Retired NASA astronaut charged with murder in DUI crash that killed 2 young sisters, Huntsville Times “James Donald Halsell Jr., a five-flight veteran who was selected by NASA in 1991 to become an astronaut, was arrested Monday in the deaths of Niomi Deona James, 11, and Jayla Latrice Parler, 13. The family had just picked up the girls from Texas for summer vacation with their father and were almost home […]