STEPHENVILLE, Texas (Tribune News Service) — Several hours after he killed decorated Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle and his best friend, Chad Littlefield, Eddie Ray Routh gave a bizarre, rambling confession in which he mentioned wolfs, square towns and warlords.
“There are tons of people who are eating on my soul right now,” Routh told Texas Ranger Danny Briley, the lead investigator on the case.
“I haven’t been able to sleep. I’ve been waiting for them to come back and eat my soul. I wish the world wasn’t such a soulless place.”
Moments later, he told Briley that “he had to get out of that situation.”
“It wasn’t a want, it was a need,” Routh said. “… I was going to be the next one out there getting my head shot off.”
Routh’s 1½-hour recorded confession was played for the jury of 10 women and two men on Monday as Routh’s capital murder trial entered a second week of testimony.
Routh’s mental state is the linchpin of his trial, and his videotaped confession is a key piece of evidence.
Routh, 27, a Marine veteran, is on trial in state district Judge Jason Cashon’s court, charged with capital murder in the fatal shootings of Kyle, 38, and Littlefield, 35, on Feb. 2, 2013, at an upscale shooting range at Rough Creek Lodge, a resort southwest of Glen Rose.
Defense attorneys Warren St. John, Tim Moore and R. Shay Isham are arguing that Routh is not guilty by reason of insanity — a defense that requires them to prove that he was suffering from a severe mental disease or defect at the time of the slayings and did not know that his conduct was wrong.
Prosecutors Alan Nash and Jane Starnes don’t dispute that Routh was a troubled veteran but maintain that he intentionally killed Kyle and Littlefield, and he knew his actions were wrong. Prosecutors have suggested through their questioning of witnesses, and by Routh’s confession, that he had been smoking marijuana, possibly laced with another substance, in the hours before the slayings.
Ranger Briley, who interviewed Routh at the Lancaster Police Department after his arrest, was on the witness stand for much of the day on Monday, testifying about the strange conversation he had with Routh. Briley said Routh repeatedly acknowledged his conduct was wrong.
“There were several times when I addressed this with him and, clearly, he knew what he was doing was wrong,” Briley testified.
“He stated that he knew that it was wrong to kill them, that he wished he hadn’t done it and that if he could apologize to the family he would.”
While talking to Briley, Routh was seated at small table with his hands cuffed behind his back. He yawned at times. He made numerous nonsensical statements, referring to Kyle as the “wolf,” talking about square and crooked towns, and stating that the “warlords aren’t happy with me.”
After repeated questioning by Briley, Routh eventually admitted smoking “wet” marijuana — marijuana laced with an unspecified substance — in the hours before the slayings.
He told Briley that the first time he met either Kyle or Littlefield was on the day of the shootings and that he didn’t know them, but he knew “who they were.”
“I imagine they are head hunters, you know,” Routh told Briley. “They try and hunt everybody down that did wrong. I’m not trying to hunt down anyone that did wrong … Are you? I am pretty damn reasonable and fair … I was reasonable and fair to them boys.”
“You know what you did today was wrong,” Briley asked. “You understand that?
“Yes, sir,” Routh replied.
Routh asked if he could see his parents, if they were there yet.
“I would like to see them and at least hug my mom one last time, you know,” Routh said.
Sometime after that, Briley asked if there was anything he would like to say to Kyle’s and Littlefield’s families.
“Yeah, I’m just sorry for what I have done, you know,” he said. “We can work this out.”
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