Lawyer John Henry Browne on Afghan killings suspect Robert Bales: Was ‘the last tour was too much for someone with a ...

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A defense lawyer for Staff Sgt. Robert Bales said Monday he expects his client to be charged in the murder of 16 Afghans on Thursday. Going into his first face-to-face meetings with Bales, Seattle attorney John Henry Browne said he expected military prosecutors to issue the most severe charges against his client, a 38-year-old career Army soldier and married father of two. And he suggested that the defense may try to argue that Bales should never have been sent to Afghanistan with a concussive brain injury in the first place.

"We know what they are going to say—it's something really bad," Browne told Bloomberg News' David Mildenberg in an interview Monday in Lansing, Kan., near the Fort Leavenworth base where Bales has been held since Friday. The accused staff sergeant is currently residing in a private cell in the military base's medium-security prison.

[Related: Staff Sgt. Robert Bales - what we know so far]

Reports that Bales' family had been suffering financial difficulties and other strains associated with his repeated absences due to three tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan were not relevant, Browne said. He also disputed reported accounts from unnamed military officials that alcohol and marital strains may have been a factor leading up to Bales' alleged March 11 house-to-house shooting rampage, which left nine children dead.

"Everyone has had issues in their lives," Browne told Bloomberg. "Some people do six or seven tours, but the question is whether the last tour was too much for someone with a concussive brain injury."

Daniel Conway, a military lawyer who represented another U.S. soldier charged in 2010 with killing Afghan civilians and also from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, told Yahoo News Monday that a military jury is not likely to be sympathetic to a defense that argues Bales suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and was sent on too many deployments.

"Good luck trying to convince a military jury with a PTSD defense," Conway told Yahoo News in a telephone interview Monday. "A lot of them have multiple family stresses. It will be difficult to convince them that kind of defense" is legitimate.

What Browne is probably trying to do is not argue for a complete acquittal of Bales, Conway said, but instead work to ratchet down the charges. A full acquittal would require that Browne convince a military jury that his client "was unable to perceive the wrongfulness of his or her acts," Conway explained. "That's a tough hurdle."

More likely, Bales' defense will argue that his client's acts "were not premeditated," Conway said. That could possibly expose him to lesser offenses, such as second-degree murder or even manslaughter.

Such mental health determinations "are very relevant" in terms of determining whether Bales faces the death penalty for his alleged acts, Conway said.

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"Always positive": Neighbors, army colleagues describe Bales

As his legal preparations get under way, military colleagues and neighbors who knew Bales are still reeling from the shock that he is the suspect in the Afghanistan massacre.

Originally from the Cincinnati suburb of Norwood, "Bobby" Bales, the youngest of five sons, was described by neighbors as a well-liked, popular and kind extrovert, a high-school football player who looked out for an autistic child up the street, the New York Times' James Dao reported Monday.

"Mr. Bales was a gregarious, chatty, engaged teenager who played football and threw himself into an array of clubs and activities, including theater," Dao wrote, citing Bales' Norwood High School principal David Griffel: "He's one of those kids you remember: a real extrovert."

Army colleagues in Washington state who served with him in Iraq similarly described a sunny Bales to reporters, using words like "solid," and offering up photos of him wearing a broad grin.

Bales was "a really good" soldier and "one of those guys who was always positive," Maj. Brent Clemmer told NPR's Martin Kaste on Sunday. Clemmer nominated Bales to receive a medal for valor for his conduct in the battle of Najaf in 2007, but he did not receive it, Kaste reported, noting that Bales did get awards for good conduct.

But there may have been signs that things became harder for Bales after his third Iraq tour, in which he suffered a brain concussion when his vehicle hit an IED. On that tour, he also lost part of a foot in another incident.

[Related: Hidden perils of traumatic brain injuries]

"I've talked to people who have done both Iraq and Afghanistan, and they say they'd pick Iraq any day of the week because Afghanistan is just so brutal," Bales' former platoon leader in Iraq, Capt. Chris Alexander, told NPR's Kaste.

