Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 111, No. 190, Ed. 1 Sunday, February 8, 2015 Page: 7 of 38
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STATE
7A
Denton Record-Chronicle
Sunday, February 8, 2015
Air Base. A 2013 New Yorker ar-
ticle said Routh had “witnessed
several mortar attacks on the
base; once, while he was on the
phone with Raymond, sirens be-
gan blaring, and he said that he
had to take cover.”
But Marine records indicate
that Routh was attached to
Combat Logistics Battalion 8,
which was based in Fallujah
more than an hour south of Ba-
lad. Haley Carter, who was a 2nd
lieutenant with the unit during
that tour and helped oversee the
morning reports, said Routh’s
story makes no sense.
“I don’t know why we would
send an armorer to Balad ...
when there are plenty of MPs
who have the training to guard
prisoners,” Carter, who left the
Marines as a captain in 2013,
told the AP. “The whole thing
seems funky to me.”
The unit’s command chro-
nology, a detailed official ac-
count of the deployment ob-
tained by AP, shows none of its
Marines assigned to Balad dur-
ing Routh’s service. The portion
of the chronology covering the
first several months of that tour
was not available, a Marine ar-
chivist said.
As for the Haiti mission, the
22nd MEU chronology shows
that while Marines helped dis-
tribute food, water and medical
aid, there is no mention of buri-
als. It also appears from the nar-
rative that the command ele-
ment, to which Routh was at-
tached, never left the assault
ship USS Bataan.
The only document that
mentioned Routh by name was
a “debarkation roster” dated
April \ 2010 — the end date of
his deployment.
“There’s no information that
we have at this time that can
confirm or refute his claims of
being in those particular loca-
tions and doing those particular
tasks,” said Capt. Stewart Coles,
a spokesman for the II Marine
Expeditionary Force at Camp
Lejeune, North Carolina.
From Page 6A
Routh
ii
“Eddie stated he was hurting
and that his family does not un-
derstand what he has been
through,” the police report said.
His parents and sister have
told reporters that Eddie
claimed to be a vampire or were-
wolf, and complained that a
tapeworm was eating out his in-
sides.
With area theaters showing
the Oscar-nominated movie
about Kyle’s life — and alluding
to his death, in a brief on-screen
note and footage from a funeral
motorcade — defense attorney J.
Warren St. John has expressed
concern that Routh can’t get a
fair trial in Erath County.
On a recent rainy afternoon,
people lined up outside the Cin-
emark Cinema 6 in Stephenville
for tickets to see American
Sniper, starring Bradley Cooper.
That show and the next quickly
sold out, and management has
been adding an extra screen on
weekends to meet demand.
Like others in the crowd, El-
by Cato has received a jury sum-
mons. He says the movie won’t
affect his ability to be impartial.
“Can he get a fair trial here?
You bet,” said Cato, 48. “I think a
lot of people have military kids
here, and they understand what
they’re going through. ... He’s
going to jail, but I feel like he
needs to have a lighter sentence
because of it — and help.”
Moviegoer Janet Huggins
has given a lot of thought to
PTSD, and whether a noncom-
bat veteran like Routh has a
right to use it as a defense. But
she recognizes that it is “a terri-
ble disease.”
“They are all victims,” said
Huggins, 56, a collections man-
ager, also called for jury duty.
“Eddie’s a victim. Chad Little-
field’s a victim, and so is Chris.
And then you’ve got the families.
Everybody’s going through their
own hell.”
Stengle reported from Ste-
phenville; Breed is a national
writer, based in Raleigh, N.C.
a
m ■
J
• .
Routh would go back to
Green Oaks at least one more
time. On Jan. 30, 2013, his
mother took him to the Veterans
Affairs hospital.
Despite her pleas that he be
admitted, doctors sent him
home.
LM Otero/AP
A movie patron wears a Chris Kyle-themed shirt as heads to watch a sold-out afternoon show-
ing of “American Sniper” in Stephenville on Jan. 22.
To the Iraqi insurgents who’d
placed a bounty on his head,
Chris Kyle was “al-Shaitan Ra-
madi” — the “devil of Ramadi.”
But to Jodi Routh, he was an an-
Around 5 p.m., a resort em-
ployee discovered the bodies.
Kyle and Littlefield lay on the
ground amid scattered weap-
ons; each had been shot several
times.
an interview with the Texas
Rangers, Routh said he under-
stood what he’d done and want-
ed to apologize to the men’s fam-
ilies.
“Eddie would come to my
house and sit out there and talk
to me and tell me stuff”’ he says.
“The bombing and stuff, the
bodies on the side ... kids, out
when they were going through
patrols. Kids out there kind of
hungry and stuff”
He figures something out at
Rough Creek made him snap.
“I just have a feeling that Ed-
die went to that rifle range ...
and he heard the shelling again,
and something triggered him
off” Elizondo says.
Many former Marines aren’t
buying it, some expressing their
doubts in angry, profane online
posts. And records obtained by
The Associated Press suggest
they’re right to be skeptical.
Routh was a small-arms
technician, also known as an ar-
morer. Veterans say a support
person like that would not have
been out on patrol.
Raymond Routh was quoted
as saying his son claimed to have
helped guard prisoners at Balad
gel.
In search of another mission
after leaving the SEALs, Kyle
helped create a program to help
rehabilitate wounded and trou-
bled veterans through exercise.
Jodi Routh worked as an aide at
the Kyle kids’ school, and she
asked if he would take her son
“It wasn’t a want to,” he said
in a recording played in court. “It
was a need to, to get out of that
situation out there today or I was
going to be the one out there to
get my head shot off”
“You know what you did to-
day is wrong, right?” the ranger
asked.
About 45 minutes later,
Routh pulled up at his sister’s
Midlothian home in Kyle’s
truck.
Laura Blevins told police that
Eddie “was out of his mind say-
ing people were sucking his soul
and that he could smell the pigs.”
He told her he’d “traded his soul”
for the pickup.
He’d killed Kyle and Little-
field, Routh allegedly admitted
to his sister and her husband,
and later to Texas Rangers.
Echoing the advice his parents
had given him before he left for
Iraq, Gaines Blevins says his
brother-in-law told him he’d
“killed them before they could
kill him.”
After leading police on a brief
chase, Routh was arrested on
Interstate 35 near Lancaster. In
on.
Kyle and Littlefield
neighbor and hunting buddy
who also volunteered his time
with veterans — decided to take
Routh shooting. It was Feb. 2,
2013.
Yes, sir,” Routh replied.
a
That evening, police blocked
off the street and told Routh’s
neighbor Danny Elizondo to
stay in his house.
The Eddie he knew was a
normal guy who came to neigh-
borhood barbecues and asked if
Elizondo, who painted cars,
would redo his VW “bug” in
camouflage. Routh had com-
plained of flashbacks, but Eli-
zondo had never known him to
be violent or delusional.
In Kyle’s black pickup, they
drove to Rough Creek Lodge
and Resort, which sits on 11,000
acres of rolling hills scattered
with scraggly trees and prairie
grasses. In addition to luxury ac-
commodations, it has hunting
areas and a 1,000-yard shooting
range.
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Parks, Scott K. Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 111, No. 190, Ed. 1 Sunday, February 8, 2015, newspaper, February 8, 2015; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1124779/m1/7/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .