By Amy Forliti
Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn — An attorney for a Minneapolis SWAT officer who robbed a bank says the officer’s life was falling apart and he was hoping to die in a confrontation with police to secure an insurance payout for his sick daughter and wife.
Federal defender Andrea George says in a court document filed Friday that 29-year-old Timothy Carson was broke, worried about his sick daughter and haunted by nightmares about his time fighting in Iraq.
George is seeking leniency for Carson at his sentencing. She says Carson would benefit from psychological treatment and has asked U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz in St. Paul to impose the minimum seven-year prison term.
The decorated soldier pleaded guilty in March to robbing a suburban Minneapolis bank on Jan. 6. He was arrested that afternoon.