Now that the murder trial of American Sniper Chris Kyle is over, the veil is lifting on the court room proceedings. Video testimony from Kyle’s widow, Taya, has emerged, in which she tearfully recalls the last moments with her husband.
Kyle recalled a busy morning that fatal day. She and Chris were running about the house, and when they finally crossed paths, talked about the day Chris planned with Littlefield – a therapeutic trip to the gun range , added the Hollywood Reporter .
“We just said we loved each other and gave each other a hug and a kiss like we always did.”
News organizations had been banned from airing court room footage of the Eddie Ray Routh trial until the verdict was read; he has been convicted of murdering Chris and Chad Littlefield in 2013. And it was Chris’ widow, Taya Kyle, who had the last word – she was the prosecution’s last witness, reported NBC News .
Jurors also broke their silence on Good Morning America Wednesday. One juror, Christina Yeager, talked about Routh’s claim that he was insane when he shot Chris and Chad – which the jury didn’t buy.
“That was something we really had to figure out in the beginning. I know a lot of us came into this jury questioning that. But evidence shows that there was a real definite pattern there when it came to his earlier convictions before the trial…He would get intoxicated, get in trouble and then the police would show up and he’d say, ‘I’m a veteran. I have PTSD. I’m insane.’ Every time something bad happened he would pull that card.”
Routh’s uncle, James Watson, spoke sympathetically of Routh in his testimony, which was released alongside Kyle’s.
“I noticed that he had kind of lost his desire for life. He didn’t seem to find much joy in life after he came back.”
But the family of the man who was shot beside Chris Kyle – Chad Littlefield – had little of their own sympathy for Routh. His half-brother, Jerry Richardson that Routh was a “national disgrace,” according to the International Business Times .
“You took the lives of two heroes, men that tried to be a friend to you, and you became an American disgrace.”
Though thanks to the movie, American Sniper, Chris Kyle and his wife have been in the spotlight throughout the Eddie Ray Routh trial. But the jurors never forgot Littlefield, a man his parents said had a “quiet nature” and was a “good listener.” One juror spoke about him on GMA .
“( American Sniper ) gave me a better outlook on Chris’ role as a marine — what that job entails, a greater respect for it. But as far as the actions that took place on Feb. 2, Chad [Littlefield] was still in the picture and Chad was not in that movie. I basically put the fact that Chris was a marine out of my mind and looked at him as a person, looked at Chad as a person, looked at Eddie as a person and tried to make reasonable judgment.”
