Family still grieves after Redwood City street-racing deaths

Then 17-year-old Cesar Morales was allegedly racing 23-year old Kyle Harrison on El Camino Real in Redwood City in November 2022. Morales was going 106 to 114 miles per hour, per analysis of video surveillance completed by California Highway Patrol's major investigations team and Harrison was going 80 miles per hour by his own estimation, Deputy District Attorney Shin-Mee Chang said. Morales then allegedly T-boned a car and killed Greg Ammen, 44, and Grace Spiridon, 42, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

Their 7-year-old twin daughters, who are now 9, survived the crash, but the emotional scars of the tragic night might never truly heal for the sisters, who are orphaned, Spiridon said. 

Harrison recently pleaded no contest to two counts of vehicular manslaughter and three felony counts and one misdemeanor count of engaging in a speed contest resulting in death. He has yet to be sentenced, but faces up to nine years and four months in state prison.

Since a judge ruled that Morales would be tried as a juvenile, he faces a lesser sentence — up to six years if convicted. A juvenile judge will make the determination as there is no jury in a dispositional hearing, what juvenile trials are officially called. Morales declined to take a plea deal offered by the District Attorney’s Office and was previously charged with two homicide counts, arguments for which will be held Oct. 24. 

The DA’s Office will be charging him with an additional two counts of vehicular manslaughter, Deputy District Attorney Lucas King said on Oct. 10, the day the juvenile trial started.

Morales’ defense attorney, Kevin Nowack, did not respond to request for comment. 

Spiridon would have preferred he was tried as an adult — a case the DA’s Office made and lost back in June, after a judge weighed factors like seriousness of the crime, prior record and amenability to treatment. 

“I keep going back to [the girls], and how they’re going to feel when he’s released, being free on the streets, driving,” she said. “I still struggle that he stays in only till 25. There needs to be more time served. What message are we sending to society?” 

The adult prison system’s lack of focus on rehabilitation isn’t ideal either, Spiridon acknowledged, and said she wished for justice system reform overall — for the prisons themselves as well as for victims and their families. 

“It’s not a black-or-white response, it’s ‘[how] can we make things better in juvie rehab system and how can we make things better in the adult prison system?’” she said. 

Harrison — who is found liable for the deaths due to his engagement in the speed contest, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said previously — was originally charged with two counts of murder. 

Those charges were dismissed and replaced with vehicular manslaughter in part because of the fact that it wasn’t his car that did the killing, combined with the fact that Morales — who allegedly killed the couple — will be tried as a juvenile, meaning Harrison faces more jail time than him even if Morales is convicted, Wagstaffe said previously. He had also shown remorse for the crimes, according to Wagstaffe. 

“We feel it’s the just and fair thing to do, in light of how the actual killer, the one who did actual driving that killed these two parents, the court decided he wouldn’t be transferred to adult court,” he said previously. 

Spiridon did not support that decision, she said, given the fact that the family hadn’t heard any remorse from Harrison, she said. Additionally, he fled the scene of the crime and was arrested two weeks later. 

“They should both be held responsible to the fullest extent of the law,” she said. “You can’t just kill two people, whether it’s directly or indirectly.”  

There should be more resources available for victims like the twins, as well as their family members, Spiridon said, noting how fundamentally all their lives have changed since the crash. 

“Every happy memory — since our family takes holidays and birthdays very seriously — is tinged with sorrow,” she said.

The next hearing in the case is Oct. 21, and is open to the public. 

Note to readers: This story has been updated with specific information on the speeds of the drivers, as well as Morales' age — he is now 19, not 18.