Eddie Ray Routh guilty in murder of Chris Kyle, Chad Littlefield, will get life in prison

Routh killed Kyle, a former Navy SEAL sniper whose book about his experiences in war was turned into an Oscar-nominated movie released last year, and will receive an automatic life sentence.

The NY Times summarized some content from Routh’s interviews on the shooting:

“…He spoke of fearing for his life and believing that they were going to kill him or take his soul. He said that Mr. Littlefield was not shooting at the range and that “that’s what got me riled up.” He said he was offended that Mr. Kyle had not shaken his hand when they met, was bothered by the smell of cologne in Mr. Kyle’s truck, and was annoyed that the two men did not talk to him on the drive to the range.

“It smelled like sweet cologne,” Mr. Routh told a reporter for The New Yorker in 2013, in a phone call from jail that was recorded. “I was smelling love and hate. They were giving me some love and hate.”

His defense team had argued that he was insane and did not know the killings were wrong at the time, noting that  Routh had been mentally affected by the time he spent helping earthquake relief efforts in Haiti with the Marines in 2010.

Routh used two of Kyle’s handguns to shoot Mr. Kyle and Mr. Littlefield 13 times, Routh had been prescribed anti-psychotic medication often used for schizophrenia.

Prosecutors were seeking the death penalty. The jury deliberated for less than two and a half hours.

“We’ve waited two years for God to get justice for us on behalf of our son,” Judy Littlefield, Littlefield’s mother, told reporters after the verdict. “And as always, God has proven to be faithful.”

Routh, 25 at the time of the shooting, killed the two men at a gun range in Erath County, Texas jsut over two years ago. Even at the time, Routh’s mental health was unclear with reports of up to 20 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from PTSD.