STEPHENVILLE, Texas (AP) — A former Marine has been convicted in the deaths of “American Sniper” author Chris Kyle and Kyle’s friend at a shooting range.
Jurors returned the verdict Tuesday against Eddie Ray Routh, whose attorneys had mounted an insanity defense and said he suffered from psychosis. Since prosecutors didn’t seek the death penalty in the capital murder case, the 27-year-old receives an automatic life sentence without parole in the deaths of the famed Navy SEAL and Chad Littlefield.
The men had taken Routh out shooting in February 2013 after Routh’s mother asked Kyle to help him. Family members say Routh suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Iraq and in Haiti.
The case drew intense interest, largely because of the blockbuster film based on Kyle’s memoir about his four Iraq tours.
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Routh’s attorneys pointed out that jurors need a lower standard of proof to conclude Routh was insane at the time of the shootings than what would be required to convict him of capital murder.
But prosecutors also noted that Routh had apologized to Kyle’s family – evidence, they said, of a guilty mind.
“This defendant gunned down two men in cold blood, in the back, in our county. Find him guilty,” Nash said.
