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'American Sniper Trial': Eddie Ray Routh Found Guilty of Capital Murder
The creator's telling of the case, the strongest entry point on file.
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What happened
On February 2, 2013, Christopher Scott Kyle, 38, and his friend Chad Hutson Littlefield, 35, were shot and killed at the Rough Creek Ranch-Lodge-Resort shooting range in Erath County, Texas. Kyle was the author of the bestselling autobiography *American Sniper*, published in 2012, and had begun working with military veterans after leaving the service. Routh's mother, who worked at a school attended by Kyle's children, had heard of Kyle's veteran-outreach work and asked him to help her son, Eddie Ray Routh, a 25-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Kyle agreed to take Routh to a shooting range, believing it could have therapeutic value, and invited Littlefield along.
While the men were walking down range to set up targets, Routh opened fire with two handguns belonging to Kyle — a .45-caliber pistol used against Kyle and a 9mm SIG Sauer P226 used against Littlefield. Neither victim had drawn or fired the .45-caliber M1911-style pistols they were carrying; both weapons remained holstered with safety catches on. Kyle was shot six times, including a fatal wound that pierced his aorta and another that caused severe spinal cord injury. Littlefield was shot seven times, including one wound to the top of the head suggesting he was already on the ground when it was inflicted.
After the shootings, Routh drove to a Taco Bell, then to his sister's house in Midlothian, where he described what he had done. His sister called 9-1-1. Routh subsequently fled in Kyle's truck, leading police on a brief chase that ended when he crashed into a police cruiser in Lancaster, Texas.
Routh was arraigned on February 2, 2013, on two counts of capital murder. His trial, delayed to allow additional DNA testing, began on February 11, 2015. Routh's defense argued he was legally insane at the time of the killings, citing his diagnosed schizophrenia and PTSD. Prosecution experts testified they believed Routh's psychotic symptoms stemmed from drug and alcohol abuse rather than schizophrenia, and that he was not insane at the time of the offense. On February 24, 2015, a jury found Routh guilty of murdering both Kyle and Littlefield after less than three hours of deliberation. Judge Jason Cashon sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Routh is incarcerated at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Ramsey Unit in Brazoria County, Texas.
Kyle was memorialized at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and buried at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin on February 12, 2013, with a funeral procession that drew crowds along Interstate 35. Littlefield's funeral was held on February 8, 2013, at First Baptist Church of Midlothian, and he was buried at Mount Zion cemetery.
