Prosecutors presented a video Thursday showing officers speaking with Routh as he sat in the pickup that authorities said he took from Kyle after fleeing the shooting range where Kyle and Littlefield were killed. Routh had been a small arms technician who served in Iraq and was deployed to earthquake-ravaged Haiti before leaving the Marines in 2010. Routh's mother had asked Kyle, a former Navy SEAL whose wartime exploits were depicted in his 2012 memoir, to help her son overcome troubles that had at least twice led him to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Cole, who is now a police officer elsewhere, said Routh also said, "I feel bad about it, but they wouldn't talk to me. "Voluntarily induced intoxication is not an excuse for the mentally ill," he said.įormer Erath County sheriff's deputy Gene Cole testified Friday that after Routh was jailed, he heard him say: "I shot them because they wouldn't talk to me." He said Routh said he had been riding in the back seat on the way to the shooting range. Prosecutors may try to show that Routh deliberately put himself in a more violent state, said Park Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist who examined acquitted killer Andrea Yates. Routh's uncle testified that he'd smoked marijuana with Routh the morning of the shootings. "The question is: Is he legally responsible?" she said.Įrath County District Attorney Alan Nash said during the trial's opening statements that the evidence would show that mental illnesses "don't deprive people of the ability to be good citizens, to know right from wrong, to obey the law."Ī Texas Ranger testified Friday that authorities found marijuana, a near-empty bottle of whiskey and anti-psychotic medication while searching Routh's small, wood-framed home in Lancaster after the shooting. Though prosecutors appear to have conceded that Routh was mentally ill, they will argue that he was competent enough to make choices, Lyon said. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty - "presumably because they thought it wouldn't stick," said Andrea Lyon, a defense attorney and dean of the law school at Valparaiso University. The case has drawn intense interest, largely because of the Oscar-nominated film based on Kyle's memoir that details his four tours in Iraq.
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The Texas criminal code stipulates that in cases involving violent crimes where defendants are found not guilty by reason of insanity, the court can initiate civil proceedings to have them committed. Even if he's acquitted, Routh would likely remain in custody. If convicted, Routh faces life in prison without parole. Routh, his lawyers say, believed the men planned to kill him.īecause Routh was at a shooting range and both Kyle and Littlefield were armed, "it's an easier case than others for the proposition that he believed they were about to kill him," said George Dix, a criminal law professor at the University of Texas, Austin. Routh's attorneys have said the 27-year-old, who was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and was taking anti-psychotic medication, was insane when Kyle and Littlefield took him to a shooting range to provide support and camaraderie. Criminal law experts say the case hinges on whether the defense can prove Routh did not know that the killings constituted a crime.
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Randy Fowler, an investigator with the Erath County Texas Sheriff’s Department, wrote in the affidavit that Routh drove to his sister’s home in Midlothian, about 50 miles from the gun range where the shooting took place, shortly after the incident.STEPHENVILLE, Texas - While defense attorneys mount an insanity defense for the former Marine on trial in the shooting deaths of "American Sniper" author Chris Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield, prosecutors have described Eddie Ray Routh as a troubled drug user who knew right from wrong. forces in Iraq and had been working with former warriors recovering from physical and emotional injuries, sometimes inviting them to the shooting range.
Kyle, author of the book “American Sniper,” was credited with more than 150 kills as a sniper for U.S. The new evidence, which first came to light on Monday, suggests robbery could have formed part of the motive. The fact that Routh, 25, of Lancaster, Texas, served in the Marines from 2006 to 2010, including a tour in Iraq, put attention on the psychological wounds of war. (Reuters) - The suspect accused of shooting dead former Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle and another man stole a vehicle from the scene and told his sister “I traded my soul for a new truck,” investigators said.Įddie Ray Routh was being held on $3 million bond on a capital murder charge for the double-slaying on Saturday.
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