Eddie Ray Routh's Attorneys File Appeal and Motion for New Trial

“We are disappointed in the verdict,” Eddie Routh's attorney, J. Warren St. John, told PEOPLE. “Mr. Routh is still suffering from schizophrenia. He had a belief in his mind that day. He believed that they were going to kill him. It was a real belief that he had. We’re disappointed the jury didn’t give that any consideration. They dismissed that.”

Warren St. John said that he believed more than half of the 12 jurors had seen “American Sniper,” which was released three weeks before the trial started in Stephenville, Texas. “They stated prior to being on the jury it didn’t, but I clearly do think it had an effect,” Mr. St. John said. “He had the label of an American hero, ‘American Sniper,’ decorated war veteran. I think it affected their ability to be fair and impartial.”

“We don’t think that we got a fair trial in that small community, not that there’s not some good folks there,” Mr. St. John said. “It’s because of the publicity, and the movie came out right then, and the governor right before we started the trial had a ‘Chris Kyle Day.’ We thought it should be in a bigger jurisdiction where the jury pool would be more diverse than it was in Stephenville.” The trial played out in a tight-knit, old-fashioned town that bills itself as the “Cowboy Capital of the World.” Mr. Routh’s defense team had asked the court to postpone the trial and move it out of the county. The judge, Jason Cashon of Erath County District Court, denied their request, saying that the smoothness of the jury selection process showed that Mr. Routh could receive a fair trial.

Attorneys for Routh filed notice March 4, 2015, that they would appeal his capital murder conviction. Warren St. John also filed a motion for a new trial, arguing the conviction and sentence were contrary to law and evidence.

WFAA8 - Hours after Eddie Routh murdered Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield, a Texas Ranger asked him if he understood his rights. Routh responded with a vulgarity we can't print, but he never said "yes."

"You can watch that 'til you're blue in the face, and never see a response from him," lead defense attorney Warren St. John said on Wednesday.

St. John fought to keep Routh's confession from being entered as evidence, and he said that will be part of an appeal he expects to file within a week.

We asked how Routh took the guilty verdict, knowing he now faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

"Well, because he's on anti-psychotic medicine, his personality is somewhat flat; he's not happy with it," St. John said on February 25, 2015.

He added that Routh showed no emotion throughout the trial because of the medicine, and because lawyers told him to stay calm. Routh took his medications every afternoon at 2 o'clock.

St. John has handled nine death penalty cases and about two dozen capital murders cases that don't involve the possibility of execution, like Routh's. He had expected the jury to take more time to reach its decision on Tuesday; it took them just over two hours.

"I wasn't surprised by the verdict, just based on the overall tragedy of what happened. I was very disappointed that the jury reached a conclusion so fast. We were very kind of shocked by that," he said.

St. John added that he respected the verdict, but disagreed with it. He also praised Judge Jason Cashon's handling of the case, and the work of Erath County District Attorney Alan Nash and assistant Texas Attorney General Jane Starnes.

The defense lawyer believes Chris Kyle's fame definitely made it harder to try the case in Stephenville — or anywhere else — especially since the former Navy SEAL was such a revered veteran who died as he lived: helping others, often at his own risk.

On the other hand, St. John said Eddie Routh hurt his own defense.

"The first thing you tell every client you ever have is, 'Don't speak to anyone.' You can't control what they do," he said.

Routh talked repeatedly to a New Yorker magazine reporter. Prosecutors played their conversations for the jury.

Routh explained that he waited for an opportune moment to shoot Chris Kyle.

"It was like I started shooting, and he was just finishing a magazine... just finished his last shell," Routh said in the profanity-laced interview.

Prosecutors said the fact that Routh waited until Chris Kyle's gun was empty is further proof he knew exactly what he was doing.

Jurors clearly agreed.

Warren St. John remains convinced that Routh was psychotic due to severe mental illness. Texas law does not permit jurors to be told that defendants found not guilty by reason of insanity are sent to a mental hospital... not set free.

Eddie Routh has been held for two years in a single cell in the Erath County jail. His attorney fears that once Routh gets to prison, inmates could make him a target for murdering an American hero.


RAW VIDEO: Routh's confession

styrk - Attorneys for Eddie Ray Routh filed a formal appeal on March 4, 2015 of his capital murder conviction in the deaths of former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield.

Fort Worth attorney J. Warren St. John, who led the defense for Routh in the two-week trial last month, filed the appeal with the Erath County court, saying the jury's guilty verdict did not match the law or the evidence in the case.

The defense had asked that the trial be moved out of Stephenville, arguing that the popularity of the American Sniper movie based on Kyle's best-selling book would make it impossible for Routh to get a fair trial.

Routh, 27, of Lancaster, a former Marine corporal trained to repair small arms, was convicted Feb. 24 by an Erath County jury that deliberated less than three hours. He was automatically sentenced to life in prison without parole, because prosecutors did not seek the death penalty.

Jurors rejected Routh's insanity defense. Defense attorneys presented evidence that Routh was suffering from schizophrenia and other mental illness when he shot Kyle and Littlefield, and that he did not know what he had done was wrong.

District Attorney Alan Nash, however, who was joined in prosecuting the case by Assistant Attorney General Jane Starnes, presented evidence that Routh confessed to investigators that he knew what he had done was wrong. They argued that he was suffering from psychosis brought on by heavy abuse of marijuana and alcohol.