The claim is included in a state trooper’s description of the wreck that led to the arrest of five-time space shuttle flier James Halsell Jr. of Huntsville. Their father, Pernell Deon James and his girlfriend, Shontell Cutts, were injured. Authorities said James is expected to be released from the hospital Tuesday and Cutts is in fair condition.
Advertisement
James Donald Halsell Jr. was driving a rented Chrysler 200 when state troopers say he rear-ended a Ford Fiesta on Highway 82 during Monday’s crash.
A state trooper who wrote a court deposition for Halsell’s murder charge confirmed that alcohol was likely a factor in the auto crash, reports the Guardian.
A former astronaut who flew on five shuttle missions is facing a murder charge after he was involved in a vehicle crash that killed two young sisters, reports say.
“Halsell’s speech was slurred, eyes were dilated, clothes disheveled and he was unstable on his feet and smelled of alcohol”, the trooper wrote in the court deposition. “Halsell admitted to drinking three glasses of wine earlier in the evening”.
Halsell, whom police detained at the crash scene, said he didn’t remember leaving the motel or how the crash happened, according to the court documents.
The incident happened on Monday morning near Tuscaloosa. According to NASA’s website, Halsell also helped to construct the International Space Station.
Police arrested Halsell under suspicion of driving while intoxicated. Halsell retired from the Air Force in July 2004, and retired from NASA in November 2006 to accept a position with ATK Launch Systems.
James told investigators he was driving about 65 miles per hour on USA 82 when a auto traveling “at a very high rate of speed” struck his Ford Fiesta from the rear, crushing the Ford and sending it tumbling across the road, the court document states.
Advertisement
Halsell, 59, is free on $150,000 bond. He piloted the shuttle Atlantis on its STS-74 flight in 1995, then commanded three shuttle missions: the STS-83 and STS-94 flights of Columbia in 1997 and the STS-101 mission of Atlantis in 2000.
