There was an article which said there were 11 witnesses backing up Kyle’s account. If true, someone dropped the ball if 8 jurors voted in favor of the diver who claims to be a SEAL.
Kyle’s witnesses contradicted each other and Kyle. All had been drinking, some very heavily. And only one of them claimed to have seen the whole incident.
What really hurt Kyle was his own deposition, which was videotaped before he died. He was forced to admit that parts of his story were not true. I think a jury could reasonably conclude that if parts of it weren’t true, none of it was.
His widow’s testimony also did not help. They presented statements from Kyle and his publisher that all of the proceeds going from the book would be donated to veterans charity, and statements from Kyle talking about how much he’d already given. She admitted that wasn’t true, but said they’d planned to give away all the money but just hadn’t gotten around to it.