Left: Jamie Lee Komoroski (via Charleston County (S.C.) Sheriff's Office). Middle: image from the scene of the crash (via Folly Beach (S.C.) Police Dept.). Right: Aric Hutchinson and Samantha Miller, moments after getting married on April 28, 2023 (via GoFundMe).
The driver of a speeding car that crashed into a golf cart carrying a newlywed couple away from their South Carolina wedding reception, killing the bride and seriously injuring the groom, had a blood alcohol content level more than three times the state's legal limit, police documents show.
Jamie Komoroski, 25, was allegedly behind the wheel when she struck a golf cart carrying newlywed couple Samantha Miller and Aric Hutchinson, who had been married just hours earlier, away from their wedding reception. Miller, 34, died at the scene, while Hutchinson suffered severe injuries. Two other passengers — both relatives of the couple — were also injured, one of them seriously.
Komoroski has been charged with three counts of DUI causing serious bodily injury/death and one count of reckless homicide. According to police, she was traveling 65 mph at the time of impact in the largely residential area, which has a speed limit of 40 mph. The golf cart was reportedly thrown 100 yards and rolled several times.
According to a report from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED), Komoroski had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.261%, more than three times the state's legal limit.
The maximum BAC allowed in South Carolina is 0.08 percent, at which point it is illegal to operate a motor vehicle, according to the South Carolina Department of Public Safety.
The report comes after Komoroski had "strongly refused" to submit to a field sobriety test at the scene of the crime. According to police documents, she told law enforcement that she consumed one beer and a drink with tequila about an hour before the crash.
Police also released a lengthy affidavit detailing observations from the horrific scene, interactions with Komoroski, and interviews with witnesses who came to the aid of the injured.
Sgt. Zac Halpern, who spoke with Komoroski, noted that he "smelled an odor of alcohol coming from her breath and person." She was also observed as "swaying" while speaking with police.
When Halpern asked Komoroski if she knew what happened, she allegedly said that "something" hit her "all of a sudden" as she was driving. She reportedly told the sergeant that she was driving toward her home, despite the fact that she was driving eastbound on a dead-end street.
"Jamie's house was the opposite direction," Halpern noted.
The sergeant also said that after he arrested Komoroski, she asked repeatedly why she was being placed under arrest — a "clear indication of someone who is intoxicated," the affidavit said. She also repeatedly asked to speak to her boyfriend, according to the document.
Regarding the scene itself, the affidavit described officers finding a "gray Toyota Camry located on the side of the roadway with a white golfcart turned on its passenger's side pressed up to the driver's side of the vehicle."
The affidavit details interviews with witnesses who described the sound of the crash as a "boom as loud as an explosion going off," a "loud bang from a crash," and an "explosion."
At least three witnesses who were in houses near the site of the collision said they came out of their homes and tried to help Miller, each of them checking for a pulse and finding none. They also tried to assist the other passengers from the golf cart who appeared injured.
Some of the witnesses spoke with Komoroski directly. One told investigators that after the crash, Komoroski "seemed in a daze but would keep asking for her boyfriend and telling them she was on her way home."
At times, however, Komoroski "would stop talking as if thinking then start asking if that was her car and [then] would see one of the injured and start screaming who is that," the affidavit says. The witness told police that "this is what [Komoroski] kept doing [until] officers started to speak with her."
Another witness at the scene said that Komoroski "started screaming when she saw the individuals on the ground" after the crash. She also repeatedly stated that she "did nothing wrong," the affidavit said.
Prosecutors did not immediately respond to Law&Crime's request for comment.
Komoroski's lawyers have asked that there not be a "rush to judgment" in the case.
View the expanded probable cause affidavit here.
View the SLED toxicology report here.
