Former Dodgers Pitcher Scott Erickson admitted in court that he sped up when he saw two children about to walk onto the street just before the boys were run down and killed in 2020.
“I stepped on the gas for probably two or three seconds to get through, because I thought that was the safest process,” Erickson said in court in Van Nuys on May 13 during a wrongful death trial brought by the family of the boys who were killed, Mark and Jacob Iskander, 11 and 8, the New York Post reported.
The two children were run down and killed when they walked out onto a crosswalk at Triunfo Canyon Road in Westlake Village. Their mother and younger brother were with them. But in seconds, two racing cars were upon them, one of which struck the two boys and killed them.
Witnesses have said that Erickson was driving his SUV and sped through the intersection first, and did not hit the members of the family. His girlfriend at the time, Rebecca Grossman, was a split second behind the MLB player, but she did not clear the intersection in time to miss the boys.
Police claim that Grossman was driving 73 miles per hour in a 45-mph zone when she sped through the intersection.
Erickson testified that he continued on to Grossman’s home before receiving a phone call from the woman reporting the accident.
The MLB pitcher said in court that he asked her if she “saw the boys,” but he was not sure whether she replied, “What boys?” or “There were boys?”
He said he returned to the accident scene after her phone call and saw Grossman’s wrecked Mercedes.
Later, during the police investigation, Erickson lied about how much he had been drinking that night and also admitted that for six years he had been switching vehicle license plates between his older SUV and his 2016 high-performance Mercedes-Benz to avoid California registration fees.
He also admitted to deleting text messages between himself and Grossman in which they discussed the accident, and that he didn’t immediately come forward to the police or admit his part in the incident.
Another MLB player, Royce Clayton, testified in the trial that Erickson told him that in his rearview mirror, he actually saw Grossman run the kids down.
Grossman was convicted of killing the children in 2024 and is currently serving a 15-year prison term.
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