Now, Miller’s husband of just hours, Aric Hutchinson, will receive more than $1.3 million thanks to a settlement reached Wednesday in a wrongful death lawsuit filed weeks after the April 2023 wedding. Several businesses accused of servicing the driver, including bars and a rental car company, agreed to pay tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to resolve negligence claims, among other allegations.
The driver, Jamie Lee Komoroski, and the companies had turned “a fairytale love story into a fateful night of unspeakable tragedy,” the lawsuit says. Komoroski is not a party to the settlement.
An attorney for Hutchinson did not respond to a request for comment Saturday. Lawyers representing the companies involved in the settlement also did not respond to calls and emails.
Miller, 34 years old, and Hutchinson had been a couple for about three years when they married in Folly Beach, South Carolina, where they lived. Hutchinson’s mother, Annette Hutchinson, wrote on a fundraising page for Aric in May 2023 that Miller “immediately fit into our family” and “was my son’s everything.”
About a week after they met, Miller called Annette his “future mother-in-law,” she wrote in another post.
During the wedding ceremony, Hutchinson and Miller exchanged vows they had written themselves and put rings on each other’s fingers. Afterwards, they danced at their reception, feasted on pineapple cake and celebrated with their guests on the beach before heading out.
Photos from the wedding showed Miller and Hutchinson holding hands and smiling, their faces “filled with all the hope and promise of what would have been a truly beautiful life together,” according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. Circuit Court. Charleston County.
As the couple walked out through a row of sparklers, they stopped to kiss.
Miller was “the happiest ever” that day, her mother, Lisa Miller, told The Washington Post last year.
“Since that time your daughter was killed – there was a lot of screaming and crying,” she said. “It’s hard to understand that.”
After the goodbyes, Samantha Miller and Hutchinson, along with her nephew and brother-in-law, boarded a golf cart to drive to their rental property for the night. But about a block from the beach, a vehicle driven by Komoroski sped toward them and slammed into the back of the cart, according to the lawsuit.
Miller died instantly. Hutchinson was seriously injured and the two other people in the golf cart were also injured.
“What began as, and should have remained, the happiest day of Sam and Aric’s lives ended in a horrific and incredibly devastating, but entirely preventable, tragedy,” the lawsuit states.
Komoroski, then 25, had spent the hours before the accident in several bars, where she was served “despite being visibly intoxicated,” according to the complaint, adding that her blood alcohol level at by the end of the night was more than three times higher. the legal limit.
Komoroski is charged with reckless homicide, driving under the influence resulting in death and driving under the influence resulting in serious bodily injury. She was released on bond in March, according to court records. Asked on Saturday about the accusations against her, her lawyer simply replied that the case was ongoing.
The settlement states that Hutchinson will receive payments from some of the companies he sued. About a third of the more than $1.3 million will cover attorney fees.
Lisa Miller told The Post last year that while Samantha’s family members were grieving, they were trying to remember the wedding itself, which Samantha had planned in detail. She had hoped this day would be perfect, her mother said.
After the crash, Samantha’s older sister, Mandi Jenkins, said her family wanted to draw attention to the tragedies that drunk driving can create.
“No one should have to go through this,” she said. “And we are going through it. It is reality ; we can’t change it now. But maybe we can make someone else think twice.
Brittany Shammas contributed to this report.
News Source : www.washingtonpost.com
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