MARCH 9, 2015
JESUP, GEORGIA
The director of a Gregg Allman biographical movie plead
guilty in court Monday in the death of young woman during the film’s
production.
The director of a movie about musician Gregg Allman has
pleaded guilty in a train crash that killed a camera assistant and injured six
film workers.
Director Randall Miller pleaded guilty Monday to involuntary
manslaughter and criminal trespassing as part of a plea deal.
Under the deal, he will spend two years in the county jail
and another eight on probation, and pay a $20,000 fine.
Also, prosecutors agreed to drop charges against his wife
and business partner, Jody Savin.
It wasn't clear what would happen to charges against a third
defendant, executive producer Jay Sedrish. He previously pleaded not guilty. He
faces up to 11 years in prison if convicted.
In the crash a year ago, a freight train traveling 55 mph
plowed into the director's crew on a railroad bridge.
The case is a rare example of filmmakers being prosecuted
for deaths on their sets.
CSX Transportation, the railroad company that owns the
bridge where the crash occurred, has said it twice denied the filmmakers
permission to shoot footage on its tracks in rural southeast Georgia. Under
state law, someone can be convicted of involuntary manslaughter for committing
a misdemeanor -- in this case trespassing -- that unintentionally causes
another person to be killed.
It was the first day of shooting on "Midnight
Rider" when Miller and his crew stepped onto the railroad bridge spanning
the Altamaha River on Feb. 20, 2014. Actor William Hurt was on the set in his
role as the Allman Brothers Band singer in his later years. A metal-framed bed
was pulled across the tracks as a prop. When the train struck, it smashed the
bed and hurled metal fragments at the fleeing crew.
The train struck and killed Jones, a young camera assistant
from Atlanta who had worked on TV series including "Army Wives" and
"The Vampire Diaries." Her death galvanized behind-the-scenes film
workers nationwide to push for improved safety standards on sets.
A sobbing Miller called Jones' parents to tell them she was
dead. The director, whose previous films included "Bottle Shock" and
"CBGB," testified last May in a related civil case that he had been
told only two trains a day crossed the bridge and he only set out with his crew
onto the trestle after a pair of trains had passed. Asked if the crew had
obtained permission from the railroad to film on its tracks, Miller said that
wasn't his job. But he bristled at the suggestion he recklessly put his crew in
danger.
"I was in the middle of the track and I almost
died," Miller said in civil court May 12.
The "Midnight Rider" movie has been in limbo since
the crash. Allman sued Miller to prevent the director from reviving the film.
They settled out of court last year, and terms were not disclosed