After he was found guilty, a Texas judge sentenced 27-year-old Routh to life in prison without parole, Reuters reported. Routh was accused of killing not only Kyle, but also his friend, Chad Littlefield, at a firing range near Forth Worth, Texas. The verdict was delivered after less than three hours of deliberation.
During the trial, defense attorneys for Routh did not try to argue that he was not responsible for killing Kyle and Littlefield back in Februaru 2013. However, they claimed that Routh is insane, and that he was “in the grips of psychosis” when he pulled the trigger.
According to the Washington Post, court testimony suggested that Routh “had been in and out of psychiatric treatment numerous times” over the past couple of years. His attorneys said he suffered from schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Prosecutors rejected this claim, though, saying that Routh knew exactly what he was doing and that he could differentiate between right and wrong. They pointed to the fact that Routh fled the scene of the shooting as evidence, suggesting that he did so because he understood that he committed murder.
"Ladies and gentleman, that is not insanity. That is just cold, calculated capital murder. He is guilty of capital murder. He is not in any way insane," said attorney Jane Starnes.
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