american sniper murder trial. the jury just not persuaded by routh s claim he was not guilty by reason of insanity. cnn s ed lavandera was at the courthouse for the verdict. reporter: john and christine, it was a swift verdict. it took the jury here in stephenville, texas, less than 2 1/2 hours to convict eddie ray routh of the murders of chris kyle and chad littlefield, rejecting his claims and his arguments that he was insane at the time of these murders back in february of 2013. this means that eddie ray routh will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. ngtsd inside the courtroom, chad littlefield s father and stepbrother spoke directly to routh after the verdict, calling him an american disgrace. and chad littlefield s mother spoke with reporters just after the verdict in an emotional statement. we just want to say that we ve waited two years for god to get justice for us on behalf
the jury did not seem persuaded by routh s claim that he was not guilty by reason of insanity. again, this happened overnight. cnn s ed lavandera was at the courthouse for the verdict. ed. reporter: john and christine, it was a swift verdict. it took the jury here in stephenville, texas, less than 2 1/2 hours to convict eddie ray routh of the murders of chris kyle and chad littlefield. rejecting his claims and his arguments that he was insane at the time of these murders back in february of 2013. this means that eddie ray routh will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. inside the courtroom, chad littlefield s father and stepbrother spoke directly to eddie ray routh after the verdict, calling him an american disgrace. and chad littlefield s mother spoke with reporters just after the verdict in an emotional statement. we just want to say that we ve waited two years for god to get justice for us on behalf
compassionate and treating us with respect and honoring us. thank you very much. clearly very emotional. chris kyle and chad littlefield were gunned down at a texas shooting range in february of 2013. they had taken routh out shooting after his mother asked kyle to help him. routh will receive a life sentence without the possibility of parole. joining us live on the phone now is fox news legal analyst. thank you for being here this morning. of course. the jury deliberated less than three hours before reaching a verdict. are you surprised they made up their minds so quickly? i am really not. the defense went with the insanity ploy and that s all they had. it was clear he was there and he did the killing of both men. so the insanity defense is what they had. but both sides the had experts and the experts washed each other out. one said he was insane and the
it was a swift verdict. it took the jury here in stephenville texas, less than 2 1/2 hours to convict eddie ray routh of the murders of chris kyle and chad littlefield, rejecting his claims and his arguments that he was insane at the time of these murders back in february of 2013. this means that eddie ray routh will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. we just want to say that we ve waited two years for god to get justice for us on behalf of our son, and as always god has proved to be faithful and we re so thrilled that we have the verdict that we have tonight. reporter: eddie ray routh showed no emotion as the verdict was read. he just stood there and took it all in which is basically the way he s acted throughout most of this trial. there s been very little reaction from him. most of the times in court he has just sat there and taken pages and pages worth of notes.
whoa! yeah. good morning, everyone. welcome to early start. i m john berman. and i m christine romans. it s 4:00 a.m. in the east. a verdict is in in the american sniper murder trial. eddie ray routh found guilty of the murder of chris kyle and his friend chad littlefield. the jury not persuaded by routh s claim he was not guilty by reason of insanity. cnn s ed lavandera was at the courthouse for the verdict. reporter: john and christine, it was a swift verdict. it took the jury here in stephenville texas, less than 2 1/2 hours to convict eddie ray routh of the murders of chris kyle and chad littlefield. rejecting his claims and his arguments that he was insane at the time of these murders back in february of 2013. this means that eddie ray routh will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. we just want to say that we ve waited two years for god