Mark and Jacob Iskander-On a quiet September evening in 2020, a family of six went for a walk. They weren’t doing anything extraordinary. They were just stepping outside after a long day, enjoying the California air during the height of the pandemic, heading toward a lake they loved. By the time that night ended, two of those six people were gone forever.
Mark and Jacob Iskander, ages 11 and 8, were killed in a crosswalk in Westlake Village, California, on September 29, 2020. They were struck by a speeding SUV driven by Rebecca Grossman, a wealthy socialite who didn’t stop. What followed was a years-long fight for criminal justice, a landmark civil lawsuit still unfolding as of 2026, and one of the most deeply moving stories of parental grief and community love that Southern California has ever seen.
This is the full story of Mark and Jacob Iskander. Their deaths. The people responsible. The trial. And the extraordinary legacy these two boys left behind.
Who Were Mark and Jacob Iskander?
Before we talk about what happened to these boys, we need to talk about who they actually were. Because Mark and Jacob weren’t just victims. They were real children with real personalities, real dreams, and real friendships that left impressions on everyone they met.
Mark: The Jokester With a Big Future
Mark was 11 years old and had already figured out what he loved: making people laugh and asking big questions. His mother Nancy recalled how he told jokes every single day on the way to school. He had a favorite one about two women visiting a town full of ducks that he’d tell again and again, and he somehow made it funnier every time. Whenever Nancy brought him to a work event, everyone would end up circled around Mark while she stood alone. Nobody was talking to her because her son had the whole room.
But there was a serious side to Mark too. He was thoughtful in ways that surprised adults. His Sunday school teacher Mariam Girgus recalled the first class she ever taught him. She was nervous. Then a small hand shot up from the back of the room, and Mark launched into a series of deeply challenging theological questions about King David that she said completely changed how she viewed her own faith. She went home that day and told her mother about this extraordinary boy. Mark reportedly wanted to become either a neurosurgeon or a comedian. It sounds funny until you realize that combination makes perfect sense.
Jacob: The Curious “Little Bodyguard”
Jacob was 8, the younger brother, and his mother described him as her “bodyguard.” He was inquisitive by nature, always asking why, always watching, always paying attention. Friends and family who spoke at vigils over the years kept circling back to his curiosity. At Archangel Michael Coptic Orthodox Church in Simi Valley, where both boys served as deacons, Jacob had already made a mark on the congregation despite his age.
Both boys attended Ascension Lutheran School, and Mark had just started at Oaks Christian School when he was killed. Connor Nagel, one of Mark’s closest friends, recalled the specific shock of hearing the news. “I just kind of lost the one person I had to talk to about anything,” Connor said at a vigil five years later. He was 16 by then, holding back tears, still clearly carrying the loss.
A Tight-Knit Family Rooted in Faith
Nancy and Karim Iskander emigrated from Egypt and built their lives in the Conejo Valley. They were deeply embedded in their Coptic Christian community and raised their four children with faith as the foundation of everything. On the evening of September 29, 2020, all six of them headed out together: Nancy, Karim, Mark, Jacob, 5-year-old Zachary, and baby Violet. It was supposed to be a normal family walk.
The Night Everything Changed: September 29, 2020
A Family Walk That Turned Into a Nightmare
The Iskanders didn’t usually venture far from their neighborhood south of Westlake Lake, but that particular evening they decided to cross Triunfo Canyon Road to reach the lake’s shores. It was a beautiful night. Quiet. The kind of evening that makes you glad you decided to step outside.
Nancy arrived at the intersection of Triunfo Canyon Road and Saddle Mountain Drive with her three boys. It was a marked crosswalk at a three-way intersection. There was no stoplight. No flashing pedestrian signal. Just the white painted lines on the road and the assumption that drivers would see them.
What Happened at the Triunfo Canyon Crosswalk
The family began crossing. Nancy heard something she described as a car coming fast, very fast. She reached out to protect the children closest to her. Karim did the same. But Mark and Jacob had moved ahead in the crosswalk, too far out to be pulled back in time.
According to prosecutors and civil lawsuit filings, Rebecca Grossman’s white Mercedes-Benz SUV struck the boys at approximately 73 miles per hour in a 45-mph zone. Another vehicle, driven by Scott Erickson, Grossman’s boyfriend at the time, went through the intersection just before her, narrowly missing Nancy and Zachary and cutting off any possible escape route for Mark and Jacob. The boys were hit with devastating force.
