A former astronaut from Huntsville charged with murder for the deaths of two young girls in a vehicle crash admitted to drinking wine according to newly filed court documents in Tuscaloosa County.
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The victims are sisters: 11-year-old Niomi Deona James and 13-year-old Jayla Latrick Parler.
A passerby who stopped at the crash scene to help said Halsell attempted to take his vehicle, according to court documents. The one-time test pilot commanded three shuttle flights and served as pilot on two others, according to NASA.
Alabama Senior Trooper and a spokesman for the law enforcement agency, Reginal King, told AL.com that Halsell was charged with murder after the preliminary investigation showed that alcohol and speeding were factors in the crash.
Years before he would be charged in the murder of two young girls, James Halsell Jr. was a highly decorated astronaut who logged over 1,250 hours in space during his five space flights.
The officer wrote that Halsell appeared extremely intoxicated after the crash, which killed the girls early Monday. Parler was taken to DCH Regional Medical Center, where she was pronounced deceased.
The girls’ father, Pernell Deon James, 37, and another passenger, Shontel Latriva Cutts, 25, suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the crash.
Senior Trooper Reginal King told AL.com the accident happened at 2:50 a.m. Monday on USA 82 near the 65 mile marker, 10 miles east of Tuscaloosa.
Troopers who searched his hotel room said they found an empty bottle of wine and an empty 10-pack of sleeping pills. The description doesn’t say what happened next, but Halsell was still on the scene when officers arrived.
Halsell was booked into the Tuscaloosa County Jail and was released later after posting a $150,000 bond, Sgt. Alex Miles of the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Office said.
He later left NASA in 2006 for the aerospace industry.
Court and arrest documents are giving WHNT News 19 a deeper look into the arrest of James Halsell, Jr.
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He also led NASA’s return-to-flight planning team after space shuttle Columbia disintegrated during re-entry in 2003.
