A judge sentenced Eddie Ray Routh to life in prison without parole for the killing of Navy Seal Chris Kyle and Kyle's friend Chad Littlefield. Kyle was the author of American Sniper, the Iraq war memoir that was recently turned into the Best Picture Oscar-nominated film.
Routh, 27, confessed to shooting and killing both men in 2013 at a shooting range in Texas. His defense lawyers claimed he was insane at the time of the killing. Routh is a veteran of the Iraq War who's been diagnosed with PTSD, which his lawyers say causes psychotic episodes.
Dr. Mitchell Dunn, the medical expert for the defense, testified that Routh said he thought Kyle and his friend were "some kind of pig assassins, or hybrid pigs sent to kill people" the day he killed them.
Psychologist Dr. Randall Price disagreed, noting that the pig people were similar to a joke in an episode of Seinfeld, a show that Routh's a fan of. A different pyschologist, Dr. Michael Arambula, testified that Routh wasn't insane — saying rather that he was drunk and stoned at the time of the killings, which discredits an insanity plea.
Ultimately, though, as The Washington Post reports, his insanity plea failed because Routh says he knew that killing Kyle and Littlefield was morally wrong. Per the Post's story, when Routh was arrested, he was asked, “You know what you did today is wrong, right?"
Routh said, “Yes, sir.”
Routh's lawyers say they'll appeal his conviction.
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