A forensic pathologist who later testified in the civil trial, Dr. Matthew Miller, a former member of the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, said that both boys suffered blunt-force trauma so severe that no amount of immediate medical care could have saved them. Mark’s skull fractures were fatal regardless of how quickly doctors could have reached him. Jacob suffered a complete dislocation of the joint between his skull and the top of his cervical spine, causing instant full-body paralysis. Miller testified they were likely rendered unconscious almost immediately upon impact.
The Moments After Impact: A Father’s Desperate Attempt
Karim Iskander testified about what happened next in a Van Nuys courtroom during the civil trial in 2026. He found his son Mark at the scene and tried to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. He kept going, refusing to stop, until a paramedic put a hand on him. “I continued for a minute or two, and then the paramedic said ‘stop,'” Karim told the court. “I asked ‘why?’ and he said ‘he’s dead.'”
Mark died at the scene. Jacob was rushed to a hospital, where he later died from his injuries.
John Denton, a Los Angeles County Fire Department paramedic who was one of the first responders on scene, said years later at a vigil that it was one of the worst calls he’d dealt with in 23 years on the job. He said he still struggles to understand why the boys weren’t miraculously saved. He’s never been able to stop thinking about that night, despite trying his best.
Rebecca Grossman Didn’t Stop
Here’s what makes this case different from a tragic accident. After the airbags in her Mercedes deployed, Rebecca Grossman kept driving. She didn’t pull over. She didn’t call 911. She didn’t go back to check on the children she had just hit. Her car only came to a stop about a quarter of a mile down the road when the engine shut down on its own because of the front-end damage from the impact.
That detail matters enormously. It’s part of what elevated this from a vehicular manslaughter case to a murder charge.
Who Was Behind the Wheel? Rebecca Grossman Explained
A Socialite With a High-Profile Life
Rebecca Grossman wasn’t some unknown. She was, at the time of the crash, the co-founder of the Grossman Burn Foundation, a charity that provides free reconstructive surgery and support for burn survivors. Her husband, Dr. Peter Grossman, is one of the most prominent plastic surgeons in Los Angeles. The couple lived in Hidden Hills, one of the most exclusive communities in the region.
Grossman had a public-facing image built around philanthropy and community service. That image collapsed completely on September 29, 2020.
The Drinking, the Speed, and the Other Driver
Prior to the crash, Grossman and her then-boyfriend Scott Erickson had been out together that afternoon and evening. According to civil lawsuit filings and court testimony, Grossman had drinks at the home of family friends Mark and Cindie Hair, though the Hairs described it as a small amount. Prosecutors noted that Grossman later asked the Hairs not to tell police she had been drinking with them. Both Grossman and Erickson had also been at Julio’s Agave Grill together.
By the time they were driving home in separate vehicles along Triunfo Canyon Road, witnesses described the scene as two cars flying. One witness testified, “It was insanely fast.” Another said they were “like a bat out of hell, clearly racing.” Grossman’s attorneys disputed this, arguing she wasn’t impaired and wasn’t speeding, and that other factors contributed to the crash.
But the physical evidence told a different story. Her vehicle struck the boys at speed that prosecutors pinned at around 73 to 81 mph in a zone where the limit was 45 mph.
Scott Erickson’s Role in the Crash
Scott Erickson is a former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher who was Grossman’s boyfriend at the time. He was driving a separate black SUV alongside Grossman that night. According to the civil lawsuit, his vehicle went through the crosswalk first, narrowly missing Nancy Iskander and Zachary, and essentially blocked Mark and Jacob’s only escape path as Grossman’s car bore down on them.
Erickson was never criminally charged. In the civil trial in 2026, he admitted under oath that he lied to police during the murder investigation, deliberately giving detectives the wrong vehicle to inspect. He also admitted in court that he had consumed alcohol every day for 10 years and acknowledged deleting text messages between himself and Grossman after the crash. His testimony was remarkable in its candor and its damage.
Erickson and Grossman have spent years blaming each other for what happened.
