Free Republic

When a Texas jury rejected an insanity defense and convicted Eddie Ray Routh in the murder of "American Sniper" Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield, it raised a question: If this guy isn't crazy, who is? Routh had a voluminous history of mental illness. After being discharged from the Marines in 2010, doctors hospitalized him because he thought a giant tapeworm was eating him. He had several more stints in psychiatric facilities and regularly took medications for psychosis. A few weeks before the shootings, doctors concluded he was a danger to himself and others. After his final release from a Veterans...

Jurors deliberated just 2 1/2 hours before finding that former Marine Cpl. Eddie Ray Routh was guilty of capital murder for the shooting deaths of former Navy SEAL and American Sniper author Chris Kyle and his best friend, Chad Littlefield. Routh, 27, of Lancaster was immediately sentenced to life in prison without parole by state District Judge Jason Cashon as Routh’s stunned parents sat holding hands in the courtroom. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty.

Eddie Ray Routh would say whatever it took to avoid going to jail, a medical expert testified Friday.[snip] When Routh was arrested on Feb. 2, 2013, he told officers that he had been feeling “paranoid” and “schizophrenic” all day. In that moment, Routh revealed that he was trying to avoid going to jail by claiming he was crazy, said Dr. Michael Arambula, a forensic psychiatrist. “He was showing his hand already. In other words, he was trying to get out of what he had done,” Arambula testified Friday. [snip] “He was intoxicated at the time of the offense. Any time...

Prosecutors will call rebuttal witnesses Friday in the capital murder trial of a Lancaster man accused of killing former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle and his friend in February 2013.

STEPHENVILLE — Defense attorneys for a Lancaster man accused of killing former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle and another man in February 2013 rested their case Thursday afternoon.

In a post on their site titled “Eddie Routh: The Untold Story,” Warfighter News details their comprehensive investigation involving interviews with three Marines who served directly with Routh, and several inconsistencies with the defense. “We reached out to experts and did our own homework,” Spencer Walker, Board Chairman and CEO of Warfighter News, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “The defense is trying to claim Routh had PTSD, but our analysis shows that it’s extremely unlikely. According to Dr. C. Alan Hopewell, former Senior Neuropsychologist for the Department of the Army, Routh’s actions indicate paranoid schizophrenia. PTSD has been endlessly...

Of the 22 questions included in the questionnaire, five specifically asked about mental illness and the treatment of mental issues. For their part, prosecutors have said that they will not be seeking the death penalty.

From about 2000 through 2006 — Routh killed small animals and expressed an interest in watching them die, making statements that he “liked to hear them take their last breath.”.... Jan. 19, 2013 — Routh held his girlfriend and her roommate hostage at their apartment, threatening them with a knife and sword.

A panel of 10 women and two men was selected Monday evening for the trial of Eddie Ray Routh. The former Marine is charged with capital murder in the deaths of 38-year-old Chris Kyle and Kyle's friend, 35-year-old Chad Littlefield.

The “conventional wisdom” says former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle was tragically shot and killed by a former soldier suffering from PTSD. But perhaps there’s another version of the story no one wants to talk about. What if Routh had been converted to militant Islam in Iraq and sought Kyle out as retribution? There are some disturbing facts about Routh you most likely will have never read. According to The Warfighter Foundation, it is highly unlikely Routh suffered from PTSD because he never served in battle. “Eddie Routh served one tour in Iraq in 2007, at Balad Air Base (the 2nd...

The Saturday afternoon call from Routh's sister, Laura Blevins, came from her home in Midlothian, some 30 miles southeast of Fort Worth, after Routh, she said, had come to visit her and her husband. "He's left now, but he told me that he's committed a murder, and I'm terrified for my life because I don't know if he's going to come back here," Blevins says in the call, her words spilling out in a torrent of worry. "I don't know if he's being honest with me." Asked for detail, she says, "He says that he killed two guys. They went...

Police now say that the former marine accused of killing the country’s best sniper and another man at a shooting range now says that he threatened to kill himself and his family back in September and he was hospitalized. A police report from the September 2 incident states they were alerted to the threat when they received a call about 25-year-old Eddie Ray Routh, who is now in jail on two murder counts for allegedly killing Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield. ‘Eddie stated he was hurting and that his family does not understand what he has been through,’ the police...

Police say Eddie Ray Routh, the 25-year-old suspect in the murder of Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield, was tasered after becoming aggressive with jailers around dinnertime Sunday. After eating dinner, Routh refused to return his food tray to jailers. He became aggressive and tried to attack them when they tried to get it back from him, said Erath County Sheriff Tommy Bryant. Jailers tasered Routh and placed him in a restraining chair in his solitary cell. He is on suicide watch, Bryant said. Bryant also said there have been death threats made against Routh since news of his alleged actions...

Houston— Dallas-area police have arrested a suspect in connection with the fatal shooting Saturday of former Navy SEAL and “American Sniper” author Chris Kyle and a second man at a north Texas shooting range

Chris Kyle, Another Brother Lost by Jack Murphy · February 2, 2013 · Posted In: SOF News I am saddened to have to announce the tragic loss of another one of our own. This has been a hard year for the Special Operations community, perhaps the SEAL community most of all.Today Chris Kyle was shot and killed at a shooting range at the Rough Creek Lodge in Texas, murdered along with a second individual.Chris had been volunteering his time to help Marine Corps veterans suffering from PTSD and mentoring them. Part of this process involved taking these veterans to the...

A former Tarleton State University student who wrote the best-selling book, "American Sniper," was one of two victims shot and killed at Rough Creek Lodge late Saturday afternoon. Chris Kyle and a friend were found dead at Rough Creek's shooting range.