Butner treats psychiatric as well as physical disabilities, both of which affected Sullivan, public defender Chris Daly said at Sullivan's court appearance last week.

During the interview at the Missoula County jail, Sullivan told a rambling tale of leaving Butner and going to a halfway house in the Detroit area that he liked because it was full of older men like himself. "It was cozy," he said. "You could smoke."

He said he eventually left and went to New York City, where he bunked briefly with a relative in Brooklyn before being kicked out. He stayed a while in a shelter, but wanted to go back to prison.

So, he said, he tried to get arrested by going into an upscale restaurant. His plan was to eat a meal and then refuse to pay. But the people at the restaurant were so nice to him that he fled in shame, he said, leaving behind a bag that contained all of his belongings, including his medications.

Sullivan recounted an abbreviated version of that tale in court last Tuesday when he pleaded guilty to robbing the Sterling bank. It was the mention of medication that triggered Deschamps' order for a mental health evaluation, and to make his acceptance of the guilty plea conditional upon that report.

"What he said leads me to have some concerns," Deschamps said.