BY DAVE PRICE
Daily Post Editor
The man convicted for participating in a street race that killed the parents of 7-year-old twins in Redwood City has died in the San Mateo County Jail, the county coroner said yesterday.
Kyle Vincent Harrison, 25, died Saturday in the county’s Maple Street Correctional Center in Redwood City, according to Coroner Robert Foucrault. The cause of Harrison’s death is unknown, he said.
“There was no external trauma that would explain his death,” Foucrault said.
Harrison is the sixth inmate to die in the jail since Sheriff Christina Corpus took office in January 2023. Of the five inmates who died previously, two committed suicide, two died from drug overdoses and cancer killed one person.
On Feb. 25, Harrison pleaded no contest to two counts of felony vehicular manslaughter and one count of felony engaging in a speed contest that results in death or great bodily injury. He was sentenced to eight years in prison.
On Nov. 4, 2022, Harrison raced a teenage boy he met at a stoplight on El Camino Real in Redwood City. The cars zoomed down El Camino at speeds up to 120 mph, according to prosecutors.
The teen’s car crashed into the car of Greg Ammen, 44, and Grace Spiridon, 42. The crash killed the couple and injured their twin daughters. One of the daughters had to crawl over her father’s body to escape the damaged car.
District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said previously that since Harrison was arrested, he has consistently shown genuine remorse.
“He’s not the killer, but it couldn’t have happened without him,” Wagstaffe said. “It takes two to have a speed contest. So he’s properly guilty of these charges.”
The other driver, Cesar Morales, 20, who was 17 years old at the time of the fatal crash, was convicted of two counts of felony manslaughter and spent two years and two months in juvenile hall. He was released Jan. 17, 2025, and sentenced to 90 days of electronic home monitoring. The DA’s office tried to have Morales tried as an adult, which could have resulted in a longer sentence, but a judge declined.
Spiridon and Ammen both grew up in Palo Alto. The two knew each other for years, going to the same schools. The two ultimately got together in their 20s, friends of the couple previously told the Post. Spiridon worked for Google and Ammen worked for Dolby.
Meanwhile, the coroner’s office, district attorney and sheriff’s office are investigating the death. An autopsy is scheduled for this morning, Coroner Foucrault said. He said toxicology tests are also planned, which would determine if drugs were a factor. But such tests can take weeks.
Drugs have been a problem in the San Mateo County Jail. In June 2023, a baking instructor Corpus hired to teach inmates cooking skills was arrested for allegedly bringing drugs into Maple Street Correctional Facility.
In July 2024, a mental health advocacy organization, San Mateo County chapter of the National Alliance of Mental Illness or NMAI, asked the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office Civilian Advisory Commission for an independent review of the jail deaths.
The family of one of the inmates who died, Hunter Bergner, sued Corpus and the county last December claiming sheriff’s office employees were indifferent to “obvious red flags” that the man was having mental health issues. They said jail medical employees did not take precautions to stop Bergner’s death. They also said jailers didn’t check on Bergner regularly.
The jail has been understaffed for more than a year. A report by an outside consultant released in July 2024 said staff shortages in the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office have placed the department at a “critical juncture” in which employees’ “workload and schedule cannot be safely sustained.”
More than 100 of the sheriff’s office’s approximately 800 employees have quit or been fired since Corpus became sheriff in January 2023.
To make up for the staff shortages Corpus has stepped up hiring, but deputies need to go through an academy and training process before they can fill positions. Corpus has increased the mandatory overtime the remaining officers must put in. Her decision to increase mandatory overtime caused the deputies union to file a complaint with the state Public Employment Relations Board.
Sheriff Corpus may soon be replaced. San Mateo County voters on March 4 approved Measure A that would amend the county charter to allow the Board of Supervisors, by a four-fifths vote, to fire the sheriff. One of the issues in the Measure A election was Corpus’ management of the county’s two jails.
I am the father of Hunter Bergner. It is unconscionable that yet another inmate has died while incarcerated. While we don’t yet know the direct circumstances of the death, this is not ok for your law enforcement & your county. There needs to be a total overhaul of county jail, police, prosecutors & their supervisors. These organizations don’t serve you the public. They serve themselves. We already have several lawsuits pending with more to come. This makes me sick to the core. On the anniversary of my son’s death there is another death. Wake up & take your county back from these idiots.
Eight Years for killing two INNOCENT parents and destroying an entire family forever???? THIS is what is “unconscionable” SHAME on you!! The other ass involved got an even lighter sentence!!! THIS is what is wrong with the judicial system. If someone is determined to take their own life, they will. It is not even remotely possible to have eyes on every single inmate 24/7. NOT POSSIBLE! Fully staffed or not. Nothing to see here folks!
Sir, you’re delusional in your public grievance and a call for accountability, yet you don’t mention the victims once. Not a single tear should be wasted on this killer.
