‘American Sniper’ killer sentenced to life in prison

Routh, 27, a former US Marine, was found guilty of fatally shooting Kyle and Littlefield, multiple times at a gun range about 70 miles south-west of Fort Worth in February 2013.

Kyle, who helped counsel troubled veterans with trips for shooting and talks, had driven Routh to the range with Kyle’s neighbor, Littlefield.

“You took the lives of two heroes, men that tried to be a friend to you. You became an American disgrace,” Littlefield’s brother-in-law, Jerry Richardson, said of Routh in court after the sentence was handed down.

‘Paranoid schizophrenic’

The jury deliberated for a little more than two hours before reaching a verdict at a court in the rural Texas city of Stephenville. Prosecutors had been seeking a life sentence without parole.

Defence lawyers argued that Routh was a paranoid schizophrenic and should be declared innocent by reason of insanity.

In closing arguments, prosecutor Jane Starnes said Routh acted coldly and deliberately when he waited for Kyle to empty his gun at the range and then ambushed the two from behind before fleeing the scene Kyle’s pickup truck.

“That is not insanity. That is just cold, calculated capital murder,” Starnes said.

Kyle, who is credited with the most confirmed kills of any US military sniper, became entrenched in popular culture in large part due to his best-selling book and the Academy Award nominated movie directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Bradley Cooper.