Eddie Ray Routh’s Rambling Confession Of Killing Chris Kyle Played In Court

Eddie Ray Routh confessed to killing Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield hours after they were found dead at the Texas gun range in a recording that was played for the jury in his murder trial in court Monday.

Eddie Ray Routh’s Confession

In the hourlong tape, Routh told Texas Ranger Danny Briley that he had shot and killed both Kyle and Littlefield and that he knew it was wrong, reported the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. However, the confession also shows that Routh was likely not of sound mind, as he rambled on about souls and headhunters.

“There are tons of people who are eating on my soul right now,” Routh told Briley, the lead investigator on the case.“I haven’t been able to sleep. I’ve been waiting for them to come back and eat my soul. I wish the world wasn’t such a soulless place.”

“It wasn’t a want, it was a need,” Routh said of killing the two men. “… I was going to be the next one out there getting my head shot off.”

Routh told Briley, “I imagine they are head hunters, you know. They try and hunt everybody down that did wrong. I’m not trying to hunt down anyone that did wrong … Are you? I am pretty damn reasonable and fair … I was reasonable and fair to them boys.”

In addition to hearing the tape, the jury also heard from Briley. Testifying for the prosecution, Briley pointed out that Routh said that he knew that killing the men was wrong a number of times, and even said that he’d like to apologize to the families of the deceased.

“There were several times when I addressed this with him and, clearly, he knew what he was doing was wrong,” Briley testified. “He stated that he knew that it was wrong to kill them, that he wished he hadn’t done it and that if he could apologize to the family he would.”

The defense, attempting to prove Routh’s innocence by reason of insanity, needs to show that Routh killed Kyle and Littlefield without the foreknowledge that what he was about to do was wrong. If convicted, Routh faces life in prison without parole.