The Long Road to Criminal Justice
Why It Took Years to Get to Trial
The crash happened in September 2020. Rebecca Grossman wasn’t convicted until February 2024. That’s more than three years of waiting for the Iskander family, watching the legal process grind forward while their grief sat unresolved. Karim Iskander said during an interview in 2021 that he and Nancy were told to be patient, that justice would come. He wasn’t sure how much was lawyers working the system and how much was the system simply being backed up. He suspected it was a mix of both.
The Murder Charges and What They Mean
Grossman faced two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, and one count of hit-and-run driving resulting in death. The murder charges were the most significant and the most legally complex.
Second-degree murder doesn’t require planning or premeditation. What it requires is what California law calls “implied malice.” That means deliberately doing something with conscious disregard for human life, knowing that it’s dangerous. Prosecutors argued that choosing to drive at 73 to 81 mph on a residential street, after drinking, through a pedestrian crosswalk frequented by families, absolutely met that standard. The defense disagreed. Ultimately, so did the jury.
Key Evidence That Sealed the Conviction
Several pieces of evidence proved critical. Autopsy photographs showed the severity of the injuries. Dr. Miller’s forensic testimony established that the force of impact was consistent with high-speed travel and with the grille design of Grossman’s Mercedes. Witness accounts described a street racing scenario. Grossman’s own behavior afterward, continuing to drive despite her airbags deploying and only stopping when her engine failed, demonstrated consciousness of guilt rather than innocent confusion.
There was also evidence that Grossman lied to law enforcement. She reportedly told investigators she didn’t know why her airbag had deployed, despite the fact that her vehicle had sustained catastrophic front-end damage. She also claimed to have been driving at a safe speed. Both statements were contradicted by the physical evidence.
The Verdict: Guilty on All Counts
On February 23, 2024, after nearly six weeks of trial and almost two days of deliberation, the jury came back unanimous. Guilty on all five counts. Crying was heard from both sides of the courtroom as the verdict was read aloud at Van Nuys Superior Court. Grossman was handcuffed in the courtroom.
Nancy Iskander, who had sat through every agonizing day of that trial, walked out knowing that the legal system had at least confirmed what she already knew: her sons were murdered.
The Sentence and What Comes Next
Grossman was sentenced in June 2024 to 15 years to life in prison. Prosecutors had asked for a longer term of 34 years to life, but the judge went with the lower sentence. At 60 years old at the time of sentencing, Grossman would have to serve at least 15 years before being eligible for parole. That means she’d be in her mid-70s at the earliest possible release date.
In the months following her conviction, Grossman reportedly sent a letter to Nancy Iskander, prompting Nancy to seek a no-contact order. In 2026, Grossman reportedly sent a request through an attorney asking Nancy to visit her in prison to “see the circumstances she is in” and claiming she was “a victim.” Nancy posted about this publicly, writing that she was still trying to process how someone could make such a request.
The Appeals Court Ruling and What It Confirmed
Grossman’s Attempt to Overturn the Conviction
Grossman’s legal team filed an appeal arguing that the trial judge had failed to properly instruct the jury on the legal definition of “implied malice,” the standard required for a second-degree murder conviction. The argument was that jurors didn’t fully understand the mental state they needed to find before convicting her of murder rather than manslaughter.
Why the Second District Court of Appeal Disagreed
In March 2026, a panel of the Second District Court of Appeal upheld the conviction completely. Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said the legal standard was clear: driving at excessive speeds through a pedestrian crosswalk after consuming alcohol, with conscious knowledge of the potential consequences, absolutely satisfies the requirement for second-degree murder. The appeals court agreed. The conviction stands.
The Civil Wrongful Death Lawsuit: A Second Battle
Why the Iskanders Filed a Civil Case
A criminal conviction punishes the person who committed the crime. A civil lawsuit provides financial accountability to the victims. The Iskanders filed their wrongful death lawsuit in January 2021, targeting Grossman, her husband Peter Grossman as the vehicle’s owner, and Scott Erickson. A separate civil suit also named the state of California, its Department of Transportation, Los Angeles County, and the City of Westlake Village for allegedly failing to make the crosswalk safe.
What the Civil Trial Is Seeking
Opening statements in the civil trial began in April 2026 at Van Nuys Courthouse East. Plaintiffs’ attorney Brian Panish opened by invoking the Arabic word “a’lia,” meaning family, calling it the most important thing to the Iskanders. He showed jurors photos and videos of the boys, witness testimony about the speed of the cars, and an animation of the collision that placed both vehicles traveling at over 80 mph in a 45-mph zone.
