Woman sentenced for killing bride hours after her wedding in drunk driving crash

CHARLESTON, S.C. (TCN) -- A judge sentenced a woman to over two decades years behind bars after she pleaded guilty to driving drunk and killing a bride hours after the victim’s wedding.

Court records show Jamie Komoroski was sentenced Monday, Dec. 2, to 25 years in prison for killing Samantha Miller and injuring two others in April 2023. WCSC-TV reports Komoroski received 25 years for DUI causing death, 15 for two counts of DUI causing great bodily injury, and 10 for reckless homicide. The terms will run concurrently.

According to Komoroski’s affidavit, on April 28 at 10:16 p.m., a Folly Beach Police Department officer responded to a vehicle collision with injuries call on the 1200 block of East Ashley Avenue and found a "large crash scene with a golf cart on its side up against a gray Toyota Camry." The officer saw multiple victims but focused on Miller because she was unconscious and did not have a pulse. Other victims at the scene, including Miller’s new husband Aric Hutchinson, were reportedly "in and out of consciousness" and seriously injured.

The officer later approached Komoroski, who did not have any injuries but had "an odor of alcohol coming from her breath and person." Komoroski told the officer she had a beer and shot of tequila an hour prior to the crash but felt very drunk. The officer asked Komoroski to take a sobriety test, but she "strongly refused and became uncooperative." The affidavit says she appeared "very unsteady on her feet and almost fell down." The officer detained her and took her to the police department for questioning, where she refused to take a Breathalyzer test.

Komoroski was taken to the hospital for a blood test and returned to the Charleston County Jail.

WCSC reports Komoroski’s blood alcohol level was over three times the legal limit at 0.261%. She was driving her Camry at around 65 mph when it hit the golf cart transporting Miller, Hutchinson, Hutchinson’s brother-in-law, and the brother-in-law’s son. The brother-in-law, Benjamin Garrett, was reportedly driving Hutchinson and Miller back from their wedding to the house where they were staying. Miller was still wearing her wedding dress when she died.

Garrett said at Komoroski’s sentencing, "It was my only job and I didn’t get to complete it."

Hutchinson filed a wrongful death suit against Komoroski and the bars and restaurants she went to in her "booze-filled day of bar-hopping." Hutchinson gave a victim impact statement, saying, "We didn’t get hit, we got ran through. All four of us should have died that night. I believe Sam saved us. It’s who she is. She would have taken one for all of us."

Komoroski told the judge and victims, "For the rest of my life, I will carry this guilt and take full responsibility."

Hutchinson told WCSC afterwards, "I feel like the punishment fit the crime. I do think she’s sorry. However, that doesn’t change the fact that Sam’s not here, my wife’s not here, the family we planned, all of our injuries. So that’ll take some time for sure."

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