Jailed Iraq veteran turns to governor for help

GLOUCESTER When he returned in 2008 from his second tour of duty in Iraq as a decorated Army sergeant, Steven Tozer says, he was a broken man.

He is seated in an orange jail-issue jumpsuit behind a glass partition in a Gloucester County Jail, his left ankle shackled to a bench. He is 28 years old, 5-foot-9, about 170 pounds 40 pounds more than a year ago when he was a spice-addled addict whose days were spent trying to get the $50 to $70 for his next fix.

Now he spends as much as five hours of his days behind bars relieving stress by completing a workout that includes 1,000 pull-ups and 1,000 push-ups.

Tozer has 13 felony convictions and has been sentenced to serve nearly five years in prison for a series of 2013 daylight burglaries in rural Gloucester County that netted him tens of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry, video games, tools and electronics. It's a string of events he has trouble explaining.

"I've never been in trouble before," Tozer said. "I don't even know how I got myself in this situation."

A tattoo of an Army boot and rifle peeks out from beneath his right sleeve and the soldier's prayer is inked on his side. Many things haunt him, he said. The deaths in combat of his friends, running the daily gantlet of IEDs near Saddam Hussein's birthplace and other horrors of war have messed with his mind, Tozer said.

Tozer recalls one convoy run during which he watched a vehicle in front of him vanish in an explosion as it crossed over a bridge.

"I watched two good friends disappear in front of me," he said. "Two really good friends of mine disintegrated. There was nothing left."

But it's what he did when he got home as his life spiraled downward that troubles him most deeply.

Diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from his battleground experiences and a traumatic brain injury from multiple concussions caused by IEDs that blew up the vehicles he was riding in, Tozer couldn't keep a job and was in a bitter custody battle with his ex-wife over his two kids. His second wife, Dana Tozer, had serious health problems requiring hospitalization and Tozer had been cut off from help through the Department of Veterans Affairs due to his discharge status as "other than honorable."

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Jailed Iraq veteran turns to governor for help