The Iskander family is seeking financial damages. Their youngest son Zachary, who was in the crosswalk that night and witnessed the deaths of his brothers, is also listed as a plaintiff.
Scott Erickson’s Admissions on the Stand
Erickson’s civil trial testimony was stunning. He confirmed under oath that he had deliberately told investigators the wrong vehicle during the murder investigation. He admitted deleting text messages between himself and Grossman after the crash. He acknowledged that he’d been drinking before the incident. A mutual friend of his, former MLB player Royce Clayton, had previously testified that Erickson told him they were “flying down” the street before hitting the boys. Erickson distanced himself from that characterization on the stand.
The City of Westlake Village’s Role at the Crosswalk
Grossman’s defense attorney raised a significant point during opening statements: the City of Westlake Village had received concerns about the lack of a stoplight or flashing pedestrian signal at that specific crosswalk before the crash and did nothing about it. This doesn’t excuse what Grossman did, but it’s a legitimate legal argument in a civil setting, where multiple parties can share fault. The absence of proper traffic signals at a crossing known to be used by pedestrians is a real infrastructure failure.
A Community Shattered, Then Rebuilt
The Growing Memorial and Vigils Through the Years
The first anniversary. The second. The third. The fourth. The fifth. Each year, the community has gathered at the intersection of Triunfo Canyon Road and Saddle Mountain Drive to place roses, hang hearts on remembrance trees, and say the boys’ names out loud. At the second-anniversary vigil at Three Springs Park, the neighborhood park where Mark and Jacob used to play, dozens of attendees dressed in white as the boys’ mother opened with a prayer. At the end, the Iskander family released two dozen white doves into the evening sky.
By the fifth anniversary in 2025, around 60 people showed up, including first responders who had been at the scene that night and who also testified at the criminal trial.
What First Responders Said About That Night
John Denton, the paramedic who performed first aid on the boys the night they were killed, has spoken at multiple vigils. Now retired from the fire department and working as a chaplain, he described the call as among the worst of his 23-year career. He told the crowd at the fifth anniversary that he still doesn’t understand why the boys weren’t miraculously saved, and that meeting Nancy Iskander sitting on the curb that night was something that stayed with him forever.
How Westlake Village Came Together
Julie Cohen, a Conejo Valley resident who didn’t know the Iskanders before the crash, became one of their most important advocates after hearing what happened. She helped organize vigils, supported the family through the long legal process, and became a voice for accountability. At the fifth-anniversary vigil, she said that justice isn’t only what happens in a courtroom. It’s also about the right to live in peace, to heal without fear, without harassment, without distortion.
Turning Grief Into Purpose: The Mark and Jacob Iskander Foundation
The Foster Care Agency Now Licensed in Two Counties
The Iskanders didn’t collapse under their grief. They built something from it. The Mark and Jacob Foster Care Agency is now licensed in both Los Angeles and Ventura counties. It recruits foster parents and provides resources to families already in the system. It’s one of the most tangible and meaningful tributes two parents could offer in memory of their children.
Plans for an Orphanage in Egypt
The Iskanders, originally from Egypt, have also been working to establish an orphanage in their home country. Their priest at Archangel Michael Coptic Orthodox Church said it best at a vigil: most people live to be 90 years old and may only impact their immediate family. But Mark and Jacob, gone before they turned 12 and 9, are already impacting generations across continents.
Scholarships and Support for Underserved Children
The foundation has also created scholarships for foster children and contributed to other charitable initiatives in the boys’ names. The Ventura County Community Foundation partnered with the Iskanders to help establish these efforts formally. It’s a legacy that reaches far beyond what most adults accomplish in a lifetime.
Nancy and Karim Iskander: Strength the World Could Learn From
A Mother Who Led With Faith, Not Bitterness
Nancy Iskander has been one of the most dignified, composed, and courageous bereaved parents you’ll ever read about. She was present in the crosswalk when her sons were killed. She watched. She went through the entire criminal trial. She sought a no-contact order to protect herself from Grossman’s communications. And through all of it, her public statements have been rooted not in rage but in faith, in hope, and in a desire to help others.
