Tuscaloosa County Jail via The Tuscaloosa NewsJames Halsell Jr., shown in this undated mugshot, was charged with the murders of two girls killed in a traffic accident.According to Alabama news website AL.com, the girls were sisters who were traveling from Texas for summer vacation with their father when the crash occurred.
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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.
Halsell flew on five space shuttle missions, commanding three and piloting two.
The victims are sisters: 11-year-old Niomi Deona James and 13-year-old Jayla Latrick Parler.
Alcohol and speed are possible factors in the crash, according to Reginal King of the Alabama State Troopers.
Police arrested Halsell under suspicion of driving while intoxicated. He was subsequently arrested and released on a $150,000 bail. Another passenger identified as Shontel Latriva Cutts, 25, was listed in fair condition.
The crash happened around 2:50 a.m. on Monday, June 6 on USA 82 southeast of Duncanville, near Midway Drive and Lake Payne Road. A witness reportedly told investigators that Halsell attempted to leave the scene and that his speech was slurred, he was unstable and he smelled of alcohol.
An online biography by NASA said Halsell went to work in the aerospace industry in 2006 after a career that included five shuttle flights starting in 1994.
Neither girl was wearing a seatbelt and they were thrown from the vehicle.
Halsell graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1978 and later finished first in his class at test-pilot school.
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After the space shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, Halsell helped lead NASA’s return-to-flight effort. The girls were from Houston, TX and were visiting their father in Bibb County, according to Brent Mayor Dennis Stripling.
