So, the girls are in the backseat, probably asleep, they were young, and Jim approaches Parnell’s vehicle from behind at a rate much faster than the speed limit. He collides with the family’s bumper, crushing the rear of the car, sending them across the left lane into the grassy median, where Parnell’s car rolls, twice, and the centrifugal force ejects both girls from the back windows. They were not wearing seat belts (which is a crime for underaged people in Alabama, so remember this, it will play a big part of the coming months). They have braids and they smile in their Facebook photos. The car continues to roll and comes to a stop in the left lane of the 82 westbound at the 65 mile marker, where Parnell and Shontel land in their seats, traumatized and covered in broken glass.

The family was twenty minutes from home. The girls were twenty minutes from their grandmother.

The first eye-witness arrives within ten minutes and calls 911. His name is Juan Jose Gomez Ibarra and he was driving a truck to his construction job before the sun came up. Jim Halsell’s car is on fire, eventually it burns to a shell, but it probably helped to light the area as Juan arrived. Speaking to the Houston Chronicle, Juan said: “I stopped to help the people in that car”. He finds Jayla first, the older sister, in the grass of the median.

Juan is a stranger, someone who just happened to be the first arriver, a man who is not trained in helping people, and English is his second language. He says, “I tried to talk to her and keep talking to her — She was moaning and in pain.” He said he also found Niomi: “She wasn’t moving — nothing. I feel bad for her,” Juan says, “That’s when the father starts stirring looking for his daughters.” Parnell had gotten out of the car. “He was looking for his little girls. He was confused. His face, it was bleeding-”

Then Juan walks to Jim Halsell. He says, “I tried to help him — He never said nothing.”

In the next few minutes, Jim leaves his car and climbs into Juan’s truck in an attempt to steal it to flee the crime scene. Juan said, “When I saw that, I ran and took the keys and locked my truck — I pushed him.”

Police arrive at 3:14 AM. Niomi was pronounced dead at the scene and her sister Jayla was taken to the DCH regional medical center where she was pronounced dead.

Parnell’s Ford Fiesta, June 6th.

According to the police report, Halsell smells of alcohol at the crime scene, his pupils are dilated, he has slurred, incoherent speech and until about 5AM he is making nonsensical statements, bouncing around and telling the police that he is “very intoxicated”. When his mind is clearer, he says that his memory isn’t complete, he does not remember leaving his motel room, he does not remember or believe that he caused an accident, so much so, that he asks the police to show him the bodies of Jayla and Niomi. The police probably did not fulfill that request, as Jayla would have already been taken to the hospital.

A spokesperson for the Alabama State Troopers, said that “alcohol” and “speed” may have been factors in the crash, but there is no clarification as to whether he meant Jim’s fast velocity, or an amphetamine, which is also often called “speed”.

When the police return to the Motel 6, they find an empty bottle of wine along with a packet of 10 (probably over the counter) missing sleeping pills.

Jim Halsell is charged, officially, with two counts of Murder, on June 6th, 2016 in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama.

He pleaded not guilty.

Jim’s Alabama Mugshot, June 6th, 2016.

Now: these events took place for a million tiny reasons, the most obvious being that a man decided to get behind the wheel of a car when he was intoxicated, but this is business as usual in America: a man gets drunk and causes two fatalities on a highway. These stories have become so commonplace that unless we’re directly involved with the families we don’t see much importance or grandeur to it.

Well this case is different, or maybe it isn’t: but Colonel Jim Halsell is an American Hero (many times over), who does not seem to have a malicious bone in his body. He is one of the most seasoned Astronauts in NASA’s history, having been sent up on five separate shuttle missions, he’s worked for the companies of multi-billionaires to ensure the future of space flight, and he is one of the most proficient pilots in modern human history. Jim Halsell, the defendant in this Alabama double murder case, is one of less than 540 members of our species to have seen the Earth from afar with his own two eyes.