THE real-life “American Sniper” died armed, as did his buddy, testimony in their killer’s murder trial revealed — poignant proof that the two vets were taken by complete surprise when a PTSD-addled ex-Marine gunned them down at a Texas shooting range.
Ex-Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle — whose autobiography inspired the current Oscar-nominated movie — had a loaded .45-caliber Springfield ACP 1911-style handgun in his waistband holster, its safety still on, when his body was found face-down in a pool of blood on a shooting platform, a witness told jurors Thursday.
He had been shot five times in the back and once in the face.
Feet away on a patch of grass, the body of Kyle’s best friend, fellow vet Chad Littlefield, also had a loaded .45-caliber 1911-style handgun in a waistband holster, this one a Kimber. Again, its safety was on.
It’s day two at the murder trial of Eddie Ray Routh, who is fighting a potential life sentence for admittedly shooting Kyle and Littlefield after the two men took him to the range in hopes of helping him combat his demons.
Prosecution witness Texas Ranger Michael Adcock, a crime scene investigator, began the day’s testimony.
“Two 1911-style handguns. One on Mr Kyles’ body, inside the waistband holster,” Adcock testified. “Mr. Littlefield had a Kimber 1911-style handgun inside the waistband holster,” he added.
Both guns are of a type appreciated by military and law enforcement personnel for accuracy and dependability.
Adcock is one of a team of investigators who laboured to make sense out of a confusion of dozens of weapons and shell casings on and around the bodies, a difficult task initially given that the crime scene was also a shooting range.
“We ran out of whatever tents we had, because we had so much evidence,” Adcock testified, referring to the small, yellow evidence protectors his unit uses.
Prosecutors also showed the 10-man, two-woman jury a crime scene photo of an empty single-action .45-caliber long Colt revolver found near Kyle’s body.
The gun contained six spent rounds. Jurors have been given no information on its significance.
Both victims were expert gunmen — Kyle was the US military’s most deadly sniper, with 160 confirmed kills to his name — so it has been assumed that Routh could only have killed them by surprise.
Jurors have settled in for a long day of often tedious ballistics evidence on Thursday, following Wednesday’s far more dramatic opening statements and testimony.
Kyle’s widow, Taya, was the trial’s first witness, telling jurors that she could tell something was wrong when she called her husband at the shooting range that afternoon.
Kyle sounded “irritated” over Routh, and gave her only short and guarded answers when she asked him what was happening there, she testified.
“I knew something was up,” the pretty brunette told jurors tearfully. “But I didn’t know exactly what.”
Routh has admitted shooting both men, and is hoping to be found not guilty by reason of insanity. The murder trial, in Stephenville, Texas, is expected to last through this week and next.
