The driver accused of a tragic collision that claimed the life of a newlywed bride and injured her groom, after her speeding vehicle struck their golf cart, has waived her initial lawsuit appearance.
Jamie Lee Komoroski faces charges including three counts of driving under the influence causing bodily injury or death, and one count of reckless homicide with a vehicle, stemming from the incident on April 28.
The 25-year-old, who was found to be three times over the legal alcohol limit, is responsible for the tragic death of 34-year-old Samantha Hutchinson in Folly Beach, South Carolina. Hutchinson and her 36-year-old husband Aric were leaving their wedding reception in a golf cart when the incident occurred.
The drunk driving charge against Komoroski carries a maximum sentence of 15 years, and the vehicular homicide charge could result in up to an additional 10 years.
Charleston court officials have said so News 2 that since Komoroski has a lawyer, she was exempt from her first trial scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday.
Samantha Hutchinson, 34, was killed in the crash while her husband Aric was injured as they returned from their wedding reception in Folly Beach, South Carolina
Jamie Lee Komoroski, aged 25, is shown in a police mugshot taken after the fatal accident last month, where she was involved in the death of a bride on her wedding night.
The couple’s mutilated golf cart is photographed after the crash. The cart rolled several times and was thrown 100 yards by Komoroski’s Toyota Camry
Nothing has been said yet about what would be discussed at Komoroski’s first appearance.
Komoroski has been held without bail at the Charleston County Detention Center since the morning of April 29, 2023.
Her lawyers Gramiccioni and Nathan Williams have filed a motion asking for a $100,000 bail, suggesting she complete rehab before going to her mother’s home in New Jersey, where there is no access to alcohol or a vehicle.
It has been reported that Komoroski received special treatment at the Charleston County Jail.
She received a personal visit from her family — a privilege not normally granted to inmates — who were organized by Charleston County Sheriff Kristin Graziano, according to prison call recordings obtained by the Post and Courier.
Two days after the crash, she exclaimed on the phone to her parents, “Oh my God. I just can’t believe this happened to me. … Why me? … I’ll stay here for years and years and years and years.’
“I can’t believe this is my life… my whole life will be over,” she added.
According to Live 5 News, the sheriff’s office declined further requests for calls from the woman charged in the fatal accident.
Weeks after the sheriff’s office provided the recordings to the paper, they said after the initial release, “lawyers and other interested” parties were concerned that similar releases would “interfere with the administration of justice,” according to Live 5 News.
Komoroski’s blood alcohol level was 0.261, three times over the limit on the night of April 28, and he reportedly told officers in the aftermath of the crash, “Suddenly something hit me.” I didn’t do anything wrong.’
In excerpts of recorded prison visits from relatives obtained and published by the Post and Courier, Komoroski is shown crying and wailing “why me?” filled with apparent self-pity and saying her life is over
Two minutes after the gold cart is seen on camera, a car driven by Komoroski, age 25, rushes past
Surveillance footage of the road on which the accident occurred, obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com, shows the golf cart carrying the bride and groom and two other family members slowly passing by
Driving a rented Toyota Camry, Komoroski was traveling at 105 mph in a 25 mph zone around 10 p.m., along a dimly lit residential street on East Ashley Avenue.
Komoroski ended a golf cart carrying the bride and groom, throwing it 100 yards and flipping over several times, killing Hutchinson and seriously injuring her new husband.
A wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of the groom, Aric Hutchinson, alleges that Komoroski was heavily intoxicated when they hit the rear of their golf cart at high speed on Folly Beach.
DailyMail.com followed Jamie Lee Komoroski’s steps from bar to bar on the day that ended in the drunken accident that killed bride Samantha Hutchinson
Komoroski stopped by the Crab Shack (pictured) while intoxicated, according to the wrongful death lawsuit filed by Aric Hutchinson against multiple parties, including Komoroski, 25, and the bars that served her, a “booze-filled day of bar hopping” that preceded the horrific tragedy
Snapper Jacks, on the corner of Center Street and West Ashley Avenue, is the last place Komoroski drank that night
According to husband Aric Hutchinson’s lawsuit, Komoroski went ahead and kept drinking all day.
She “slurped and staggered her way through each of these bars,” drinking beer, tequila shots, and “shift shots” of liquor on the house until she was “gross and dangerous drunkenness” by the end of the night .
In the bail application from Komoroski’s lawyers, they presented her as a troubled girl who became dependent on alcohol to cope with a years-long battle with depression and anxiety.
They portray her as a woman haunted by anxiety who is willing to undergo much-needed rehabilitation and work to address the underlying issues of dependency, depression, and anxiety that took such a tragic turn.
The reports suggest that Komoroski has been grappling with these issues since her time at Coastal Carolina University, where she began her studies in 2020.
During her university years, she reportedly turned to alcohol as a means to manage loneliness, stress, and severe anxiety, which at that time went untreated. Over the recent months, her anxiety has significantly worsened. In the past year, she has actively sought treatment for her severe anxiety and depression.”
In a strange twist, it emerged last week that Komoroski’s mother Traci was also once involved in a fatal car accident
According to the band movement, she now suffers from facial tics “caused by increasing and unabated anxiety.”
If she is released on bail, her lawyers say she would stay with her mother, Traci, in her home state of New Jersey.
In a strange twist, it has also emerged that Traci, too, was once involved in a fatal car accident.
In 2013, Komoroski’s 62-year-old mother killed Jeffery Scheuerer, director of the wildland fire department, when she couldn’t see him because of the heavy smoke as he fought a fire in Clinton Township, New Jersey.
It was deemed a ‘tragic accident’ as a sudden wind shift obscured his fire engine, which partially blocked a traffic lane, and his flashing lights. No charges were filed.