‘American Sniper’ Said Ex-Marine Was ‘Straight-Up Nuts’

Shortly before he was shot to death by a troubled former Marine at a Texas gun range, legendary Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle texted a buddy, “This dude is straight-up nuts,” a defense attorney told jurors Wednesday.

A lawyer for Eddie Ray Routh said in opening statements of the man’s murder trial that Routh’s insanity was so evident that Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield exchanged texts expressing alarm as the three rode together in February 2013 to a Texas shooting range.

“He’s (sitting) right behind me, watch my six,” Littlefield texted back, using a military reference for watching one’s back.

The intense attention on the case has brought renewed focus to the mental struggles former military members face.

Routh was a small arms technician who served in Iraq and was deployed to earthquake-ravaged Haiti before leaving the Marines in 2010. Authorities say that after the February 2013 shooting, Routh drove to his sister’s house in Kyle’s truck, admitted to the killings and told his sister “people were sucking his soul.”

Routh faces life in prison without parole if convicted.

The Huffington Post