A woman accused of causing a DUI accident murdered a bride A South Carolina woman who injured her groom and three others on their wedding night pleaded guilty to multiple charges Monday afternoon and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
CBS affiliate WCSC-TV reports Jamie Lee Komorowski pleaded guilty to charges of felony DUI resulting in death, two counts of DUI resulting in great bodily injury or death, and one count of reckless homicide. He was sentenced to 25 years for felony DUI resulting in death, two counts of DUI resulting in serious bodily injury or death, and 10 years for reckless homicide. The sentences will run concurrently.
On the night of April 28, 2023, authorities said Komorowski was driving a rental car that was hitched behind a golf cart carrying newlyweds. samantha miller And eric hutchinson In Folly Beach, a town located on Folly Island southeast of Charleston. They had been married only a few hours earlier and Miller was still in her wedding dress.
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Miller died in the accident and Hutchinson suffered a brain injury and several broken bones. Two other family members traveling in the golf cart were also injured.
Authorities said Komorowski was driving 65 mph in a 25 mph zone.
Komorowski told the court on Monday that she was guilty, was not forced to enter a guilty plea and was being waived of the jury trial she was entitled to, WCSC reported.
In June, a judge approved more than $1.3 million in a partial settlement in a wrongful death case after Hutchinson Komorowski suedWho had a blood alcohol concentration of “0.261, more than three times the legal limit”, according to toxicology report Issued by the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division. The wrongful death lawsuit included Enterprise, the car company that rented him the vehicle, and several restaurants and bars that had served Komorowski the night of the accident.
Police investigators said in an affidavit that Komorowski “smelled of alcohol on his breath and face.” When the investigator asked him if he had anything to drink that night, Komorowski replied, “No, oh, I had two drinks, a beer and a drink.” Then she added, “Like tequila and pineapple.”
She said she was walking home when “something hit her,” the incident report states. Police found that she was driving in the opposite direction of her home.
Komorowski refused to take any field sobriety tests and demanded an attorney, the report said. The police tried to put her in the police car and take her back to the police station but she kept asking “why he was being arrested.”
The report said he refused to provide breath samples at the police station. The report said investigators obtained a warrant to extract two blood vials, which Folly Beach police sent to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division for testing.
A few weeks after the accident, Hutchinson Said “Good Morning America” That he does not remember the accident in which his wife died. but he said he remembers last words of his bride him before the accident.
He said, “The last thing I remember her saying was that she wished the night would never end.”
Faris Tanios And
Contributed to this report.