“American Sniper” case put to rest

No one disputes that Eddie Ray Routh shot and killed Navy SEAL Chris Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield, but his attorneys wanted to convince the jury that he wasn’t sane while doing so.

Routh’s defense lawyers argued that he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and was in the midst of a psychotic episode when he shot and killed the two men at a gun range near Fort Worth in 2013. Routh pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

It took a Texas jury less than two hours to come up with the verdict: guilty of first degree murder. The ex-marine was sentenced to life without the opportunity of parole. “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, mother of Chad Littlefield. “We’re so thrilled that we have the verdict that we have tonight.”

There were three different fates that Routh could have suffered: guilty, not guilty, and not guilty by reason of insanity. Prosecutor Jane Starnes, in her closing argument, said,“Ladies and gentlemen, that is not insanity. That is just cold, calculated, capital murder. He is guilty of capital murder. He is not in any way insane.” She was later heard stating that Routh knew the difference between right and wrong. Starnes urged jurors to “follow the law” allowing it to guide them “to the true and correct verdict.”

The defense countered by pointing to Routh’s long and illustrious history of mental illness. “He killed those men because he had a delusion. He believed in his mind that they were going to kill him,” argued attorney J. Warren St. John.

As evidence, Chris Kyle’s phone was brought into effect, showing the final text messages to his wife just moments before he was killed. Kyle called Routh “straight-up nuts.” His wife replied, “Please come home. I’m getting worried.”

Routh’s trial comes in the wake of the highest-grossing war movie in history, American Sniper, which depicts the life of Chris Kyle, a war veteran claiming to be the deadliest sniper in U.S. history with 160 confirmed kills in Iraq. Kyle’s autobiography by the same name spent weeks on best-seller lists. 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.