After the appeals court upheld the conviction, she told reporters that she was glad but that it was also just another reminder that her sons were murdered and they’re not coming back. Then, in the same breath, she encouraged anyone listening to turn their pain into purpose. To support someone going through the same thing. “Some things,” she said, “you just have to overcome every day.”
A Father Who Tried to Save His Son at the Scene
Karim Iskander knelt over his 11-year-old son in a road in Westlake Village and breathed air into his lungs until a paramedic told him to stop. That image is impossible to shake. And yet this same man has spent the years since co-building a foster care agency, pursuing legal justice through years of court proceedings, and raising two surviving children while carrying unimaginable loss. His testimony in the 2026 civil trial was measured and heartbreaking and utterly human.
Pedestrian Safety and the Crosswalk That Failed Two Boys
The Concerns Raised Before the Crash
This part of the story doesn’t get enough attention. The crosswalk at Triunfo Canyon Road and Saddle Mountain Drive was known to be problematic before the night of September 29, 2020. It had no stoplight. No flashing pedestrian signal. It was in a residential neighborhood where families regularly walked in the evenings. The City of Westlake Village had reportedly received concerns about this specific location. Nothing was done.
Grossman’s defense team used this in the civil trial, arguing that the city’s failure to address a dangerous intersection was a contributing factor. That’s legally strategic, but it also raises a genuine public safety question: how many crosswalks across California look exactly like that one?
What Should Have Been Done Differently
Proper pedestrian signaling, flashing beacons activated by pedestrians, or a full traffic light with a walk signal could all have changed the dynamic at that intersection. The visibility issue on an unlit stretch of road at night, where drivers traveling at speed have very little time to react to pedestrians in a crosswalk, is a real engineering failure. Mark and Jacob didn’t die only because Rebecca Grossman was reckless. They also died, in part, because the infrastructure failed to make that crosswalk visible and safe.
That’s the lesson local governments should be taking from this tragedy. And it’s one that hasn’t received nearly enough discussion.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who killed Mark and Jacob Iskander? Rebecca Grossman, co-founder of the Grossman Burn Foundation and wife of prominent Los Angeles plastic surgeon Dr. Peter Grossman, struck and killed the boys with her white Mercedes-Benz SUV on September 29, 2020, while driving at approximately 73 to 81 mph through a marked crosswalk in Westlake Village, California.
What was Rebecca Grossman’s sentence? Grossman was sentenced in June 2024 to 15 years to life in prison after being convicted of two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, and one count of hit-and-run driving resulting in death.
Was Scott Erickson charged with a crime? No. Scott Erickson, the former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher who was driving alongside Grossman that night, was never criminally charged. He is, however, a defendant in the Iskander family’s civil wrongful death lawsuit, in which he has admitted to lying to police and deleting evidence.
What is the Mark and Jacob Iskander Foundation? It’s a charitable organization founded by the boys’ parents, Nancy and Karim Iskander, in their sons’ memory. Its initiatives include the Mark and Jacob Foster Care Agency, now licensed in both Los Angeles and Ventura counties, a scholarship program for foster children, and efforts to establish an orphanage in Egypt.
What is the current status of the civil lawsuit against Rebecca Grossman? As of May 2026, the civil wrongful death trial is underway at Van Nuys Courthouse East. The Iskander family is suing Grossman, her husband Peter Grossman, and Scott Erickson for financial damages. The city of Westlake Village and state agencies were also named in a separate lawsuit over crosswalk safety failures.
What happened to the appeals court challenge against Grossman’s conviction? In March 2026, the Second District Court of Appeal upheld Grossman’s murder convictions. Her attorneys had argued that the trial judge failed to properly instruct jurors on the definition of implied malice, but the appeals panel rejected this argument.
How old were Mark and Jacob Iskander when they died? Mark was 11 years old and Jacob was 8 years old at the time of their deaths on September 29, 2020.
How is the Iskander family doing today? Nancy and Karim Iskander continue to live with the grief of losing their two eldest sons. They still have two surviving children, Zachary and Violet. Rather than retreat, they’ve channeled their loss into the foundation bearing their sons’ names. Nancy has become a public voice on justice, healing, and turning personal tragedy into community good. Their faith remains the center of their lives.