Bales' attorney Browne previously said that Bales and his family were unhappy about his most recent deployment to Afghanistan, which he began in December.

The surprise combat tour came after a series of other setbacks and disappointments for Bales and his family related to his Army career over the past year.

In a blog that Bales' wife, Karilyn Bales, kept of family life, which the New York Times reported on, she wrote last year about their disappointment that Bales had not received a promotion to sergeant first class, which would have come with a pay increase of about $350 per month. But she tried to see the bright side, saying maybe it would free the family to relocate to a new military base where they could have adventures and more control over their lives (and fewer combat deployments). On her list of preferred destinations, the Times reported: Germany ("best adventure opportunity!"), Italy, Hawaii ("nuff said!) and Kentucky, near her husband's family in southern Ohio.

That was her last entry, in a blog called the Bales' Family Adventures, which has since been removed.

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Lawyer on Bales: 'There may be explanations'

Washington (CNN) -- A lawyer for Sgt. Robert Bales said Tuesday "there may be explanations" for the alleged shooting this month by his client of 16 Afghan civilians, but -- even if that is what happened -- the government will have a difficult time making its case.

"I don't know if the government is going to prove much," lead attorney John Henry Browne told CNN about the shootings of nine children, three women and four men in a village in southern Afghanistan. "There's no forensic evidence, there's no confessions."

He added, "Nothing really justifies killing women and children in a noncombat situation. But there may be explanations if that's true. And right now I want to say once again, I'm not sure that's true."

Bales, who had served three tours of duty in Iraq before being sent to Afghanistan, may have been suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, Brown said. Bales suffered a traumatic brain injury during a roadside bomb explosion and lost part of his foot in separate tours in Iraq, his attorney has said. "Anybody that has seen what he's seen and done what he's done at the request of the military -- and I'm not talking about these allegations -- I think would have PTSD ... Dragging parts of bodies around is not something you forget very often."

He said he expects his client to be charged on Thursday, probably with "homicide and a bunch of other charges," and predicted that the case would last two years.

But Browne denied that money woes could have led to Bales' alleged conduct.

"Sure, there's financial problems," Browne continued. "I have financial problems, 99% of America has financial problems. You don't go and kill women and children because you have financial problems."

Browne also denied that the soldier was drunk at the time of the shootings. "A couple of sips of somebody else's bottle," he said. "But that's not drinking."

He said he had met with Bales had met with three of his lawyers, including Browne, for 11 hours and that Bales was in shock and doesn't remember what happened. "That's common with concussive injuries," he said. 'You remember certain things; you don't remember other things."

The attorney said he will not pursue an insanity defense for his client, but one of diminished capacity, CBS reported.

The military will also conduct a separate investigation into the circumstances surrounding Bales' assignment to the combat outpost in southern Afghanistan, the top commander for U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan said Tuesday.

The administrative review, which will take place separately from the criminal investigation, will be conducted by U.S. Forces Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen told the House Armed Services Committee.

The investigation will consider how Bales was assigned and why he was assigned to the combat outpost, Allen said. "It will look at the command relationships associated with his involvement in that combat outpost," Allen said.

"He's a soldier's soldier," defense lawyer Browne said. "He didn't particularly want to go over there, and he could have used reasons not to, but he did as he was told."

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Bales, who is being held at the U.S. military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, stands accused in the killings in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province, allegations that have strained already tense U.S.-Afghan relations and intensified a debate about whether to pull American troops ahead of their planned 2014 withdrawal.

After the shootings, which took place in two neighboring villages just outside a U.S. outpost in the Panjwai district, Afghan President Hamid Karzai demanded troops withdraw from villages and return to their bases. He said relations between the two countries were "at the end of their rope."

Afghans are insisting that the suspect be returned to Afghanistan to face trial, even as villagers and lawmakers question the U.S. military's account of what happened.

U.S. officials have alleged Bales left his outpost alone and carried out the killings in the villages alone.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has promised Karzai a full investigation and said the United States will bring the shooter to justice.

