CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It’s been five months since police say a drunken driver killed a Charlotte bride just hours after exchanging vows in Folly Beach, South Carolina.
Jamie Lee Komoroski, 25, is charged with reckless homicide in the death of 34-year-old Samantha Miller and three counts of felony DUI in the April 28 crash with the newlywed couple’s vehicle as they were leaving the venue. A judge denied Komoroski bond in August, calling Komoroski a potential flight risk and a danger to the public.
While Komoroski’s trial has not started yet, Miller's mother is finding ways to bring the community together to honor her daughter through fitness.
Miller used to stay active to help ease her anxiety, and it has since been a practice her mother, Lisa Miller, has picked up.
“Working out was definitely a big part of Sam's life,” Lisa Miller said.
Staying active is another way Lisa Miller remembers and honors her daughter.
“Since the whole situation has happened with Sam, I’m not going to say accident, but the incident, this has been the only way that I've been able to be OK," Lisa Miller said. "I've got to make sure that I work out in the morning and probably go for a long walk as well, and then I'm feeling OK and more able to handle what's going on."
Lisa Miller hopes that through health and physical fitness, others can remember who Samantha Miller was as a person, rather than focus on what happened to her.
“She just liked to live life to the max, you know, like boating with friends and working out and going to festivals and more so than anything, hanging out with family. What she did most of the time was just make people feel better, and she always wanted everybody to be happy and never be sad,” Lisa Miller said.
She has partnered with ISI Elite Training and Mothers Against Drunk Driving to host a workout class and raise money to prevent drunken drivers from getting behind the wheel.
“I think that Sam would be really proud, as she always was, that this is the way I live my life but also the fact that we got really involved with MADD and want to continue to help with events as needed and keep raising money to make people more aware that we need to stop these drunk drivers from killing our children,” Lisa Miller said.
She hopes people can continue to love the way Samantha Miller did.
“I hope that what people take away from the way Sam lived her life is to use her as an example and go out of your way to make people feel good, loved, cared about and better about themselves than tearing people down,” Lisa Miller said.
The Samantha Miller Memorial Workout will be held on Saturday at the ISI Elite Ballantyne location. You can learn more here.