Now, Miller’s husband of only a few hours, Aric Hutchinson, will obtain greater than $1.3 million via a settlement reached Wednesday in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed weeks after the April 2023 marriage ceremony. A number of companies accused of serving the motive force, together with bars and a automotive rental firm, agreed to pay tens or tons of of hundreds of {dollars} to resolve claims of negligence, amongst different allegations.
The motive force, Jamie Lee Komoroski, and the companies had turned “a fairytale love story right into a fateful night time of unspeakable tragedy,” the lawsuit says. Komoroski is just not a celebration to the settlement.
An lawyer for Hutchinson didn’t reply to a request for remark Saturday. Attorneys representing the companies concerned within the settlement additionally didn’t reply to calls and emails.
Miller, 34, and Hutchinson had been a pair for about three years once they married in Folly Seaside, S.C., the place they lived. Hutchinson’s mom, Annette Hutchinson, wrote on a fundraising web page for Aric in Might 2023 that Miller “immediately match into our household” and “was every thing to my son.”
A couple of week after the pair met, Miller referred to as Annette her “future mother-in-law,” she wrote in one other submit.
Throughout the marriage ceremony ceremony, Hutchinson and Miller exchanged vows they’d written themselves and positioned rings on one another’s fingers. Then they danced at their reception, fed one another pineapple cake and celebrated with their friends on the seaside earlier than making their exit.
Photographs from the marriage confirmed Miller and Hutchinson holding palms and smiling, their faces “stuffed with all of the hope and promise of what would have been a really lovely life collectively,” in response to the lawsuit filed in Charleston County Circuit Court docket.
Because the couple exited via a line of sparklers, they paused for a kiss.
Miller was “the happiest ever” that day, her mom, Lisa Miller, instructed The Washington Submit final 12 months.
“To go from that to your daughter’s been killed — there was a variety of screaming and crying,” she stated. “It’s onerous to wrap your head round it.”
After the send-off, Samantha Miller and Hutchinson, alongside along with his nephew and brother-in-law, climbed right into a golf cart to go to their rental property for the night time. However a few block from the seaside, a automobile pushed by Komoroski hurtled towards them and slammed into the again of the cart, the lawsuit says.
Miller died on the scene. Hutchinson was critically injured, and the 2 others within the golf cart have been additionally damage.
“What started as, and may have remained, the happiest day of Sam’s and Aric’s lives led to a horrifying and unbelievably devastating, but altogether preventable, tragedy,” the lawsuit says.
Komoroski, then 25, had spent the hours earlier than the crash at a number of bars, the place she was served “regardless of being noticeably and visibly intoxicated,” the grievance alleges, including that her blood alcohol content material on the finish of the night time was greater than 3 times the authorized restrict.
Komoroski is charged with reckless murder, driving beneath the affect leading to dying and driving beneath the affect leading to nice bodily harm. She was launched on bail in March, court docket information present. Requested for touch upon the fees Saturday, an lawyer for her stated solely that the case was pending.
The settlement stipulates that Hutchinson will obtain funds from a few of the companies he sued. About one-third of the greater than $1.3 million will cowl attorneys’ charges.
Lisa Miller instructed The Submit final 12 months that as Samantha’s members of the family grieved, they have been attempting to recollect the marriage itself, which Samantha had deliberate in nice element. She had hoped that day could be good, her mom stated.
After the crash, Samantha’s older sister, Mandi Jenkins, stated her household needed to name consideration to the tragedies that drunken driving can create.
“Nobody ought to undergo this,” she stated. “And we’re going via it. That’s the fact; we are able to’t change it now. However perhaps we are able to make another person assume twice.”
Brittany Shammas contributed to this report.
