Newly released bodycam video captures Jamie Lee Komoroski resisting officers’ questions about her intoxication level shortly after the crash that killed a bride and badly injured her new husband on their wedding night.
Authorities arrested Komoroski after the April 28, 2023 collision in Folly Beach, South Carolina. Samantha Miller, 34, and Aric Hutchinson had just left their wedding reception in a golf cart marked with a “Just Married” sign when a rental car driven by Komoroski slammed into them. Miller died at the scene while still in her wedding dress.
In the footage recorded after the crash, an officer asks Komoroski to rate how impaired she is on a scale from one to 10, with 10 meaning the most intoxicated she had ever been. Instead of answering, she responds, “I would like a lawyer.”
At the Folly Beach Police Department, officers began sobriety testing and asked to examine her eyes. Komoroski first answered, “No thanks”, then appeared to cooperate before being told to stand. During that exchange, an officer asked, “How do you feel?” and she replied, “Good”. Moments later, police told her to place her hands behind her back. When she asked, “Why?” an officer answered, “Because you’re under arrest for suspicion of DUI.”
Earlier in the video, Komoroski asks whether everyone is alright and says, “All of a sudden something hit me.” She also tells investigators she had consumed a beer “and a drink” within the previous hour.
A later toxicology report found her blood alcohol concentration was 0.261%, more than three times the legal limit in South Carolina. Investigators said she was traveling about 65mph in a 25mph zone when she hit the golf cart.
Along with losing his wife, Hutchinson suffered a severe brain injury, multiple broken bones and a brain bleed. Two other passengers in the cart were also left with life changing injuries.
The released bodycam video shows officers trying to piece together what happened and whether Komoroski was impaired. In other portions, she repeatedly asks to call her father and shifts between obvious distress and casual conversation while in custody, talking about subjects such as food, allergies and her new kitten despite the fatal crash.
Footage from the scene also shows her appearing upset and asking officers and bystanders about the condition of the woman who had been struck.
Komoroski later pleaded guilty to felony DUI resulting in death, two counts of felony DUI causing great bodily injury and reckless homicide. In December 2024, she was sentenced to 25 years in prison, with all sentences running at the same time.
At sentencing, she acknowledged that she chose to drink and drive and said she was sorry for Miller’s death and for the injuries suffered by Hutchinson and the other victims. Through tears, she told the court, “I want the last thing that I say to be that, from the very bottom of my heart, with every fiber in my being, how sorry I am. I take full responsibility for my actions. Hopefully one day you will be able to forgive me, but I know forgiveness must be earned.”
The case timeline laid out in court records shows Miller, 34, and Hutchinson, 36, marrying at Folly Beach before Komoroski, 25, spent the evening visiting several bars in the area from around 7.50pm. At roughly 10pm, while driving a rented Toyota Camry, she rear-ended the golf cart carrying the newlyweds and two others.
In a jail call later shared by the Post and Courier, Komoroski told her father, “I can’t believe this is my life … and my whole life is going to be over. Oh my God. I just can’t believe this happened to me. Why me? I’m going to be here for years and years and years and years.” Her father replied by telling her to “suck it up” and “get tough”.
Hutchinson later brought a wrongful death civil lawsuit against Komoroski and several bars that served her alcohol that night. In the filing, he accused her of a “booze-filled day of bar hopping”, and argued the bar should have “exercised due care” when serving her.
In his first television interview after the crash, Hutchinson told Good Morning America, “The last thing I remember [Samantha] saying was she wanted the night to never end.” He said his next memory was waking up in a hospital and asking where his wife was, only to be told by his mother that she had not survived.
Additional leaked jail calls later surfaced. In one, Komoroski told her father, “I’m just scared, dad. I don’t want to go away for so, so long. I don’t want to go to prison for 15 years. I don’t think I’m a threat to society at all and I’m not. I still just don’t know why this had to happen to me.” He answered, “Because bad things happen to good people, honey.”
A grand jury ultimately indicted Komoroski on felony DUI resulting in death, two counts of felony DUI with great bodily injury and reckless homicide. Several bars named in the civil case later reached a $1.3 million settlement with Hutchinson.
After the criminal sentence was imposed, Hutchinson told reporters, “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.” Records indicate Komoroski is not eligible for parole, and she remains at the Camille Griffin Graham Correctional Center in Columbia.
A final settlement was also reached in the civil lawsuit, with Komoroski’s insurer paying $160,000 and the other bars paying $863,000.