![]() You kill them before they can kill you.'"Ī few months later, his parents told the magazine, he called home and suggested that something bad had happened while he was out on patrol. "Our response was, of course, 'Eddie, this is a war. "He said, 'Dad, how are you going to feel about me if I have to kill somebody?'" his mother, Jodi Routh, told a writer from Men's Health magazine before a judge imposed a gag order in the case. In a conversation with his parents shortly before deploying, he reportedly expressed concerns about having to use his weapon. By September 2007, he was in the Middle East. Not long after graduation, Routh - also 6-2, but about 50 pounds lighter than Kyle - was off to boot camp in California. Jurors saw police videos where Routh confessed to the killings in a rambling speech and heard audio tape of a prison phone call to a reporter where he talked about shooting Littlefield first, saying he was angry that he came to the range."I want to be one of the few and the proud," he told the photographer. "He is capable of dreaming up excuses to get his hide out of trouble at convenient times depending on who he is talking to," prosecutor Alan Nash said. ![]() Prosecutors said the two were shot by 12 or 13 bullets and that Routh put on an act to get out of trouble. "He (Kyle) absolutely never saw this coming," said crime scene analyst Howard Ryan. They had no time to remove loaded guns that they had holstered. The judge told jurors they could find a person innocent by reason of insanity if the defendant did not know the conduct was wrong due to a severe mental defect or illness.Ī forensics expert called by prosecutors said Kyle and Littlefield were shot in the back at close range. He believed in his mind that they were going to kill him." Warren St. "He killed those men because he had a delusion. They said he was suffering a paranoid episode when he went to the range and met the state's legal definition of insanity. military sniper, who has been lionized in his home state of Texas.ĭefense lawyers told the jury that Routh had been to hospitals four times because of his mental illness and was diagnosed as psychotic. The trial focused renewed attention on Kyle, credited with the most confirmed kills of any U.S. That is just cold, calculated capital murder," Starnes said. In closing arguments, prosecutor Jane Starnes said Routh acted coldly and deliberately when he waited for Kyle to empty his gun at the range and then ambushed the two from behind before fleeing the scene Kyle's pickup truck. ![]() Prosecutors had been seeking a life sentence without parole.ĭefense lawyers argued that Routh was a paranoid schizophrenic and should be declared innocent by reason of insanity. The jury deliberated for a little more than two hours before reaching a verdict at a court in the rural Texas city of Stephenville. You became an American disgrace," Littlefield's brother-in-law, Jerry Richardson, said of Routh in court after the sentence was handed down. "You took the lives of two heroes, men that tried to be a friend to you. Kyle, who helped counsel troubled veterans with trips for shooting and talks, had driven Routh to the range with Kyle's neighbor, Littlefield. Marine, was found guilty of fatally shooting Kyle and Kyle's friend, Chad Littlefield, multiple times at a gun range about 70 miles (110 km) southwest of Fort Worth in February 2013. Navy SEAL whose autobiography was turned into the hit movie American Sniper. (Reuters) - Eddie Ray Routh was jailed for life without the possibility of parole on Tuesday after a Texas jury found him guilty of murdering Chris Kyle, the former U.S.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |