The Sergeant in Question: A Portrait of the Accused Shooter of Kandahar

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Browne said Bales had lost part of a foot in Iraq and, at another point, endured a head injury after a roadside bomb caused his vehicle to roll over. Recent events may have further fueled the potential for catastrophe: Bales reportedly witnessed a friend's leg being blown off the day before the shootings. And other media cite U.S. sources as claiming he was drinking, which is against the rules in combat zones.

"We've known ever since the Vietnam War that people with posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD] have a higher risk of engaging in abusive violence," says Roger Pitman, a Harvard Medical School psychiatrist who heads the PTSD Research Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital. "Oftentimes it follows the death or injury of a buddy, which appears to be the case from what I've heard."

In the Sunday, March 18, New York Times, novelist Kate Wenner, who's written a play about Iraq-war veterans and the aftermath of traumatic brain injuries, speculated that Bales may have "a potentially lethal combination of posttraumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. When the frontal lobe — which controls emotions — is damaged, it simply can't put on the brakes if a PTSD flashback unleashes powerful feelings. Seeing his buddy's leg blown off may have unleashed a PTSD episode his damaged brain couldn't stop. If alcohol was indeed part of the picture, it could have further undermined his compromised frontal lobe function."

Browne — who has represented serial killer Ted Bundy and Colton Harris-Moore, the "Barefoot Bandit" who stole small planes, boats and cars throughout the Pacific Northwest — and the rest of Bales' defense team have certainly indicated they'll be taking a close look at the role PTSD may have played in the killings. Richard S. Adler, a forensic psychiatrist in Seattle who has been retained by the defense, will examine Bales to help assess what may have caused him to snap. PTSD is one possibility, acknowledges Adler, but so is traumatic brain injury from the crash Bales was involved in during a stint in Iraq. "It's unclear, the full severity of it," says Adler. "There was some kind of screening done prior to his present deployment, and he was deemed eligible for redeployment. But screening tests are not the same thing as actual evaluations." Notes Adler: "The job of a forensic psychiatrist is not to jump to conclusions."

Even if Adler concludes that Bales suffers from PTSD, it's unlikely that Browne will argue that the condition caused the crime; a PTSD-insanity defense is very rarely successful, says Pitman. "It's very difficult to prove that he was unable to distinguish right from wrong," he says. "Given the high hurdle, it's more likely to admit he's guilty and then say all these terrible things happened to him in combat, and some compassion and clemency is in order."

In the aftermath of the killings, Karilyn Bales and her children have been hastily relocated to the protection of Joint Base Lewis-McChord. The largest military base on the West Coast, Lewis-McChord has come under increasing scrutiny as its troops — and former troops — have made headlines with notorious crimes. Last year, four service members were convicted in the 2010 deaths of three Afghan civilians. Lewis-McChord most recently made national news on New Year's Day, when a 24-year-old Iraq-war veteran fled to Mount Rainier National Park after shooting partygoers, then killed a park ranger before being found dead in a snowy creek.

The Baleses' home was put up for sale a day after the massacre, then quickly pulled off the market Tuesday, March 13. The porch was piled high with the detritus of a move — empty diaper boxes, pizza boxes, a sled, an American flag. Karilyn had previously blogged that should they receive an exotic assignment, she hoped to rent out their home "so that we would have it to come back to when our adventure is over."

Much besides the future of their cedar-shingled, four-bedroom house is now uncertain. This week Robert Bales' defense team will fly to Kansas to spend several days meeting with him as they begin to build their case. "Public reports that Sergeant Bales' supervisors, family and friends describe him as a levelheaded, experienced soldier are consistent with information gathered by the defense team," according to a defense statement from attorney Emma Scanlan.

Now that levelheaded, experienced soldier — a husband and father — potentially faces the death penalty.