, also a Mercedes S.U.V., prosecutors wrote in the memorandum.
After her sentencing in 2024, Ms. Grossman addressed her driving, and told the court: “I never saw anyone. I would have driven into a brick wall,” The Los Angeles Times reported at the time.
“There is nothing, nothing that any human being can say that can make things better,” Mr. Iskander said in court last month.
Claire Moses is a Times reporter in London, focused on coverage of breaking and trending news.
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