Dr. Phil Speaks with the Parents and Sister of Eddie Ray Routh
Dr. Phil speaks with the parents of Eddie Ray Routh
March 10, 2015– In a national television exclusive, Dr. Phil speaks with Jodi and Raymond Routh, Sr., the parents of former Marine Eddie Ray Routh, who just last week was convicted of killing Navy Seal sharpshooter Chris Kyle. Kyle’s autobiography was the subject of the critically acclaimed movie “American Sniper,” and he, along with friend Chad Littlefield, was shot point blank by Routh at a Texas shooting range in 2013. This is the first time they have spoken publicly about their son since the trial. Dr. Phil also talks with Eddie’s sister Laura about her brother and the events of that tragic day in 2013.
During the trial, Eddie Ray Routh’s attorneys argued he was not guilty by reason of insanity citing
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The episode, "Inside the Mind of the Man Who Shot the American Sniper (S13/Ep121)", premieres on Monday, March 16, 2015.
Related:
- Marine Scout Sniper Adan Castañeda Declared Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity
- Jury Finds Eddie Ray Routh Guilty of Capital Murder and Sentences Him to Life without Parole (Trial Testimony)
- Eddie Ray Routh Transported to Texas Department of Criminal Justice Psychiatric Facility
- 'American Sniper' Chris Kyle Lied About Jesse Ventura, Among Other Things; Eddie Ray Routh Though Kyle Was Going to Kill Him
His parents told Dr. Phil he was having severe mental issues.
ReplyDelete“Something snapped in him,” said Raymond Routh, Sr. “Something snapped in my son. This wasn’t my son who did this. It was his body that did this but it wasn’t him in his right mind.”
But the jury didn’t buy the insanity plea, sentencing Routh to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“He asked me, `Mom, take me to the hospital. I am not good,'” said his mother, Jodi Routh.
Routh’s parents believe his deployment on humanitarian assignment to Haiti following the earthquake in 2010 changed him forever.
“He saw a lot of dead bodies and that was one of the things he said. `They didn’t train me to pick up bodies off the beach and dump them in a dump truck,'” Jodi said.
Shortly after, Routh started having panic attacks. His parents were told he had post-traumatic stress disorder. His mother went to Kyle, who volunteered helping veterans.
“I said to Chris, `Would you be willing to help my son who is a former Marine and he has PTSD and he really needs some help and we are not getting what we need,” Jodi said. “I would have never asked if I had an idea that this could happen.”
PTSD is generally non-violent, but if you pour drugs and alcohol into the mix, the incidence of violence ramps up dramatically.
“When anyone says awful things about your child, it cuts you in two. It breaks your heart again and again. I wasn’t about to give up on my son then and I’m not about to give up on him now,” Jodi said.
Routh was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He grew up in the Dallas suburb of Lancaster, about 20 miles east of Kyle’s hometown.
Tuesday28 • 12 hours ago
Watching this episode of Dr. Phil infuriated me. Why is this young man the only one being held responsible for these senseless murders? The VA clearly knew that he was a danger to himself and others. They probably expected he would just take his own life, like so many other soldiers, which doesn't seem to affect anyone. Texans should be ashamed that their state convicted an obviously mentally ill man who served his country and came home damaged. Our country is so willing to send its young men to war and so willing to demonize them when they return. My final fury is for the men who thought they could cure a fellow soldier with PTSD by taking him to gun range and taunting him about shooting. Where is their own responsibility in this? Imagine if they had chosen a less dangerous method of "helping" him. None of this would have had to happen.
http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2015/03/16/parents-of-man-who-killed-the-american-sniper-speak-to-dr-phil/
Raymond, 55, insists: 'This wasn't my son that did this.It was his body that did it, but it wasn't his right mind.'
ReplyDeleteHe adds: 'They think our God-dang kid is a villain. I mean just the evilest son of a b***h on the face of this earth.
'He's a decent young man that something snapped in him. Something snapped in my son.'
Asked about Kyle and Littlefield's families, Raymond says: 'I'm so sorry for these people's loss
'This ain't just two people dead, it's three kind of. It should never happen, but it did, and you can't turn back time, you just can't.'
