A California civil jury awarded $33 million to two 11-year-old girls whose parents were killed in front of the twins in a horrific crash.

The twins were traveling home with their parents in Redwood City on the night of November 4, 2022 when street racers slammed into the family’s Chevrolet Bolt.

Grace Spiridon, of San Carlos, and her husband, Gregory Ammen, were killed on impact. Their daughters, Madison and Olivia, were 7 years old at the time and “miraculously survived” in the backseat, prosecutors wrote. The girls were left orphaned.

One of the street racers, then-17-year-old Cesar Morales, was driving his Mercedes Benz between 105-110 mph, according to attorneys with the law firm Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, who represented the victims.

“The case has gained widespread attention, and focused on how much responsibility parents have for their teenage children,” the law firm wrote.

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Tuesday’s verdict was reached following a three-week jury trial in civil court. Jurors found Cesar Morales liable, as well as his parents, Arnold Morales and Susana Salto Alvarez, for allegedly ignoring warnings about their son’s reckless driving history, court documents show.

Niall McCarthy, the lead trial attorney on the case said, “We are hopeful today’s verdict serves as a wakeup call to Bay Area parents. You cannot ignore warning signs with your teenage children. 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.”

The Morales family was ordered to pay the orphaned twins $33 million for “the loss of Grace Spiridon and Greg Ammen’s love, companionship, comfort, care, assistance, protection, affection, society, and moral support,” court documents state.

Before the tragedy, Cesar Morales was slapped with a citation for driving over 100 mph, which his parents testified they knew nothing about, attorneys said. His Mercedes Benz was registered in the teenager’s name.

McCarthy said, “Two young girls no longer have parents because of the Morales Family’s decisions.”

Spiridon was an avid runner and earned a double MBA from UC Berkeley and Columbia University. She was promoted at her job working for Google shortly before her death.

McCarthy said the crash, wrongful death lawsuit, and verdict stemmed from “a brutal indifference to human life. The Bay Area has an epidemic of people who gamble with the lives of others by street racing.”

Jurors also found a second street racer, Kyle Harrison, 25, of Redwood City, partially liable on Tuesday. Investigators said Harrison and Cesar Morales did not know each other, but when they stopped at the same red light on November 4, 2022, they revved their engines and raced when the light turned green.

Cesar Morales was injured in the crash and found at the scene. Prosecutors said Harrison drove off, but a witness recorded his BMW’s license plate number with a cellphone camera, and police arrested him weeks later.

Harrison pleaded no contest to engaging in a speed contest and vehicle manslaughter in October of 2024. Before he was transferred from a county jail to state prison to serve his sentence, Harrison died in custody on March 15, 2025 at Maple Street Correctional Facility “due to toxic effects of three medications,” sheriff’s officials said. The medications were listed as methadone, amitriptyline, and gabapentin.

The District Attorney’s Office said it fought to have Cesar Morales’ case transferred from juvenile court to adult court to face murder charges, however, San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Susan Irene Etezadi denied prosecutors’ request. He was reportedly convicted and released from a juvenile detention center last year after spending less than three years in custody.