Newly released body camera footage shows convicted drunk driver Jamie Lee Komoroski complaining about her arrest shortly after prosecutors say she crashed into a golf cart carrying a newlywed couple, killing the bride at the scene.
The fatal chain of events began on April 28, 2023, after Komoroski spent the evening bar hopping before getting behind the wheel of a rented Toyota Camry.
She was traveling 65 mph in a 25 mph zone when her Camry slammed into the rear of the golf cart carrying newlyweds Samantha Miller, 34, and Aric Hutchinson as they headed back to their rental property.
Miller, 34, was pronounced dead at the scene. Hutchinson survived but suffered devastating injuries, including two broken legs, severe facial fractures and traumatic brain injuries.
After Komoroski was taken to the local police station, footage shows her insisting she should be allowed to call her father while disputing that officers had evidence she had been drinking and driving.
‘I just, like, want to get it over with and go home,’ she told an officer as her arrest was being processed, according to newly released security footage obtained by WCSC.
Komoroski then asked if she could call her dad, claiming that ‘nobody has any proof of anything that I did.’
Jamie Lee Komoroski was arrested after crashing her rented Toyota Camry into the back of a golf cart carrying newlyweds Samantha Miller, 34, and Aric Hutchinson in 2023
Miller, 34, was pronounced dead at the scene, and Hutchinson suffered two broken legs, extensive facial fractures, and traumatic brain injuries
When an officer then simply responded, ‘Ok,’ Komoroski doubled down.
‘So give me the right to call my dad,’ she pleaded.
Later in the footage, Komoroski admits that she is crying because the officer is ‘not letting me call my f***ing father even though they haven’t proven s**t and don’t have any right for me not to contact my family or anyone that I want.
‘So yeah, hello, I’m crying,’ she sarcastically tells one of the other officers.
The first police officer who arrived at the scene of the horrific crash that night previously described in court documents how he found the golf cart on its side and several victims lying among the wreckage.
He said his priority was treating the new bride, who was still in her wedding gown.
After his efforts to revive her failed, the officer rendered aid to Hutchinson and another member of their bridal party, Garrett Hutchinson.
When he was then done triaging the injured parties, the officer said he then turned his attention to Komoroski, who was not injured in the collision.
The officer said the then-25-year-old Logistics Account Executive smelled of alcohol, and was unsteady on her feet.
She even had trouble standing, the responding officer described, and when asked to rate her impairment on a scale of one to ten, she replied that she was at a level eight.
Miller had been driving at 65mph when she struck the golf cart in Folly Beach, South Carolina
But, the officer said, Komoroski told cops at the scene that all she had to drink was one beer and one tequila about an hour before.
And when asked to perform a field sobriety test, the officer wrote ‘she strongly refused and became uncooperative.’
Komoroski was initially held in custody without bond before being granted release on a $150,000 bond in March 2024.
She ultimately pleaded guilty to reckless homicide, felony DUI and two counts of DUI causing greater bodily injury or death.
But she did not strike a plea deal, meaning a judge did not have to show her leniency for sparing Miller’s family a trial.
Still, Komoroski also apologized to her victims at her sentencing in 2024, saying she will always be embarrassed by her actions that night.
Komoroski sobbed in court as she admitted to reckless homicide
‘On the night of April 22, 2023, I chose to drink and drive which resulted in the death of Samantha Miller,’ she told the court.
‘This is the worst decision I have ever made in my life. Due to my poor decisions a beautiful wife, sister and mother was taken… all I can say is how incredibly remorseful I am.’
‘I want them to know how sorry I am for the bottom of my heart and that I take full responsibility for my actions. I will always be devastated, deeply ashamed and terribly sorry for what I have done,’ she said.
Despite the apology, Komoroski was sentenced to 25 years behind bars for the reckless homicide charge, to 15 years for the two DUI involving great bodily injury charges and 10 years to the felony DUI charge to be served concurrently.
She is now also facing a wrongful death suit that Hutchinson filed against her and the bars that served her that night.