The trial will be held in the United States, though the location has not been decided, a U.S. Forces Afghanistan legal expert told reporters Sunday. "We will develop charges hopefully within the next week," said the expert, who would not speculate on what they might be.

Discussions are under way for the United States to compensate relatives of the victims, the expert added.

The government of Afghanistan will not be present in the court, the expert said in response to a question, but some Afghans may be taken to the United States for Bales' trial.

Accounts from the military, Bales' family, friends and neighbors paint a portrait of a man who bore scars from wounds he received during three previous combat tours to Iraq but remained committed to serving his country, and deployed to Afghanistan in January.

CNN's Michael Martinez in Los Angeles, Sara Sidner in Kabul, Afghanistan; Paul Vercammen in Auburn, Washington and Bill Kirkos contributed to this report.

updated 1:20 PM EDT, Tue March 20, 2012 An Army soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians was not drunk but doesn't remember what happened and is in shock, his lawyer said.updated 6:46 AM EDT, Tue March 20, 2012 CNN's Dan Simon has new details about alleged killer Staff Sgt. Robert. Bales' financial troubles and his prior arrest. updated 1:47 PM EDT, Mon March 19, 2012 CNN's Suzanne Malveaux talks with Dean Obeidallah, who wrote an op-ed on the Afghan Massacre Victims updated 8:35 AM EDT, Mon March 19, 2012 Video: Afghan President Hamid Karzai cast doubt on the U.S. account of a shooting rampage after meeting with the families of victims.updated 1:20 PM EDT, Tue March 20, 2012 A retired U.S. general suggested the fallout from the massacre could lead to American troops' beginning to return home within weeks.updated 8:22 PM EDT, Mon March 19, 2012 Shocked friends of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales say he was passionately committed to serving his country and cared deeply for others.updated 9:48 PM EDT, Sun March 18, 2012 Video: Witnesses offer accounts of the massacre in Kandahar; Taliban tells why it suspended peace talks. Sara Sidner reports.updated 11:00 AM EDT, Mon March 19, 2012 Video: CNN's Dan Simon visits the former U.S. home of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales to learn more about the accused shooter.updated 8:44 PM EDT, Fri March 16, 2012 The attorney representing Staff Sgt. Robert Bales is a pugnacious trial lawyer who doesn't shy from the hardest cases.updated 11:58 PM EDT, Thu March 15, 2012 A lack of information heightens speculation about the suspect and his mental condition. What soldier could commit such a heinous act?updated 1:38 PM EDT, Thu March 15, 2012 Video: Afghan President Hamid Karzai urges U.S. troops to pull out of Afghan outposts in the wake of the massacre.updated 4:17 PM EDT, Thu March 15, 2012 The alleged murder of 16 Afghan civilians could spur retaliatory violence in the United States, The FBI and Department of Homeland Security warned.Most popular stories right now

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Lawyer: ' Bales can be in the form of explanatory notes '

Washington (CNN) -- A lawyer for Sgt. Robert Bales said Tuesday "there may be explanations" for the alleged shooting this month by his client of 16 Afghan civilians, but -- even if that is what happened -- the government will have a difficult time making its case.

"I don't know if the government is going to prove much," lead attorney John Henry Browne told CNN about the shootings of nine children, three women and four men in a village in southern Afghanistan. "There's no forensic evidence, there's no confessions."

He added, "Nothing really justifies killing women and children in a noncombat situation. But there may be explanations if that's true. And right now I want to say once again, I'm not sure that's true."

Bales, who had served three tours of duty in Iraq before being sent to Afghanistan, may have been suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, Brown said. Bales suffered a traumatic brain injury during a roadside bomb explosion and lost part of his foot in separate tours in Iraq, his attorney has said. "Anybody that has seen what he's seen and done what he's done at the request of the military -- and I'm not talking about these allegations -- I think would have PTSD ... Dragging parts of bodies around is not something you forget very often."

He said he expects his client to be charged on Thursday, probably with "homicide and a bunch of other charges," and predicted that the case would last two years.

