A South Carolina woman accused and charged with killing a bride on her wedding night last April has been released from jail just shy of a year after the accident. Jamie Komoroski, the 26-year-old woman accused of drunk driving at Folly Beach, South Carolina, and killing the new bride, posted $150,000 bail on Friday and was released in the afternoon from the Charleston County jail.
On April 28, 2023, the bride, Samantha Miller, 34, and the groom, Aric Hutchinson, 36, were rear-ended while driving a golf cart shortly after their ceremony. Komoroski is alleged to have been driving twice the posted speed limit before her Toyota Camry slammed into the back of the golf cart, killing the bride and seriously injuring the groom.
Folly Beach is a popular destination for beach-goers and wedding parties, and the newlyweds had just departed their reception under a shower of sparklers before Komoroski hit the cart they were riding in. The suspect refused a breathalyzer at the scene but later was reported to have three times the legal limit blood alcohol content. She had been held without bail in Charleston County jail since the accident.
Lisa Miller, the bride’s mother, said: “She didn’t just kill my child. She killed all of us. I want that to include house arrest, ankle monitoring and not being able to leave the state. We were all expecting she would have been bonded out first time [last summer] but luckily the judge kept her in, I think that was to do with our impact statements.”
The suspect is being released after a judge previously stipulated that if her trial didn’t start before March, she could bond out. As of now, no trial date has been set. There are conditions for her release, however. Komoroski must surrender her passport, cannot drive, and is not allowed to leave her home except for medical emergencies. Further, she must wear a “SCRAM” ankle monitor. The device measures the wearer’s alcohol level by sampling their body sweat every 30 minutes.
Komoroski has been formally charged with three counts of felony DUI resulting in death and one count of reckless homicide. Her attorney released a statement: “She now looks forward to demonstrating her continued commitment to rehabilitation upon her pretrial release from detention.” Her lawyer added that she isn’t a flight risk.
Komoroski was allegedly driving 65 mph on the dimly lit road when she hit the golf cart, which rolled several times and was thrown more than 100 yards. The woman, who had reportedly been drinking “copious amounts of alcohol,” also appeared “very unsteady on her feet and almost fell down.”The bride was killed instantly while her groom, Hutchinson, “was left with bleeding in his brain, two broken legs, facial fractures and broken vertebrae in his back.”
Folly Beach is a popular destination for tourists and wedding parties and also boasts a bustling bar scene. The area is accessible by state highways and country roads, and the combination of too much alcohol, bad decisions, and poorly lit roads contributed to the young woman’s death. Komoroski is undoubtedly looking at jail time when her trial is finished, and her accident, along with the tragedy suffered by the families, should be a cautionary tale moving forward.
!function(r,u,m,b,l,e){r._Rumble=b,r[b]||(r[b]=function(){(r[b]._=r[b]._||[]).push(arguments);if(r[b]._.length==1){l=u.createElement(m),e=u.getElementsByTagName(m)[0],l.async=1,l.src=”https://rumble.com/embedJS/u1jj1ge”+(arguments[1].video?’.’+arguments[1].video:”)+”/?url=”+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+”&args=”+encodeURIComponent(JSON.stringify([].slice.apply(arguments))),e.parentNode.insertBefore(l,e)}})}(window, document, “script”, “Rumble”);
Rumble(“play”, {“video”:”v4edla6″,”div”:”rumble_v4edla6″});
Featured image screen grab from embedded video
"*" indicates required fields