![]() Routh described being annoyed with Kyle and Littlefield as they made the 90-minute drive from his home to the countryside gun range. Portions of the recorded conversation were played for the jury. In May 2013, Routh provided another explanation in a phone interview he did from jail with New Yorker magazine writer Nicholas Schmidle. I’m sure they’ve forgiven me,’ ” Cole said. I feel bad about it, but they wouldn’t talk to me. They were just taking me to the range so I shot them. I was just riding in the back seat of the truck and nobody would talk to me. Routh say, ‘I shot them because they wouldn’t talk to me. Cole testified he heard Routh talk about the shootings four months after they took place. Gene Cole worked as an officer in the Erath County Jail, where Routh has been held since his arrest in the killings. Littlefield was shot five times in the back. ![]() Kyle was shot four times in the back and once in the face. Yet Routh has never revealed a clear reason in the fatal shootings. Kyle secretly texted Littlefield, sitting next to him in a pickup, to say Routh was “straight-up nuts.” Kyle apparently sensed tension as he and Littlefield drove the former U.S. What’s never been clear is why Routh killed Kyle and Littlefield, but there have been a series of confusing and incoherent explanations for Routh’s motives. The range is a small, remote part of the sprawling 11,000-acre Rough Creek Lodge, and the men were isolated.Ī hunting guide found Kyle, 38, and Littlefield, 35, motionless and called 911. On Febru, Kyle and his friend, Littlefield, took Routh to a firing range as a kind of therapy. He had already risen to fame through his book when he died and had been involved in charitable work to help former troops suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Kyle’s autobiography by the same name spent weeks on best-seller lists. “American Sniper,” directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Bradley Cooper, is already the highest-grossing war movie. history, with 160 confirmed kills in Iraq. Routh’s trial comes in the wake of the release of the film about Kyle, a former Navy SEAL who claimed to be the deadliest sniper in U.S. Lawyer: Kyle called Routh ‘straight-up nuts’ in text He believed in his mind that they were going to kill him,” attorney J. “He killed those men because he had a delusion. Starnes urged jurors to “follow the law,” allowing it to guide them “to the true and correct verdict.”įor its part, the defense pointed to Routh’s long history of mental illness. She said Routh knew the difference between right and wrong. He is not in any way insane,” said prosecutor Jane Starnes during closing arguments. That is just cold, calculated capital murder. “Ladies and gentleman, that is not insanity. Prosecutors dismissed that assertion outright. But defense attorneys said Routh was insane. No one disputed that Routh shot and killed the men. Jurors deliberating the case had three choices: guilty, not guilty or not guilty by reason of insanity. ![]() “We’re so thrilled that we have the verdict that we have tonight.” “We’ve waited two years for God to get justice for us on behalf of our son and, as always, God has proved to be faithful,” said Judy Littlefield, the victim’s mother. Judge Jason Cashon immediately sentenced Routh to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the capital murder conviction. The jury found Routh guilty of capital murder in the deaths of Kyle, the author of the best-seller “American Sniper,” and Kyle’s friend Chad Littlefield. It took Texas jurors less than three hours to deliver their verdict: They weren’t buying it. But his attorneys wanted to convince a jury he wasn’t sane when he did so. No one disputes that Eddie Ray Routh shot and killed Chris Kyle and another man.
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