But Browne denied that money woes could have led to Bales' alleged conduct.

"Sure, there's financial problems," Browne continued. "I have financial problems, 99% of America has financial problems. You don't go and kill women and children because you have financial problems."

Browne also denied that the soldier was drunk at the time of the shootings. "A couple of sips of somebody else's bottle," he said. "But that's not drinking."

He said he had met with Bales had met with three of his lawyers, including Browne, for 11 hours and that Bales was in shock and doesn't remember what happened. "That's common with concussive injuries," he said. 'You remember certain things; you don't remember other things."

The attorney said he will not pursue an insanity defense for his client, but one of diminished capacity, CBS reported.

The military will also conduct a separate investigation into the circumstances surrounding Bales' assignment to the combat outpost in southern Afghanistan, the top commander for U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan said Tuesday.

The administrative review, which will take place separately from the criminal investigation, will be conducted by U.S. Forces Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen told the House Armed Services Committee.

The investigation will consider how Bales was assigned and why he was assigned to the combat outpost, Allen said. "It will look at the command relationships associated with his involvement in that combat outpost," Allen said.

"He's a soldier's soldier," defense lawyer Browne said. "He didn't particularly want to go over there, and he could have used reasons not to, but he did as he was told."

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Bales, who is being held at the U.S. military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, stands accused in the killings in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province, allegations that have strained already tense U.S.-Afghan relations and intensified a debate about whether to pull American troops ahead of their planned 2014 withdrawal.

After the shootings, which took place in two neighboring villages just outside a U.S. outpost in the Panjwai district, Afghan President Hamid Karzai demanded troops withdraw from villages and return to their bases. He said relations between the two countries were "at the end of their rope."

Afghans are insisting that the suspect be returned to Afghanistan to face trial, even as villagers and lawmakers question the U.S. military's account of what happened.

U.S. officials have alleged Bales left his outpost alone and carried out the killings in the villages alone.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has promised Karzai a full investigation and said the United States will bring the shooter to justice.

The trial will be held in the United States, though the location has not been decided, a U.S. Forces Afghanistan legal expert told reporters Sunday. "We will develop charges hopefully within the next week," said the expert, who would not speculate on what they might be.

Discussions are under way for the United States to compensate relatives of the victims, the expert added.

The government of Afghanistan will not be present in the court, the expert said in response to a question, but some Afghans may be taken to the United States for Bales' trial.

Accounts from the military, Bales' family, friends and neighbors paint a portrait of a man who bore scars from wounds he received during three previous combat tours to Iraq but remained committed to serving his country, and deployed to Afghanistan in January.

CNN's Michael Martinez in Los Angeles, Sara Sidner in Kabul, Afghanistan; Paul Vercammen in Auburn, Washington and Bill Kirkos contributed to this report.

updated 1:20 PM EDT, Tue March 20, 2012 An Army soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians was not drunk but doesn't remember what happened and is in shock, his lawyer said.updated 6:46 AM EDT, Tue March 20, 2012 CNN's Dan Simon has new details about alleged killer Staff Sgt. Robert. Bales' financial troubles and his prior arrest. updated 1:47 PM EDT, Mon March 19, 2012 CNN's Suzanne Malveaux talks with Dean Obeidallah, who wrote an op-ed on the Afghan Massacre Victims updated 8:35 AM EDT, Mon March 19, 2012 Video: Afghan President Hamid Karzai cast doubt on the U.S. account of a shooting rampage after meeting with the families of victims.updated 1:20 PM EDT, Tue March 20, 2012 A retired U.S. general suggested the fallout from the massacre could lead to American troops' beginning to return home within weeks.updated 8:22 PM EDT, Mon March 19, 2012 Shocked friends of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales say he was passionately committed to serving his country and cared deeply for others.updated 9:48 PM EDT, Sun March 18, 2012 Video: Witnesses offer accounts of the massacre in Kandahar; Taliban tells why it suspended peace talks. Sara Sidner reports.updated 11:00 AM EDT, Mon March 19, 2012 Video: CNN's Dan Simon visits the former U.S. home of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales to learn more about the accused shooter.updated 8:44 PM EDT, Fri March 16, 2012 The attorney representing Staff Sgt. Robert Bales is a pugnacious trial lawyer who doesn't shy from the hardest cases.updated 11:58 PM EDT, Thu March 15, 2012 A lack of information heightens speculation about the suspect and his mental condition. What soldier could commit such a heinous act?updated 1:38 PM EDT, Thu March 15, 2012 Video: Afghan President Hamid Karzai urges U.S. troops to pull out of Afghan outposts in the wake of the massacre.updated 4:17 PM EDT, Thu March 15, 2012 The alleged murder of 16 Afghan civilians could spur retaliatory violence in the United States, The FBI and Department of Homeland Security warned.Most popular stories right now

