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AMERICAN SHOOTER

Where is Chris Kyle’s killer Eddie Ray Routh now?

EDDIE Ray Routh shot dead American Sniper Chris Kyle in 2013 and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Routh killed Kyle at the Rough Creek Ranch-Lodge-Resort shooting range in Erath County, Texas on February 2, 2013.

Eddie Ray Routh was 25 when he murdered Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield in 2013
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Eddie Ray Routh was 25 when he murdered Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield in 2013Credit: AFP

Where is Eddie Ray Routh now?

Routh is thought to be serving his sentence at the Ramsey I Unit in Anderson County, Texas.

He was found guilty of the murders of American Sniper Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield.

What sentence was Eddie Ray Routh given for the murders of Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield?

Routh, a former Marine and Iraq vet, was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2015 after the court rejected claims he was experiencing a psychotic episode when he murdered Kyle and Littlefield.

He killed Kyle and Littlefield at Rough Creek Ranch-Lodge-Resort shooting range in Erath County, Texas on February 2, 2013.

During the murder trial, the court heard Routh had spent the prior evening drinking and smoking marijuana.

He complained that Kyle and Littlefield "wouldn't talk to me" and that the large number of weapons in the vehicle were making him anxious, resulting in him being convinced the men were planning to kill him.

After the killings, Routh said: "I was just riding in the back seat of the truck, and nobody would talk to me.

"They were just taking me to the range, so I shot them. I feel bad about it, but they wouldn't talk to me. I'm sure they've forgiven me."

Routh armed himself with a 9mm Sig Sauer P226 MK25 pistol, a model favoured by Navy Seals, and a Springfield .45 pistol.

He shot Littlefield seven times with the 9mm handgun before turning to firing six shots into Kyle.

Routh then fled the scene in Kyle's black Ford truck, taking it to his uncle's house and declaring, "Check out my truck," Routh told him. "I'm driving a dead man's truck". 

Chris Kyle was shot by Routh at a shooting range after taking him there
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Chris Kyle was shot by Routh at a shooting range after taking him thereCredit: 2012 NBCUniversal Media, LLC

Did Eddie Ray Routh suffer from PTSD?

Routh suffered from PTSD after being discharged from the Marine Corps in 2011.

In 2007 he was deployed to Iraq before being sent on a seven-month Middle East deployment on the USS Bataan.

Routh then served in Haiti for four months, following the earthquake in January 2010, and returned disturbed by what he had experienced.

He told his father he had been, "fishing hundreds of bodies — men, women, children — out of the ocean, piling them up and throwing them into mass graves".

After returning from service, Routh struggled with normality, mental health issues and holding down a job.

Two years prior to the 2013 murders, Routh had been diagnosed with PTSD after being admitted to the Dallas Veterans Administration hospital.

He was prescribed a large range of powerful medication and was also self-medicating with marijuana and alcohol, contributing to his experiences of a serious depressive illness.

After a lengthy stint of delusional episodes resulting in him being in and out of hospital and then drugged and discharged, Routh seemed to improve and moved in with his girlfriend, Jennifer Weed.

He later took Weed and her roommate hostage with a knife in their apartment until police responded during an episode, seeing him admitted to the Veterans hospital again.

He was admitted to the admitted to the Veterans Administration hospital in Dallas in July 2011, where he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Doctors prescribed a raft of antipsychotic and anti-anxiety drugs, but he declined the treatment offered at the inpatient facility and stopped taking medications after being discharged, according to Tuko News.

Where is the Louis C. Powledge Unit and who has been detained there?

Louis C. Powledge Unit (B2, originally the Beto II Unit) is a prison for men located in Anderson County, Texas, though Routh is actually being held in Ramsey I Unit.

Louis C. Powledge Unit opened in July 1982 and is operated by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

It can house up to 816 in the main unit plus 321 in the Trusty Camp, according to prisoninsight.com.

Other people to be detained there include Warren Jeffs - the leader of Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints who was convicted of aggravated sexual assault of multiple children.

Read More on The US Sun

Former inmates include Carlos Coy, a Texas rapper convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child and Royce Zeigler who was convicted of the murder of two-year-old girl Riley Ann Sawyers.

Terry Hornbuckle – former pastor in Arlington, TX church, convicted of raping females in congregation, was also detained there.

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