Jury awards $33M to twins orphaned in street-racing crash

A San Mateo County jury awarded $33 million Tuesday to the twin daughters of a San Carlos couple killed in a 2022 street-racing crash that left the girls orphaned.

Jurors found one of the drivers, Cesar Morales, who was 17 when the crash occurred, liable for the deaths of Grace Spiridon, 42, and Gregory Ammen, 44, as well as injuries suffered by their 7-year-old daughters, Madison and Olivia. The verdict followed juvenile proceedings against Morales and the criminal conviction of the other driver, Kyle Harrison, who later died while incarcerated.

Niall McCarthy, along with firm partners Elizabeth T. Castillo and Zachary N. Zaharoff of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy represented the twins. Madison Ammen et al., v. Cesar S. Morales et al., 23-CIV-02538, (San Mateo Super., Ct., filed June 6, 2023) 

"We are hopeful today's verdict serves as a wakeup call to Bay Area parents. You cannot ignore warning signs with your teenage children," McCarthy said. "Parents need to do more than simply provide a car and hope for the best. They need to act when it is apparent their child needs a course correction."

"Here, tragically, two young girls no longer have parents because of the Morales Family's decisions," he continued.

The case went to trial July 22 in San Mateo County Superior Court in South San Francisco, with the twins as the only survivors of the horrific crash that killed their parents as the family drove home from dinner.

Morales was adjudicated in juvenile court, where a judge found true two felony vehicular manslaughter allegations and three allegations of engaging in a street race causing great bodily injury. In January 2025, he was ordered to serve 90 days on electronic home monitoring and remain on probation for up to one year. He had already spent nearly two years in juvenile detention before being released to home monitoring.

Harrison was convicted of two counts of vehicular manslaughter and felony street racing and sentenced in February 2025 to eight years in prison. He died in March at the Maple Street Correctional Center from an accidental overdose of methadone, amitriptyline and gabapentin, according to the San Mateo County Coroner's Office.

The suit, filed in June 2023 by Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy LLP, alleged the crash began at a red light at El Camino Real and Howard Avenue in San Carlos.

Morales, driving a silver 2005 Mercedes-Benz E55, and Harrison, driving a silver 2018 BMW M3, stopped side by side and agreed to race, the complaint alleged. Harrison told law enforcement that Morales' gesturing and revving amounted to a "direct challenge to race," according to the suit. A passenger in Harrison's car yelled to Morales to "blow the light."

When the light turned green, both cars accelerated to about 75 to 80 mph, plaintiffs alleged, citing witness accounts. Morales reached more than 100 mph, according to a Redwood City Police Department analysis cited in the complaint, before his Mercedes struck the Ammens' Chevrolet Bolt as Spiridon turned left onto Finger Avenue. The posted speed limit was 35 mph.

The impact threw the Bolt more than 100 feet, the complaint stated. Ammen died at the scene of severe head injuries, and Spiridon died of blunt cranial injuries and a severed spinal cord. Bystanders pulled the girls from the wreckage before police arrived. Madison suffered a fractured arm that required surgery, according to the suit.

Harrison fled the scene and was located about two weeks later at his Redwood City home, the suit alleged. Plaintiffs alleged on information and belief that Harrison had dinner with friends in Belmont and drank alcohol before the crash. He bought the BMW earlier that year for $70,000, telling police it was a "factory-equipped race BMW."

Morales' Mercedes had been modified with a smaller supercharger pulley and had its catalytic converters and mufflers removed, making it faster and louder, plaintiffs alleged. Because Morales was a minor, the suit also pleaded negligent entrustment against his parents, Susana Salto Alvarez and Arnold A. Morales, alleging they owned the car, paid for the modifications and allowed him to drive despite knowing his "proclivity for speeding and/or racing."

The complaint further alleged that on the night of the crash, Arnold Morales approached a mechanic's shop near the scene seeking surveillance footage before law enforcement could obtain it, conduct it described as documented by police.

The wrongful-death claim leaned on two provisions of the Vehicle Code. The first, section 22350, which makes it illegal to drive at a speed that puts people or property at risk. The second, section 23109, which is more specific--it flatly prohibits street racing, whether on a public highway or in an off-street parking lot.