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Lawyer on Bales: 'There may be explanations' - CNN International

Washington (CNN) -- A lawyer for Sgt. Robert Bales said Tuesday "there may be explanations" for the alleged shooting this month by his client of 16 Afghan civilians, but -- even if that is what happened -- the government will have a difficult time making its case.

"I don't know if the government is going to prove much," lead attorney John Henry Browne told CNN about the shootings of nine children, three women and four men in a village in southern Afghanistan. "There's no forensic evidence, there's no confessions."

He added, "Nothing really justifies killing women and children in a noncombat situation. But there may be explanations if that's true. And right now I want to say once again, I'm not sure that's true."

Bales, who had served three tours of duty in Iraq before being sent to Afghanistan, may have been suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, Brown said. Bales suffered a traumatic brain injury during a roadside bomb explosion and lost part of his foot in separate tours in Iraq, his attorney has said. "Anybody that has seen what he's seen and done what he's done at the request of the military -- and I'm not talking about these allegations -- I think would have PTSD ... Dragging parts of bodies around is not something you forget very often."

He said he expects his client to be charged on Thursday, probably with "homicide and a bunch of other charges," and predicted that the case would last two years.

But Browne denied that money woes could have led to Bales' alleged conduct.

"Sure, there's financial problems," Browne continued. "I have financial problems, 99% of America has financial problems. You don't go and kill women and children because you have financial problems."

Browne also denied that the soldier was drunk at the time of the shootings. "A couple of sips of somebody else's bottle," he said. "But that's not drinking."

He said he had met with Bales had met with three of his lawyers, including Browne, for 11 hours and that Bales was in shock and doesn't remember what happened. "That's common with concussive injuries," he said. 'You remember certain things; you don't remember other things."

The attorney said he will not pursue an insanity defense for his client, but one of diminished capacity, CBS reported.

The military will also conduct a separate investigation into the circumstances surrounding Bales' assignment to the combat outpost in southern Afghanistan, the top commander for U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan said Tuesday.

The administrative review, which will take place separately from the criminal investigation, will be conducted by U.S. Forces Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen told the House Armed Services Committee.

The investigation will consider how Bales was assigned and why he was assigned to the combat outpost, Allen said. "It will look at the command relationships associated with his involvement in that combat outpost," Allen said.

"He's a soldier's soldier," defense lawyer Browne said. "He didn't particularly want to go over there, and he could have used reasons not to, but he did as he was told."

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var currExpandable="expand117";if(typeof CNN.expandableMap==='object'){CNN.expandableMap.push(currExpandable);}var mObj={};mObj.type='video';mObj.contentId='';mObj.source='world/2012/03/16/bts-karzai-afghanistan-shooting-reaction.cnn';mObj.lgImage="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/120319121627-bts-karzai-afghanistan-shooting-reaction-00000218-story-body.jpg";mObj.lgImageX=300;mObj.lgImageY=169;mObj.origImageX="214";mObj.origImageY="120";mObj.contentType='video';CNN.expElements.expand117Store=mObj;The official said the investigation will go beyond Bales' time in Afghanistan and will look at deployment decisions and training he received prior to arriving in that country.

