Drunk Driver Who Pled Responsible to Killing New Bride in Crash Asks for Diminished Sentence

Jamie Lee Komoroski, 26, was sentenced on December 2 to 25 years behind bars within the April 2023 accident that noticed Komoroski, touring 65 mph in a 25-mph zone, slam right into a golf cart carrying the newlywed couple, Samantha Miller and Aric Hutcherson, from their Folly Seashore wedding ceremony reception.

Additionally within the golf cart have been the groom’s brother-in-law and a nephew. All three males survived the crash with critical accidents. Miller, nonetheless in her wedding ceremony costume, died immediately.

Three days after her sentencing on two counts of felony DUI leading to nice bodily damage and one rely every of felony DUI leading to loss of life and reckless murder leading to loss of life, attorneys for Komoroski filed a petition to Ninth Judicial Circuit Decide Deadra L. Jefferson asking her to rethink her sentence.

After pleading responsible, Komoroski was sentenced to 25 years for the DUI leading to loss of life, 15 for every DUI leading to damage, and 10 for reckhless murder — with sentences to run concurrently.

On this newest courtroom submitting, Komoroski’s attorneys are calling this sentence “unwarranted and grossly disproportionate,” in response to Regulation & Crime. The paperwork state that comparable circumstances in “neighboring jurisdictions” carried sentences starting from 9 to 18 years, with some circumstances in that very same county seeing sentences so long as six years imprisonment.

The attorneys acknowledged that there have been 25-year sentences, however these solely on paper, with defendants finally serving anyplace between three and 18 years.

As famous by Komoroski’s attorneys, these are “essentially the most extreme penalty permitted by state legislation” for every rely. In addition they famous that in not one of the neighboring states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, or West Virgina does a drunk  driving incident resulting in loss of life lead to a sentence better than 20 years.

On the scene after the deadly accident, Komoroski allegedly refused a subject sobriety check, insisting she’d solely had one beer and a drink of tequila an hour earlier than, regardless of officers reporting she strongly smelled of alcohol.

She reportedly informed a witness on the scene she “did nothing unsuitable.” Her blood-alcohol content material when it was examined, after police obtained a warrant to attract blood, was nonetheless greater than 3 times the authorized restrict at that time.

In the end, although, Komoroski did plead responsible in courtroom.

“That is the worst choice I’ve ever made in my life, and it has affected the lives of so many. I’ll use the time to raised myself,” she informed the courtroom and Miller’s family members after admitting that she was a recovering alcoholic forward of her sentencing.

“I take full duty for the tragic consequence that my selections have made. I’ll carry this guilt with me for the remainder of my life.”

Of their movement, attorneys for Komoroski allege that the decide didn’t take into account mitigating elements when figuring out the defendant’s sentence, per Regulation & Crime:

• Lack of any felony historical past or any historical past of violence
• Unprotected pleas of responsible to spare the victim-family members from the issue of trial and save the State time and assets
• Absence of intent to trigger loss of life
• identified struggles with alcohol abuse, and remedial steps taken to deal with her dependancy
• real expressions of regret and remorse for her actions
• Historical past, character and rehabilitative potential
• No prior historical past of DUI or DUI-related offenses
• Full and unequivocal acceptance of duty for her actions

“The Court docket is required to equally take into account each aggravating and mitigating elements and, as evidenced by the utmost sentence issued towards Ms. Komoroski on every rely to which she pleaded, such balancing didn’t happen,” states the brand new submitting.

The protection argued that pleading responsible and saving State assets and time has at all times led to some sort of sentence credit score in comparable circumstances previous to Komoroski’s, suggesting that the better media protection seen in her case could have been an element on this sentence.

“These different circumstances probably didn’t garner the identical diploma of media consideration; nevertheless, the numerous media curiosity can’t function an aggravating issue justifying an extended sentence,” Komoroski’s attorneys argued of their submitting.