Eddie Ray Routh is guilty

So the news this morning is that Eddie Ray Routh, the fellow who murdered Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield last year, was found guilty and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The prosecutors had hoped for the death penalty. From Fox News;

Routh showed no visible emotion as the verdict was read, while Kyle’s brother and parents were among a group of the victims’ families and friends who cried and held hands. They did not issue a statement.

Jerry Richardson, Littlefield’s half-brother, told Routh that he “took the lives of two heroes, men who tried to be a friend to you, and you became an American disgrace.” Routh had no reaction.

I’ve read some speculation on line that this was the Veterans’ Affairs Department fault, that they need to “do better” in regards to treatment of veterans. I disagree. There are certainly problems with the VA, but this doesn’t have anything to do with service-connected mental health. According to testimony in the trial, Routh had problems before he joined the Marines. The morning before the murder, Routh had been sitting around blazing doobies with his family. He had a long history of drug abuse in a dysfunctional family environment that encouraged that sort of behavior.

Too many people blame military service for some of these people’s bad behavior and in most cases it’s just not true. Like the father of the fellow in New York City who shot two NYPD officers blamed his son’s six weeks of basic training for that incident. It’s just too easy for everyone to click that military box when they’re looking for excuses for criminals’ behavior.

Of course, a lot of that has to do with that divide between the military and the citizens that we served, but it also has a lot to do with the reputation that we give ourselves when we blame our own bad behavior on “what we saw”. Not you guys, but you have to admit that we see it too often here from the phonies, like the fellow who got five years on probation for a murder because of the wild tales he told a judge about his tour of Vietnam. And pot-smoking “Wayward Bill” who needs pot to forget the ears that he had chop off of dead VC as a company clerk in Vietnam – despite the fact that he’d never been to Vietnam. There’s Terry Farmer who gets away with beating his wife because of the things that he never saw in Vietnam.

Those are just a few examples, of the countless phonies who blame their fairy tales of military service for their bad behavior. I’m very glad that a Texas jury saw through it in this case. According to Fox News, Routh’s lawyers plan to appeal because Texas wasn’t a fair venue for Routh’s trial. Yeah, good luck with that since the victim in this case is now the subject of a blockbuster movie.

Category: Shitbags