Bales, who is being held at the U.S. military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, stands accused in the killings in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province, allegations that have strained already tense U.S.-Afghan relations and intensified a debate about whether to pull American troops ahead of their planned 2014 withdrawal.

After the shootings, which took place in two neighboring villages just outside a U.S. outpost in the Panjwai district, Afghan President Hamid Karzai demanded troops withdraw from villages and return to their bases. He said relations between the two countries were "at the end of their rope."

Afghans are insisting that the suspect be returned to Afghanistan to face trial, even as villagers and lawmakers question the U.S. military's account of what happened.

U.S. officials have alleged Bales left his outpost alone and carried out the killings in the villages alone.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has promised Karzai a full investigation and said the United States will bring the shooter to justice.

The trial will be held in the United States, though the location has not been decided, a U.S. Forces Afghanistan legal expert told reporters Sunday. "We will develop charges hopefully within the next week," said the expert, who would not speculate on what they might be.

Discussions are under way for the United States to compensate relatives of the victims, the expert added.

The government of Afghanistan will not be present in the court, the expert said in response to a question, but some Afghans may be taken to the United States for Bales' trial.

Accounts from the military, Bales' family, friends and neighbors paint a portrait of a man who bore scars from wounds he received during three previous combat tours to Iraq but remained committed to serving his country, and deployed to Afghanistan in January.

CNN's Michael Martinez in Los Angeles, Sara Sidner in Kabul, Afghanistan; Paul Vercammen in Auburn, Washington and Bill Kirkos contributed to this report.

updated 1:20 PM EDT, Tue March 20, 2012 An Army soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians was not drunk but doesn't remember what happened and is in shock, his lawyer said.updated 6:46 AM EDT, Tue March 20, 2012 CNN's Dan Simon has new details about alleged killer Staff Sgt. Robert. Bales' financial troubles and his prior arrest. updated 1:47 PM EDT, Mon March 19, 2012 CNN's Suzanne Malveaux talks with Dean Obeidallah, who wrote an op-ed on the Afghan Massacre Victims updated 8:35 AM EDT, Mon March 19, 2012 Video: Afghan President Hamid Karzai cast doubt on the U.S. account of a shooting rampage after meeting with the families of victims.updated 1:20 PM EDT, Tue March 20, 2012 A retired U.S. general suggested the fallout from the massacre could lead to American troops' beginning to return home within weeks.updated 8:22 PM EDT, Mon March 19, 2012 Shocked friends of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales say he was passionately committed to serving his country and cared deeply for others.updated 9:48 PM EDT, Sun March 18, 2012 Video: Witnesses offer accounts of the massacre in Kandahar; Taliban tells why it suspended peace talks. Sara Sidner reports.updated 11:00 AM EDT, Mon March 19, 2012 Video: CNN's Dan Simon visits the former U.S. home of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales to learn more about the accused shooter.updated 8:44 PM EDT, Fri March 16, 2012 The attorney representing Staff Sgt. Robert Bales is a pugnacious trial lawyer who doesn't shy from the hardest cases.updated 11:58 PM EDT, Thu March 15, 2012 A lack of information heightens speculation about the suspect and his mental condition. What soldier could commit such a heinous act?updated 1:38 PM EDT, Thu March 15, 2012 Video: Afghan President Hamid Karzai urges U.S. troops to pull out of Afghan outposts in the wake of the massacre.updated 4:17 PM EDT, Thu March 15, 2012 The alleged murder of 16 Afghan civilians could spur retaliatory violence in the United States, The FBI and Department of Homeland Security warned.Most popular stories right now

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Lawyer says Afghan killings suspect Staff Sgt. Bales remembers little - Fox News

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FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan – ?The lawyer for the Army staff sergeant accused of slaughtering 16 Afghan civilians in a nighttime shooting rampage met his client for the first time Monday and said the solider has a sketchy memory of the massacre.

