Woman who allegedly killed bride in crash had blood alcohol level 3 times legal limit
The woman accused of causing a crash that killed a bride on her wedding night last month in South Carolina had a blood alcohol level three times the legal threshold and was driving 40 miles per hour over the speed limit when she allegedly plowed her Toyota into the back of a golf cart, police documents show.
A golf cart carrying four people was struck from behind near Charleston on April 28, killing Samantha Miller, who had just celebrated her wedding earlier in the day.
Three others, including Miller's new husband, Aric Hutchinson, were in the golf cart with her, police said. All suffered varying degrees of injuries when the collision propelled the cart roughly 75 yards, according to police.
In a redacted incident report released Thursday by the Folly Beach Department of Public Safety, responding officers described an uncooperative suspect, identified as 25-year-old Jamie Komoroski, who they said seemed to have little idea about what happened or where she was going when the crash happened.
"I was driving and then all of a sudden something hit me," police said Komoroski told them after the crash, according to the report.
Komoroski has been charged with three counts of DUI causing serious bodily injury/death and one count of reckless homicide.
Officers said Komoroski also told them she was driving toward her house, but they said she had actually been going the opposite direction from her house, toward a dead end, the report states.
Husband recovering after losing new wife in alleged drunken driving accident
A toxicology report released by authorities on Thursday showed that Komoroski had a .261 blood alcohol level -- three times the legal limit in South Carolina.
According to the incident report, police said Komoroski told them on the scene that she felt an eight out of 10 in terms of being impaired.
One of the responding officers "smelled an odor of alcohol coming from her breath and person," he wrote in the report, adding that Komoroski had trouble standing and refused a breathalyzer test, forcing authorities to obtain a signed warrant from a judge to draw her blood.
"We cannot fathom what the families are going through and offer our deepest sympathies," Komoroski's attorneys told ABC News in a statement Thursday night. "We simply ask that there not be a rush to judgment. Our court system is founded upon principles of justice and mercy and that is where all facts will come to light."
According to a GoFundMe created by a woman identifying herself as the mother of the groom, Miller and Hutchinson were being escorted from the reception by two family members when the crash happened.
"I was handed Aric's wedding ring in a plastic bag at the hospital, five hours after Sam placed it on his finger and they read each other their vows," Arnette Hutchinson wrote. "Aric has lost the love of his life."
