Twin sisters left orphaned after a teenage driver crashed into their family’s car during an alleged street race have been awarded $33 million in damages.
Madison and Olivia Ammen were only seven when their parents, Greg Ammen, 44, and Grace Spiridon, 42, were killed in the devastating 2022 collision.
On Tuesday, a San Mateo County jury found Cesar Morales, who was 17 at the time, largely responsible for the high-speed crash in Redwood City, California, The Mercury News reports.
The girls were riding in the back seat when the wreck occurred and survived the impact. They were later adopted by their aunt, Liza Spiridon, who brought a wrongful death lawsuit in 2023.
‘When the truth prevails, it doesn’t just vindicate – it heals,’ she told NBC Bay Area. ‘It gives grief somewhere to rest, turns silence into evidence and hands the people left behind something they can finally stand on – not closure, but clarity.’
The civil verdict comes about a year after Morales was criminally convicted of manslaughter in connection with the crash and sentenced to 90 days of home detention.
According to Spiridon’s lawsuit, Morales and Kyle Harrison, who was 23 when the crash happened, stopped at a light at El Camino Real and Howard Avenue in San Carlos, where they began revving their engines as passengers in Morales’ Mercedes-Benz E55 encouraged them to race.
The lawsuit said both drivers then accelerated to speeds between 80 and 100mph before Morales’ Mercedes-Benz struck the couple’s Chevrolet Bolt at Finger Avenue in Redwood City.
Twin 11-year-old girls were awarded $33 million in damages after a teenage driver plowed into their family car and killed their parents, Greg Ammen, 44, and Grace Spiridon, 42
Driver Cesar Morales was sentenced to just 90 days of home detention after being found guilty of two counts of felony vehicular manslaughter, three counts of engaging in a speed contest resulting in great bodily injury and one count of engaging in a speed contest
The couple had been just five minutes from their San Carlos, California home when 17-year-old Cesar Morales plowed into their Chevrolet Bolt while racing 23-year-old Kyle Harrison
The impact of the crash reportedly sent the Chevy flying 100 feet, killing the parents on impact.
Harrison pleaded no contest to vehicular manslaughter and to racing Morales. He was then sentenced to eight years in state prison in February 2025, but was found dead in his jail cell just one month later.
Spiridon’s lawsuit also alleged that Morales’s parents allowed their son to modify the Mercedes-Benz they purchased for him and knew about his ‘dangerous proclivity for speeding and racing cars’ in the lead up to the fatal crash.
Following a nearly three-week trial, the jury ruled that both Morales and Harrison were negligent and that their negligence was a ‘substantial factor’ in the harm caused to the twins.
It also determined that Morales’s parents Arnold Morales and Susana Salto Alvarez, were negligent in supervising their son, meaning they should have reasonably been aware of his habits that ‘created an unreasonable risk of harm to other persons,’ though they were not found negligent for entrusting their son with the vehicle.
Jurors ultimately assigned 60 percent of the fault for the crash to Morales, 20 percent to his father, Arnold Morales, 15 percent to Harrison and five percent to Alvarez.
All together, they will have to pay the twins economic damages of almost $19 million, as well as non-economic damages – accounting for the loss of their parents’ companionship and love – of $7 million each.
Philip Segal, the attorney representing Arnold Morales and Alvarez, slammed the jury’s verdict finding his clients negligent as a ‘travesty.’
The girls’ aunt, Liza Spiridon, filed a wrongful death suit in 2023
She described her sister and brother-in-law as devoted parents who always showed up for their daughters
‘There was no credible evidence that the parents knew or should have known that their son was unfit or incompetent to drive, or that this was going to happen,’ he argued.
‘It was a crazy, impulsive decision by a 17-year-old, and it sends the wrong message to the community,’ the lawyer told Mercury News of the verdict.
During the weeks-long trial, jurors heard how Morales had a prior citation for driving over 100mph – though Morales’s parents insisted they were unaware of the citation, according to the San Francisco Gate.
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Witnesses also described how they had to pull the two young girls from the mangled vehicle.
The twins have since had to undergo extensive trauma therapy, after one of them sketched a woman’s face with red splotches, recalling it was the final memory of her dying mom, covered in blood.
The two girls suffered from night terrors also after the crash, which was said would last for up to 15 minutes.
They would also avoid driving near the scene of the crash in case of triggers, but police cars, fire trucks, fires and sirens were harder to escape, the court heard.
Spiridon told NBC Bay Area the girls will sometimes bring up their parents or the crash ‘when there’s a song or something that reminds them of mommy and daddy.’
Liza said Tuesday’s verdict brought a modicum of justice to the family
She described the couple as devoted parents.
‘Their daughters were their world,’ Liza recounted. ‘There’s nothing they would not do for them. They were involved in their classrooms volunteering, going to every single soccer game, Grace teaching the girls how to bake, Greg showing the girls woodworking, his Boy Scout side showing up.’
The couple were just five minutes from their home when Morales careened into their vehicle as he was driving up to 110mph while racing Harrison.
But the defendants tried to cast the blame on the girls’ mother because she had been turning left in front of the speeding vehicles.
The jury, though, ultimately disagreed, in a move Liza’s attorney Niall McCarthy said was ‘very important to the family.’
‘It was incredibly painful to hear our sister blamed for a tragedy she did nothing to cause, especially knowing her daughters will one day learn those accusations were made,’ she said in a statement to The Mercury News.
‘We hope the public record now reflects the truth – that Grace was an innocent victim,’ she continued, adding her and her husband’s focus now ‘remains on helping the girls heal while honoring the beautiful lives of both Grace and Greg.’
Morales had been behind the wheel of a silver Mercedes, seen here, at the time of the collision
The verdict comes one year after Morales was sentenced to just 90 days of home detention after being found guilty of two counts of felony vehicular manslaughter, three counts of engaging in a speed contest resulting in great bodily injury and one count of engaging in a speed contest. He was tried as a minor.
That outcome had frustrated members of the Ammen and Spiridon family.
‘It felt like Grace and Greg’s lives didn’t matter, that their daughters’ lives didn’t matter,’ the aunt said.
Harrison’s death meanwhile was ruled an accidental overdose from the toxic effects of methadone, amitriptyline and gabapentin.
An attorney representing his estate at the civil trial told Our News Outlet Harrison’s insurance carrier settled the case, ‘so he was not present or his interests actually represented at the trial.
‘He was essentially an empty chair for the other defendants to point the finger at to lessen their own liability,’ the lawyer claimed.
Harrison had pleaded no contest to vehicular manslaughter and to racing Morales, and was sentenced to serve eight years in prison but was found dead in his jail cell just one month into his sentence
Meanwhile, Harrison’s death is the subject of a separate federal lawsuit as his parents and his estate sue San Mateo County and others over his death in custody.
The lawsuit alleges jail and medical personnel were responsible for medication-related failures that contributed to Harrison’s death.
County defendants have since challenged the suit and the case is still pending.
At the same time, Morales and his parents are pursuing separate litigation against Redwood City, San Mateo County and other government agencies over the investigation and his prosecution following the deadly crash.
The suit alleges that authorities improperly characterized the collision as street racing and violated Morales’ constitutional rights.
The case has since been sent to federal court, where the defendants have filed motions seeking its dismissal.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the lawyer representing Morales at the civil trial, Sherrett Walker, and his parents’ lawyer, Segal, for comment.
