STEPHENVILLE, Texas — Eddie Ray Routh had been talking crazy for a while. So when he showed up on his sister’s doorstep one afternoon two Februarys ago and claimed to have shot two men, she didn’t know what to think.
But when Laura Blevins saw the big black custom pickup truck in the driveway, not Eddie’s Volkswagen Beetle, her stomach tightened. He asked whether she was with him “in hell,” then drove off.
“I’m terrified for my life,” she breathlessly told a 911 dispatcher. “I don’t know if he’s being honest with me.”
It wasn’t long before she got her answer.
Routh, a 27-year-old Iraq War veteran, is scheduled to stand trial Wednesday, charged with capital murder in the slayings of Chad Littlefield and former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, whose memoir “American Sniper” is now an Academy Award-nominated movie.
The two men had taken the ex-Marine to a shooting range to help him battle post-traumatic stress disorder and other personal demons besetting him.
Routh’s attorneys are planning to argue that he was insane. Many expect PTSD from his Iraq tour and a relief mission to earthquake-stricken Haiti to be another narrative thread in that defense.
With Kyle’s personal story the subject of a blockbuster, Routh’s defenders wonder whether he can get a fair trial. It appears that Kyle and Routh hadn’t met before that fatal day in February 2013, but they had a lot in common.
Both had attended high school southwest of Dallas in the town of Midlothian, the self-proclaimed “Cement Capital of Texas.” Each had played football for the Midlothian Panthers and been involved with the Future Farmers of America, though 14 years apart. And, most importantly, both ended up in the military and went to war.
The 6-foot-2, 230-pound Kyle joined the Navy and qualified for its elite special forces unit. As a sniper with SEAL Team 3, he racked up, by his own count, more than 300 kills and earned two Silver Stars, the military’s third-highest honor for valor.
By most accounts, Routh was a bit of a troublemaker. But by his senior year, Routh knew what he wanted to do with his life. Not long after graduation, Routh — also 6-2 but about 50 pounds lighter than Kyle — was off to boot camp in California. By September 2007, he was in the Middle East.
After the deaths of Kyle and Littlefield,
Routh was arrested on Interstate 35 near Lancaster. In an interview with the Texas Rangers, Routh said he understood what he had done and wanted to apologize to the men’s families.