Lawyer John Henry Browne said Robert Bales remembers some details from before and after the killings, but very little during the time the military believes on a killing spree through two Afghan villages.

"He has some memory of some things that happened that night. He has some memories of before the incident and he has some memories of after the incident. In between, very little," Browne told The Associated Press by telephone from Fort Leavenworth, where Bales is being held.

Pressed on whether Bales can remember anything at all about the shooting, Browne said, "I haven't gotten that far with him yet."

Bales, 38, has not been charged yet in the March 11 shootings, though charges could come this week. The killings sparked protests in Afghanistan, endangered relations between the two countries and threatened to upend American policy over the decade-old war.

Earlier Monday, Browne met with his client behind bars for the first time to begin building a defense and said the soldier gave a powerfully moving account of what it is like to be on the ground in Afghanistan.

Browne said he and Bales, who is being held in an isolated cell at the military prison, met for more than three hours in the morning at Fort Leavenworth. Browne, co-counsel Emma Scanlan and Bales were expected to talk again in the afternoon.

"What's going on on the ground in Afghanistan, you read about it. I read about it. But it's totally different when you hear about it from somebody who's been there," Browne told The Associated Press by telephone during a lunch break. "It's just really emotional."

Browne, a Seattle attorney who defended serial killer Ted Bundy and a thief known as the "Barefoot Bandit," has said he has handled three or four military cases. The defense team includes a military defense lawyer, Maj. Thomas Hurley.

At their meeting, Browne said Bales clarified a story, provided initially by the soldier's family, about the timing of a roadside bomb that blew off the leg of one of Bales' friends. It was two days before the shooting, not one, and Bales didn't see the explosion, just the aftermath, Browne said.

The details of the blast could not be immediately confirmed.

Military officials have said that Bales, after drinking on a southern Afghanistan base, crept away to two villages overnight, shooting his victims and setting many of them on fire. Nine of the dead were children and 11 belonged to one family.

Bales arrived at Fort Leavenworth last Friday and is being held in the same prison as other prominent defendants. Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is charged with leaking classified documents to the WikiLeaks website, has been held there on occasion as he awaited trial.

Bales is "already being integrated into the normal pretrial confinement routine," post spokeswoman Rebecca Steed said.

That includes recreation, meals and cleaning the area where he is living. Steed said once his meetings with his attorneys are complete later in the week, Bales will resume the normal integration process.

Bales' wife, Karilyn, offered her condolences to the victims' families Monday and said she wants to know what happened. She said her family and her in-laws are profoundly sad. She said what they've read and seen in news reports is "completely out of character of the man I know and admire."

"My family including my and Bob's extended families are all profoundly sad. We extend our condolences to all the people of the Panjawai District, our hearts go out too all of them, especially to the parents, brothers, sisters and grandparents of the children who perished," Karilyn Bales said in a statement.

Court records and interviews show that Bales had commendations for good conduct after four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He enlisted in the military after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

He also faced a number of troubles in recent years: A Florida investment job went sour, his Seattle-area home was condemned as he struggled to make payments on another, and he failed to get a recent promotion.

Legal troubles included charges that he assaulted a girlfriend and, in a hit-and-run accident, ran bleeding in military clothes into the woods, according to court records. He told police he fell asleep at the wheel and paid a fine to get the charges dismissed.

In March 1998, Bales was given a $65 citation for possessing alcohol at Daytona Beach, Fla. He did not pay the fine nor did he defend himself in court. A warrant was issued for his arrest, but it later expired.

If the case goes to court, the trial will be held in the U.S., said a legal expert with the U.S. military familiar with the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the case.

That expert said charges were still being decided and that the location for any trial had not yet been determined. If the suspect is brought to trial, it is possible that Afghan witnesses and victims would be flown to the U.S. to participate, he said.

After their investigation, military attorneys could draft charges and present them to a commander, who then makes a judgment on whether there is probable cause to believe that an offense was committed and that the accused committed it.

That commander then submits the charges to a convening authority, who typically is the commander of the brigade to which the accused is assigned but could be of higher rank.

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