The situation at the jails is crazy. They are understaffed, and the staff is tired from mandatory overtime. Assigning mandatory OT shifts in the jails was one of the fundamental disputes between Sheriff Corpus and the Deputy Sheriff’s Association. For two years there has not been an Assistant Sheriff with senior custody experience running the jails, because Corpus has not filled the role, and has alienated those who have the right qualifications. This needs to be remedied when Corpus gets run out of office. Maybe once Corpus leaves and the Sheriff’s Office regains morale, hiring of both Deputies and Correctional Officers will pick up and reduce the workload on the jail staff, resulting in a safer environment for everyone in the jails.
Wasn’t Aenlle a realtor in charge of overseeing corrections in 2024 before he was let go and then Corous tried to promote him? Such a capable Sheriff that refuses to make good choices or the best decision to resign- how many people need ask her to step down, law suits filed or die?
To my knowledge, no – at least not OFFICIALLY. But he overstepped so many other boundaries pertaining to his civilian role at the Sheriff’s Office that he could easily have been having a major influence on policy decisions at the jails. Given his relationship with Corpus, and her blind loyalty to him, he may still be having undue influence on policy decisions and implementation at the SO. He is very much still pulling the strings via Corpus.
Corpus needs to be removed.
She’s got about three weeks until the supervisors can fire her. It’s going to be three weeks of retaliations, false arrests and jail deaths. Buckle up. This won’t be pretty.
Wagstaffe is going to wait until she’s fired. Then he’ll get arrest warrants for the two of them. I think they know that’s coming and they’re considering their options — a shoot out on the fifth floor or they’ll flee. They’ve had many months to plan where they are going, obtain fraudulent passports and change their appearance. Still everyone will be looking for them. They have nothing to live for. When they get out of prison, they won’t be able to work in law enforcement. The little doctor, despite his numerous degrees from defunct mail-order diploma mills, won’t have a real estste license (even that industry has standards). And if she’s convicted of a felony, she won’t have a pension. So I think suicide by cop is a strong possibility here.
I really don’t like Corpus for what she’s done. She has made several bad choices and is stuck in the past.
I do not hope or wish harm on her. I want her to step down retire and spend time with her kids that need her. She can just ride off in the sunset with Aenlle- unless he stays married. Those kids need their mom and dad.
Do the right thing corpus
There’s no time to waste. More deaths will occur. More lawsuits will roll in. This is serious.
I’m curious to known if Harrison was on the verge of being transferred to CDC?
Shocking! An inept Sheriff with no experience hired the “Narco Chef”….
This is tragic all the way around. I wish that I could help the twins, and I wish that Mr. Harrison could have found a way, some way… to offer recompense. Now, this will never happen.
Corpus will make life easier for herself if she soon resigns.
I shift gears.
The judge who let off Morales with a slap on the wrists should be recalled. By doing so, she did the public a disservice.
Anyone who drag races on a busy suburban road very well knows that, by doing so, (s)he runs a high risk of maiming or killing someone. Morales committed two first degree murders. At 17, he was responsible for his own behavior.
Morales reportedly had drag raced before he murdered the couple. He will reoffend.
The charges should’ve been reversed between the two people sentenced.
I’m curious what the cause of death was. With a sentence of 8 years (way too light) he would’ve gotten out at a young age, especially if he didn’t serve all 8. Hmm.
What stuns me most is the complete lack of compassion heard from Sheriff Christina Corpus. Not only did she not respond to the jail the evening of sixth death in her jail, there has been no public response as to why or how something like this could have happened under her watch, not even a public apology for her failure to keep the inmates safe from themselves and others. Where is this woman with all of her mental health programs and jail trainings she professes to have put in place? Nothing short of negligence on her part.
In a state of the art correctional system that was handed to Corpus on a gold platter, suicides should have never ever happened — not once, but multiple times under her authority. Speed hiring Correctional Officers is her method. Multiple background investigators that have never done backgrounds are simply cherry picked by Corpus to push people through, resulting in rushed and substandard backgrounds in order to fill numbers. Some of these newly hired Correctional Officers are working solo without even completing jail training – i.e., the rape in the jail elevator? Some are mandated to work overtime without completing their jail training. It takes time, training, attention and experience to understand the behavior of inmates. Jail staff is clearly lacking in these components. Either that or the staff is so exhausted from working overtime due to staffing shortages, they cannot maintain clarity. These suicides are all on Corpus for not providing the proper leadership.
Why hasn’t the public heard from you Sheriff Corpus? Is it that Victor hasn’t written your response yet? Your behavior is an embarrassment to the law enforcement community both as a female and more importantly as a Deputy Sheriff. Nobody wants to be in your air space. For God’s sake Christina, have some pride – if not for you, for the family you have destroyed, both personal and professional. Take your little co-dependent self and Get Out.
Sheriff CORPUS has got to GO !