JESUP, Ga. — An assistant director on an ill-fated Gregg Allman biographical movie will stand trial separately from three of her bosses charged in a deadly ramming by a train in southeast Georgia, prosecutors told a judge Thursday.
Midnight Rider director Randall Miller; his wife and business partner, Jody Savin; and executive producer Jay Sedrish are scheduled to face trial March 9 on charges of involuntary manslaughter and trespassing. They had just begun shooting the film on Feb. 20, 2014, when a freight train plowed into the crew on a railroad bridge spanning the Altamaha River. Camera assistant Sarah Jones, 27, was killed, and six others were injured.
A fourth filmmaker, assistant director Hillary Schwartz, was indicted on the same charges. But prosecutors have agreed to her request to be tried alone, District Attorney Jackie Johnson said.
“She has been severed from the trial of the remaining co-defendants,” Johnson told a Superior Court judge during a hearing Thursday. “She may be called as a witness” to testify against the others.