A South Carolina woman accused of killing a bride and injuring a groom during a gruesome drunk driving crash allegedly claimed she only had a few drinks.
The driver, identified as 25-year-old Jamie Lee Komoroski, is accused of plowing into Samantha “Sam” Hutchinson, 34, and her husband, Aric Hutchinson, Friday night during a fatal crash in Folly Beach.
According to an arrest affidavit, the suspect was “uncooperative” with police and claimed she was not drunk and had a beer and one shot of tequila around an hour before the crash, NBC 2 reports. A responding officer, however, noted that Komoroski had trouble standing and smelled of alcohol.
Komoroski also “strongly refused” a field sobriety test. Police arrested her and subsequently obtained a blood test. The test results have not been revealed.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Samantha was pronounced dead shortly after 10 p.m. Friday night. She had just left her wedding reception in a golf cart with the groom when the alleged drunk driver in a car smashed into them in the 1200 block of E. Ashley Avenue.
The groom’s mother, Annette Hutchinson, said on a GoFundMe page that the bride and groom were “struck from behind by a drunk driver.”
“The golf cart was thrown over 100 yards and rolled several times.”
“On the beginning of the golf cart ride, she said I wished this night could go on forever. The best night of her life,” Sam’s sister, Mandi Jenkins, told ABC 4.
The bride and groom were only a few blocks away from home when tragedy struck. They were seated in the back of the cart with others in the front, who were also injured but are expected to be OK.
Jenkins said she was sitting on a balcony in her pajamas when she heard the nearby sirens.
“We were in our pajamas sitting on the balcony beside Bert’s at our place where we’re staying and started to hear the sirens. And the sirens kept going…We just went down to the scene. And we just got out of the truck and just running. Screaming ‘Sam, Sam.'”
Responding officers said they saw a grey Toyota Camry at the crash scene, with the side of the vehicle pushed up against the golf cart. Samantha had no pulse and wasn’t breathing when the officers arrived.
Two of the other victims were found with “open fractures and massive trauma to the body.” The suspect was the only person in the Camry and did not have any injuries, police said.
Police arrested Komoroski and charged her with DUI involving death and reckless homicide. She “only briefly hit the brakes” before hitting the golf cart, investigators said, according to the Times Union.
Folly Beach Public Safety Department Director Andrew Gilreath said that the golf cart was legal to drive and had its light on when struck.
Family members of the victims are now not only pushing for justice but for awareness of the dangers associated with drunk driving.
“That person made a careless mistake. And it’s not a mistake. It is a life-changing event,” Jenkins added.
Komoroski remains behind bars at the Charleston County jail, booked under suicide watch after she told an officer she wanted to take her own life.
Check back for updates.
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[Feature Photo via GoFundMe]
