{"id":644635,"date":"2026-05-02T09:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T09:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/644635\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T09:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T09:35:08","slug":"former-mlb-player-breaks-down-while-testifying-in-civil-trial-over-deadly-westlake-village-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/644635\/","title":{"rendered":"Former MLB player breaks down while testifying in civil trial over deadly Westlake Village crash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Former Major League Baseball player Royce Clayton took the stand Friday in the wrongful death civil trial against <a data-yga=\"{\" ylinkelement=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/rebecca-grossmans-conviction-upheld-westlake-183054701.html\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:Rebecca Grossman;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rebecca Grossman<\/a>, the socialite convicted in the 2020 hit-and-run deaths of two young brothers in Westlake Village.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Clayton testified that his friend and former Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson told him he saw Grossman run over the two brothers in his rearview mirror.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Brothers Mark Iskander, 11, and Jacob Iskander, 8, died in the crash.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In the criminal case, Grossman&#8217;s attorney insisted it was Erickson who hit the boys. Erickson was never called to testify in that case but has been named in the <a data-yga=\"{\" ylinkelement=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/opening-statements-begin-civil-case-074747447.html\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:civil suit;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">civil suit<\/a> brought forward by the Iskander family. The Iskander family&#8217;s attorney argues he shares responsibility.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Clayton said he received a call from Erickson telling him that he and Grossman were speeding down the road when he swerved to avoid the two boys in the crosswalk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;She was directly behind him, and he said as he came up to this crosswalk, he saw the children&#8230;,&#8221; Clayton said before he broke down on the stand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">An emotional Clayton told jurors he believes Erickson should be held accountable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Grossman, the co-founder of the Grossman Burn Foundation, was sentenced in June 2024 to 15 years to life in prison for the boys&#8217; deaths. She was convicted of two counts each of second-degree murder and vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one count of hit-and-run driving.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Prosecutors say Grossman and Erickson, her then-boyfriend, had been out drinking before the deadly September 2020 crash.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">They were in separate vehicles heading toward Grossman&#8217;s nearby home when prosecutors say she was speeding and struck the victims.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Erickson is expected to take the stand in the trial. Grossman is not expected to testify.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Major League Baseball player Royce Clayton took the stand Friday in the wrongful death civil trial against&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,311859,311861,311858,591,311857,311856,311855,85,311860],"class_list":["post-644635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brothers-mark-iskander","tag-grossman","tag-jacob-iskander","tag-mlb","tag-rebecca-grossman","tag-royce-clayton","tag-scott-erickson","tag-sports","tag-westlake-village"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}