Midnight Rider director Randall Miller denied early end of manslaughter probation

A Georgia appeals court has denied filmmaker Randall Miller’s request to end his probation early in his manslaughter case stemming from an on-set accident.

Miller, 60, will now have to serve another two years of probation, Variety reported on Saturday.

The filmmaker pleaded guilty in March 2015 after being charged following the death of camera assistant Sarah Jones, who was struck by a freight train while filming scenes on a railway bridge for Greg Allman’s biopic Midnight Rider.

He was sentenced to one year in jail followed by 10 years of probation.

The filmmaker has tried multiple times to modify the parole restrictions since his release in 2016.

His latest attempt to vacate the sentence came amid a new Georgia law that reduces probation for first-time offenders.

After Judge Anthony Harrison denied the request, the director’s legal team appealed the decision to the Georgia Court of Appeals, requesting that a new judge be assigned to the case.

Miller, who directed films including The Sixth Man, Class Act and Houseguest, was barred from directing films as part of his sentence.

The judge became very upset about Miller’s probation violation in 2019 when he made a movie titled Higher Grounds. Although the infraction was not enough to put him back in prison, the judge warned him not to direct any future films.

The filmmaker pleaded guilty in March 2015 after being charged following the death of camera assistant Sarah Jones (pictured), who was struck by a freight train while filming scenes on a railway bridge for the Greg biopic Allman Midnight Rider.

Miller, pictured with his wife, producer Jody Savin, in October 2013, was sentenced in 2015 to one year in prison followed by 10 years of probation.

The filmmaker and his legal team claimed the terms of his probation were unclear, as he believed he was allowed to direct movies as long as someone else provided on-set security supervision.

Miller told the court that he has had money problems as a result of the court case and the terms of his probation.

The decision came more than a year after the state probation agency asked the court to end Miller’s probation in September 2021, but the judge denied the agency’s request in January 2022, noting the “unique circumstances” of the case.

Miller’s attorney filed in March 2022 for an early termination of probation and requested a new judge, saying Harrison had shown bias against the principal.

After the judge denied the motion in April 2022, saying it did not present any new information, Miller’s attorney filed an appeal in May 2022.

The appeals court said Miller had to file an appeal within 30 days, which set a new date for January 7, without changing the judges.

The appeals court said that ‘because Miller failed to file a notice of appeal within 30 days of the entry of the appealable judgment against him, his appeal is time-barred.’

Miller’s case has been in the headlines of late after prosecutors in Santa Fe earlier this month charged Alec Baldwin and Hannah Gutierrez-Reed with manslaughter in the October 2021 death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during the production of the movie Rust.