After deliberating for less than two hours, the jury agreed, and he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. The prosecution, however, said Routh was a psychopath who had calculated his odd statements to keep himself out of jail. In a videotaped confession to a Texas Ranger after the killings, Routh said, in reference to Kyle, "I knew if I did not take his soul, he was going to take mine." The expert believed Routh was schizophrenic and suggested he suffered from paranoid delusions.
Routh pleaded innocent by reason of insanity, though the medical expert hired by the defense, a forensic psychiatrist, disagreed with the PTSD diagnosis the Marine had received at the Dallas Veterans Affairs hospital. A week earlier, Governor Greg Abbott declared February 2, the anniversary of the murders, Chris Kyle Day.
Outside the courthouse, local vendors sold Chris Kyle baseball caps.
#EDDIE RAY ROUTH. TRIAL#
The film adaptation of his story, starring Bradley Cooper, was already in theaters in Stephenville when Routh's murder trial began there on February 11, 2014. His legacy was enhanced by his books, especially American Sniper, which chronicled his exploits as a Navy Seal in Iraq, where he logged 160 kills, a U.S. It also resonated with gun enthusiasts across the country, who had embraced Kyle as a modern Wyatt Earp. Kyle's death generated an outpouring of grief in Texas, where thousands piled into Texas Stadium, the home of the Dallas Cowboys, for his memorial service. She took comfort in knowing that Routh's girlfriend would be staying at the house and that his uncle would check on him.Ĭhris Kyle's grave at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin on February 10. Jodi was headed out of town that afternoon to spend the weekend with her husband, Raymond. Before he left the car, he asked the Lord to watch over his mom and dad. Wiry since boyhood, he had a narrow face and a beak nose, with nervous eyes and an unkempt beard. In the parking lot, Jodi held her son's hand. Routh had become concerned about the state of his soul, and when he and his mother arrived at the cabinet shop on the morning of February 1, 2013, he asked if they could pray together. Because that's what he wanted." Late at night, he would often climb into bed with her. I was so afraid he was going to kill himself. "When I'd start back to the house," Jodi recalls, "I'd be like, Please don't let me find him dead. Because Jodi worked later, Routh was alone for a few hours each afternoon. Jodi would drop off her son in the morning on her way to work, and the shop's owner would bring him home.
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