On Monday, a judge sentenced Rebecca Grossman to 15 years to life in prison for the murders of two brothers she struck while speeding through a Westlake Village crosswalk four years ago.

The judge described her actions as 'reckless and unquestionably negligent.

' After hearing Nancy Iskander, the mother of the 8-year-old boys, angrily ask for the sentence to reflect the deaths of both her sons, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Joseph Brandolino sentenced the philanthropist to two concurrent terms, plus another concurrent three years for fleeing the scene of the fatal crash.

Appearing in court with her hair pulled back in a ponytail and wearing a brown shirt over a white T-shirt and slacks, Grossman, 60, agreed to pay $47,161.

89 in restitution to the Iskander family.

Her lawyers stated that the co-founder of the Grossman Burn Foundation had already donated $25,000 for funeral expenses.

'I never saw anyone,' Grossman said during sentencing.

'I would have driven into a brick wall.

.

.

I don't know why God did not take my life.

'An L.

A.

County Superior Court judge upheld Grossman's conviction in the 2020 murders of Mark and Jacob Iskander, stating that the evidence was 'sufficient.

' Attorney Ryan Gould expressed disappointment with the outcome, saying, 'We don't think the judge gave a sentence that was appropriate, in light of everything that Ms.

Grossman continues to do.

'The sentencing ends an almost four-year criminal case in which prosecutors accused Grossman of causing the boys' deaths and trying to evade responsibility even after her conviction.

After a six-week trial filled with dramatic testimony, Grossman was convicted of two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter, and one count of hit-and-run with fatality in the September 2020 killings of the two children.

The boys' mother testified during the trial that her older children had been walking ahead of her and her youngest son in the marked crosswalk on Triunfo Canyon Road when she heard engines roaring.

Two sport utility vehicles were barreling toward them.

Iskander dived for safety, grabbing her 5-year-old son.

Her next memory, she said, is of Jacob and Mark crumpled on the roadway.

Grossman was driving behind Scott Erickson, who had been drinking cocktails with her at a nearby restaurant earlier that day.

She continued driving for another half-mile after hitting the children, according to evidence presented at the trial.

Prosecutors Gould, Habib Balian, and Jamie Castro wrote to the judge last week that Grossman's actions from September 29, 2020, to today show a complete lack of remorse and narcissistic superiority, leading to the conclusion that she is not deserving of any leniency.

On Monday, more than a dozen of the Iskanders' friends and family members came before the judge to describe the hole left after the boys' deaths and to ask that Grossman receive a lengthy prison term.

Pastor Chamie Delkeskamp of Ascension Lutheran Church in Thousand Oaks said the fatal crash scarred the entire community, noting that many children are now scared to go into a crosswalk.

Probation for Grossman 'would be a slap in the face of justice,' Delkeskamp said.

Sherif Iskander, the boys' uncle, described Grossman as self-centered and entitled, saying she 'tried to get away with murder.

' Joyce Ghobrial, the boys' grandmother, told the court, 'I am just living the rest of my life to die grieving.

' As her voice faltered, Nancy Iskander stood and touched her mother's back to comfort her.

When Bodie Wallace, Jacob's best friend, spoke, Grossman buckled over in her seat, sobbing.

The 13-year-old said the song '10,000 Reasons' makes him sad now because he wonders about the '10,000 reasons why Ms.

Grossman did not say 'sorry' right away.

'Prosecutors say Grossman, convicted of murder in the deaths of two brothers run down at a crosswalk, shows no remorse and refuses to take responsibility for the crash.

Grossman's attorneys, led by James Spertus, argued that the mother of two, who had no prior criminal record, should be spared prison time.

They asked the judge to consider probation with a suspended sentence or a shorter prison term.

Her lawyers painted a far different picture of Grossman as a 'humanitarian' who worked to save female burn victims and victims of domestic violence.

While acknowledging the Iskanders' loss as 'incalculable,' Spertus wrote in a sentencing memorandum last week that the Grossmans have experienced a different loss: the loss of a mother to her two children, and Grossman herself has lost her purpose in life and 'bears overwhelming sadness, despair, and regret for her role in the tragedy.

' He attached several letters from Grossman's family and friends, including one from Grossman's son, Nick, who said, 'Nothing compares to what the Iskanders are going through, but ever since the accident, it's just felt like the world hates my mom and everyone is against our family.

'On Monday, Nick addressed the court, saying, 'My mother is not the bad person the media has painted.

' Grossman's legal team played a 30-minute video that began with her husband, Dr.

Peter Grossman, saying, 'We don't compare our pain to theirs.

' The video included daughter Alexis relating how her mother had been abandoned by her father and molested by her own mother's boyfriend, suffering 'every kind of abuse by the age of 13.

' Nick described his mother as a 'very spiritual person.

' Grossman dropped out of college because she couldn't afford it, her husband said, and became a flight attendant before starting her own medical device business.

He also recounted the story of a badly burned girl from Afghanistan who was 10 when they took her into their home.

'I give my heart and love to Rebecca,' the now-adult burn patient, Zubaida, said in the video.

'She is my mother.

'But Nancy Iskander rejected the case for Grossman's compassion.

She said when she was in the hospital and a doctor outside the emergency room asked her about disconnecting Jacob's life support, she saw Grossman there.

'She looked me in the eye,' the grieving mother said, with tears in her eyes and steel in her voice.

'That was the moment to say something.

'Richard Winton is an investigative crime writer for the Los Angeles Times and part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2011.

Known as @LAcrimes on Twitter, during almost 30 years at The Times he also has been part of the breaking news staff that won Pulitzers in 1998, 2004, and 2016.