FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. — The Seattle criminal lawyer representing Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who is set to face charges in last week’s killing of 16 Afghan men, women and children, said their first attorney-client meeting on Monday was “almost unbelievable” in its emotional impact.
John Henry Browne, who also has represented serial rapist and killer Ted Bundy and other convicted killers, said in an interview that the session with his new client was unforgettable.
“Probably the most emotional day I’ve ever had as a human being,” Browne said in a brief interview. “I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”
He did not provide details of why he felt that way or anything he might have discussed with Staff Sgt. Bales about the morning of March 11, when the Afghan civilians in Kandahar province were shot, stabbed and burned.
“It’s been an extremely traumatic morning talking to our client,” Browne said, quickly ending the interview. “It was almost unbelievable.”
Browne told CBS that Bales has no memory of the incident.
“He has no memory,” Browne told CBS News about the incident. “He has an early memory of that evening and a later memory of that evening but he doesn’t have any in between.”
Browne said Bales had not admitted to the killings. He also said Bales was “in shock.”
“He’s fixated on the troops left on the ground and what they’re accusing him of and how that may have negative ramifications on his friends and patriots,” Browne told the network.
Browne also said his client was not drunk on the night of the massacre but had had a “couple of sips of something.”
Staff Sgt. Bales, 38, arrived Friday at the Midwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility in Fort Leavenworth, Kan., a military prison for pretrial detainees and convicts with sentences shorter than five years.
His wife and two young children are staying at his home base, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, in Washington state.
Bales’ wife, Karilyn, described the mass killing as a “terrible and heartbreaking tragedy” in a statement released Monday.
Bales expressed her shock at the atrocities her husband is accused of committing in a house-to-house rampage in Afghanistan, according to a statement obtained by ABC News.
She said her family wanted to extend “our condolences to all the people of the Panjawai District, our hearts go out to all of them, especially to the parents, brothers, sisters and grandparents of the children who perished.”
The wife said she had few answers in the case. “I too want to know what happened. I want to know how this could be,” she said, adding that, “What has been reported is completely out of character of the man I know and admire.”
Robert Bales and about a dozen other pretrial inmates are held separately from the convicts in their daily schedule, said Fort Leavenworth spokeswoman Rebecca Steed. The daily schedule includes three meals, two hours in the library and an hour outside on the basketball court or weight machines. The inmates are roused at 5:00am and lights go out at 10:05pm.
On Monday, Bales’s orientation as an inmate was suspended to allow him to meet with his legal team, Browne and his partner, Emma Scanlan. They were joined by a detailed military lawyer. Prison officials made arrangements to allow Bales to meet with the lawyers until “mid-week,” and then he is scheduled to resume the prison routine, Steed said.
Prosecutors are expected to file charges against Bales this week, defense officials have said.
Assuming the case goes to trial, military officials said that witnesses in Afghanistan, including the family members of victims of the March 11 rampage, could be brought to the US to testify.