Woman pleads guilty in South Carolina DUI crash that killed bride on wedding night, gets 25 years
A woman accused in a DUI crash that killed a bride on her wedding night in South Carolina and injured three others, including the groom, pleaded guilty to multiple charges Monday afternoon and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
CBS affiliate WCSC-TV reports that Jamie Lee Komoroski pleaded guilty to a charge of felony DUI resulting in death, two counts of DUI causing great bodily injury or death, and one count of reckless homicide. She was sentenced to 25 years for felony DUI resulting in death, 15 years for the two counts of DUI causing great bodily injury or death, and 10 years for reckless homicide. The sentences will run concurrently.
On the night of April 28, 2023, authorities said Komoroski was behind the wheel of a rental car that rear-ended a golf cart carrying newlyweds Samantha Miller and Aric Hutchinson in Folly Beach, a city located on Folly Island southeast of Charleston. They had been married just hours earlier, and Miller was still in her wedding dress.
Miller died in the crash and Hutchinson suffered a brain injury and numerous broken bones. Two other family members riding in the golf cart were also injured.
Authorities said Komoroski was driving 65 mph in a 25 mph zone.
Komoroski told the court Monday she was guilty, was not coerced into entering the guilty pleas and was waiving a jury trial to which she would be entitled, WCSC reported.
In June, a judge approved over $1.3 million in a partial settlement in a wrongful death case after Hutchinson sued Komoroski, whose blood alcohol content was "0.261, more than three times the legal limit," according to a toxicology report released by the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division. Included in the wrongful death lawsuit were Enterprise, the car company that rented her the vehicle, and numerous restaurants and bars that served Komoroski on the night of the accident.
Police investigators said in an affidavit that Komoroski had "an odor of alcohol coming from her breath and person." When the investigator asked her if she had anything to drink that night, Komoroski answered, "Nope ooh I had two drinks, one beer and a drink." Then she said, "Like a tequila and pineapple."
She said she was driving home when "something hit her," the incident report said. Police noted she was driving in the opposite direction of her home.
Komoroski refused to take any field sobriety tests and asked for a lawyer, the report said. Police tried to put her in a police car and take her back to the station but she kept asking "why she was being arrested."
She refused to give breath samples at the police station, the report said. Investigators obtained a warrant to draw two blood vials, which Folly Beach police sent to South Carolina Law Enforcement Division to test, the report said.
Weeks after the crash, Hutchinson told "Good Morning America" that he didn't remember the crash that killed his wife. But he said he did recall his bride's last words to him before the crash.
"The last thing I remember her saying was she wanted the night to never end," he said.
