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MINNEAPOLIS €” A Minneapolis SWAT officer who held up a suburban bank and
who is accused of robbing several other businesses was worried about his
wife and sick daughter, and tormented by nightmares from his time
fighting in Iraq, his attorney said in a court filing Friday.

Timothy Carson, 29, was so overwhelmed in the months before the January
bank robbery that he "just wanted to die," so he decided to commit a
robbery and end his life in a confrontation with police so his wife
could get a $250,000 insurance payout, according to the document filed
by federal defender Andrea George.

"His world was falling apart," she wrote.

Carson pleaded guilty in March to robbing the bank, and state
prosecutors have charged him in 12 other robberies or attempted
robberies that occurred in the days leading up to his arrest. Those
charges are pending.

In her filing, George asked U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz to give
Carson the minimum seven years in prison and five years supervised
release for his guilty plea on counts stemming from the bank robbery,
saying he was under a tremendous amount of stress and needs
psychological treatment, not a lengthy prison sentence.

Prosecutors are seeking a sentence ranging from nine-and-a-half years to
just over 10 years, according to the plea agreement filed in March.

Carson's family members, including his wife, declined to be interviewed
for this story. But George's leniency request depicts a man who was
tormented, and saw no way out.

Carson entered the Wells Fargo bank in Apple Valley shortly after it
opened Jan. 6, jumped on the counter while wearing a mask, pointed a gun
at the frightened tellers and made off with $4,580 before heading to
work at the police department. He arrived an hour late for his 9 a.m. shift.

Shortly before the robbery, he was pulled over for driving without a
front license plate on his way to the bank. The Apple Valley police
officer checked Carson's police ID and driver's license and let him go.
But authorities connected the dots after spotting Carson's car in the
area again after the robbery. Carson was arrested later that day.

According to the psychiatric evaluation cited in George's position
papers, Carson recalled feeling "relieved" when he was arrested.

Prosecutors say that after his arrest, Carson confessed to the other
robberies. George said she had no comment on the state charges.

Carson joined the Marine Corps Reserves out of high school in 2000 and
served with the Minneapolis-St. Paul-based 4th Marine Division for six
years, including a tour in Iraq in 2004. While there, he earned several
awards, including the Armed Forces Reserve Medal, the Combat Action
Ribbon and the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal €” which he
received for actions during a mortar attack at Camp Ramadi in May 2004.

That attack left six dead and 30 wounded. According to a recommendation
for the award, Carson ran toward the injured, some of whom had "severe
sucking chest wounds," and administered first aid. He's credited with
saving many lives, but George wrote that Carson was haunted by one Navy
sailor he couldn't save.

Family members said in letters to George that Carson returned home a
different man, and seemed to have lost his zest for life.

He attended the University of Minnesota, where he met his future wife.
It should have been a happy time for the couple, but their relationship
was "toxic" almost from the start, one relative wrote in a letter cited
in George's document.

Carson's girlfriend became pregnant, and they married.

The couple's daughter, now 4, has had several illnesses, including
respiratory and stomach issues and food allergies, according to George.
She also was diagnosed with a rare condition that involves inflammation
of the blood vessels.

While Carson was overwhelmed by his daughter's illness and dealing with
the financial strain of caring for her, his wife told him she had cancer
when she didn't, George wrote. Carson believed his wife because she had
cuts on her body from alleged biopsies, intravenous marks from
chemotherapy, and hair loss. The woman was cutting herself, she wrote.

"She cut a chunk out of her body to simulate the effects of a biopsy,"
the attorney wrote. Carson's wife admitted her behavior in June 2007 but
threatened suicide if he left her, George said.

The doctor who conducted Carson's psychological evaluation said a full
review of the woman's medical records revealed she never had cancer.

In December 2007, Carson's wife told him their daughter had been
molested, and Carson became obsessed with the man he thought was
responsible, George wrote. He now believes his daughter was never
molested, she wrote.

The psychological evaluation cited by George says interviews with
Carson's parents and the woman's adoptive parents confirm the cancer was
fabricated. George wrote that the alleged molestation wasn't reported to
police until a year later, and the case wasn't prosecuted.

According to George, Carson projected an image that he was unaffected by
his combat experience, when in reality, he was experiencing anxiety and
feelings of guilt. In October, he battled symptoms of depression and
thought himself an inadequate father and husband. He has been diagnosed
with major depressive disorder and PTSD, she said.

"Now that he knows the truth about all the lies ... (and) spent some
time talking about his military experience and the stressors leading up
to the offense behavior, the old Tim Carson is beginning to return,"
George wrote.

John ;-#)#