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A 25-year-old man who had been sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in a fatal street race that took the lives of two died in jail of an accidental drug overdose, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.
Kyle Harrison was found unresponsive on March 15 and pronounced dead at the Maple Street Correctional Facility. A full autopsy showed that his cause of death was a combination of three prescription drugs in his system — methadone, amitriptyline and gabapentin, County Coroner Robert Foucrault said.
The San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office has been interviewing inmates in Harrison’s cell and surrounding cells as well as the correctional officers on duty to understand the circumstances behind the death and see if wrongdoing has occurred, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.
Wagstaffe will be receiving the report in the next week, he said, and will make the conclusions public after they have been reviewed.
“My inspectors haven’t finished their report, but we did receive this week the coroner’s report. The coroner’s report did conclude the cause of death was accidental overdose,” Wagstaffe said. “The role we have at the DA’s Office is the same as when an officer-involved shooting occurs, which is to say, is there anything illegal or improper that occurred that led to the death?”
It’s typical protocol for the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office to also conduct a review into an in-jail death to see if policy has been broken, Wagstaffe said. In a statement, Sheriff’s Office Communications Director Gretchen Spiker said the department could not comment at this time.
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“So far, the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office has not received official findings from either the San Mateo County Coroner’s Office or the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office, and it would be premature to comment until we are informed otherwise,” the statement read.
Harrison was racing then-17-year old Cesar Morales on El Camino Real when Morales T-boned the car carrying Greg Ammen, 44, and Grace Spiridon, 42. Both Greg Ammen and Grace Spiridon were killed in the crash, though their twin daughters survived the accident.
Morales, a minor at the time of the crime, was found responsible for two counts of vehicular manslaughter — against the objections of the DA, who charged him with two counts of second-degree murder — and sentenced to 90 days of electronic home monitoring. He was released into the custody of his parents in January.
Harrison pleaded no contest to two counts of vehicular manslaughter for his role in the killings and, because he was tried as an adult, was sentenced to eight years in prison. He spoke at the sentencing with genuine remorse, Wagstaffe said.
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(2) comments
horrible ending to a sad situation for all the families involved....the young man that actually killed the couple is relaxing at home.
Wonder if the drugs listed were prescribed and/or dispensed by County Correctional Heath?
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
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