USA - Texas. A jury sentenced Eddie Ray Routh to to life in prison without parole for the shooting deaths of Chris Kyle, "American Sniper"

An Erath County jury sentenced former Marine Cpl. Eddie Ray Routh for the shooting deaths of former Navy SEAL and American Sniper author Chris Kyle and his best friend, Chad Littlefield. Routh, 27, White, was immediately sentenced to life in prison without parole by state District Judge Jason Cashon. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty. The jury of 10 women and two men rejected defense efforts to win a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity by painting Routh as a mentally disturbed veteran who didn’t know that he was wrong in gunning down Kyle, 38, and Littlefield, 35, at an Erath County gun range on Feb. 2, 2013. The victims had taken Routh to the gun range in an effort to help him cope with post-traumatic stress disorder. No one disputed that Routh shot the two men or fled in Kyle’s truck after the shootings. And no one denied that Routh suffered from mental illness that had caused him to be hospitalized four times in two years for psychiatric treatment. Expert witnesses for the prosecution testified that Routh suffered from a mood or personality disorder caused by excessive abuse of marijuana and alcohol. Routh’s attorneys argued that he suffered from schizophrenia and did not know what he had done was wrong. To find Routh not guilty by reason of insanity, jurors would have had to conclude that Routh suffered from a severe mental illness and did not know his actions were wrong. Had Routh been found not guilty by reason of insanity, he would have faced up to life in a state mental hospital.