The trial of Eddie Ray Routh, the man who killed U.S. Navy SEAL and ‘American Sniper’ Chris Kyle, along with his friend Chad Littlefield, officially began today.
In its opening statement, the prosecution made the case that Routh was completely aware of his actions and their implications. According to ABC News:
“He used this ‘wet’ marijuana that morning and he drank whiskey with it,” Nash said. “But he admits [later to his sister] that he murdered these two men, that he used drugs and alcohol that morning and he knew what he was doing was wrong.”
In contrast, the defense offered a statement declaring Routh clinically insane, both now and at the time of the shooting. Therefore, he was not able to discern that his actions were wrong:
“When he took their lives, he was in the grip of a psychosis, a psychosis so severe that he did not know what he was doing was wrong,” defense attorney Tim Moore said, adding that Routh thought “that he had to take their lives because, in his psychosis, he thought they were going to take his.”
On the eve of the shooting, his precarious mental condition was apparent to the woman Routh was dating at the time:
“He was seeing things, he was hearing things,” Moore said. “He was telling her not to talk out loud, to write things down on paper because people were listening.
“Eddie Routh was suffering from a severe mental disease,” Moore added. “He did not know his conduct.”
In addition to sentiments of the defense, Moore also read a text message sent from Kyle to Littlefield while in the truck with Routh, saying:
“This dude is straight up nuts.”
Chris Kyle’s wife Taya gave an emotionally wrought account of the last exchange she shared with her husband:
“I could tell something was up,” she said, because of the way Chris’s voice sounded on the phone.
With tears in her eyes, she told the jury how she texted Chris, “Are you OK? I am getting worried,” but heard nothing in return.
The 27-year-old Routh is facing up to a life sentence in prison if found guilty of the murders.
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