Routh's mother Jodi, 53, said if she had a chance to speak to Kyle or Littlefield she would tell them how grateful she was for giving her son a hand.
'I've grieved for their moms,' she said, 'I've prayed and prayed for them and their families, their children.'
Routh's attorneys have now filed an appeal and a motion for a new trial.
He has been placed in the Beaufort H. Jester IV psychiatric facility in Richmond, Texas, 250 miles south of his parents' Dallas-area home, according to the state's Department of Criminal Justice. He had been undergoing assessment at a unit near Abilene.
On the weekend of the killings, the Rouths were having a break in Abilene, Texas.
Jodi said: 'I needed a mental health day and I needed some time to talk to Raymond and try to make a better plan for what we could do to help our son.
'Raymond had been talking with the VA in Amarillo. We wanted to move Eddie up there with him so that he could go to a different hospital and hopefully get the help he needed.
But then she got the fateful call from her daughter Laura, recalling: 'She is hysterical and I knew the moment I heard her voice that something really had gone wrong.
'And she tells me Eddie's killed two people. I knew she was telling me the truth. My heart just kept saying 'No, no, Eddie could never do this'.'
Jodi said her daughter described the truck that Routh had been driving. 'When she told me he was driving a black truck I knew that truck. I've seen it before. I'd opened the doors on it to let the kids out at school. 'I knew it was Chris' truck.
'I had Chris' number in my phone and I dialed it and no-one answered.
'It was a heart-stopping moment.'
Jodi said she had asked Kyle to help her son because she was dissatisfied with the treatment he was receiving from the VA hospitals. 'His trips to the hospital were not giving him the help he needed,' she said.
'And I so very much trusted the VA to take care of my son who was a veteran, because he had given his time and energy to our country. And I hate so much that I counted on them.'
She said she asked Kyle to help, telling the national hero: 'He’s a former Marine and he has PTSD and he really needs some help and we’re not getting what we need.
'And he said, 'Yes. I would be willing to help'. And that was my first day in several years that I really felt like anybody even cared if Eddie got the help that he needed or not.
'I would’ve never asked if I had an idea that this could happen.'
During the trial it was revealed that Kyle sent Littlefield a text as they drove to the shooting range saying 'This dude is straight-up nuts.'
Dr. Phil, a Texas-licensed psychologist, said he wanted to conduct the interviews with the Routh family because 'There's a side to this story that hasn't been told - and I want it told.'
ReplyDeleteRaymond Routh spoke to Daily Mail Online late last year before the trial that would send his son to jail for the rest of his days. Then he said his son would prefer to have been facing the death penalty than life behind bars.
'When you've grown up like Eddie — in the woods, hunting and fishing always being outside, you don't want to be behind bars, you can't be,' Routh senior said.
'I know he'd rather take the death penalty than sit behind those bars forever. He has said that.
Raymond said his son decided to sign up on 9/11 when he was just 13, after he had watched hijacked planes fly into the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center.
'He came to me that day and said: "I want to be a U.S. Marine. Will you sign the papers for me.
Routh said his son's experiences in Haiti after the earthquake were what really changed him. 'He wasn't prepared for what he was doing out there - fishing hundreds of bodies, men, women and children - out of the ocean, piling them up and throwing them into mass graves.
'It was overwhelming. My son asked me: "Why did they do this?" I told him it was to help stop disease.
'He had PTSD before he was off the ship. But just 24 hours after he got back he was back at hoe. Just dumped. Just sitting on the porch.
'He wouldn't talk, couldn't talk. Sometimes he would look OK then you could see he was back in the zone, in a sort of daze, like a deer in the headlights.
'He was back seeing whatever he had seen.'
Routh said Eddie would be fine for a few weeks but would then 'just lose it.'
One day a neighbor was fixing his roof with a nail gun and the noise made Eddie throw himself to the ground as if under enemy mortar attack.
On another occasion the two men went to the lake, a favorite place for his son since he was a child. 'It was all good but, I don't know, something triggered him and he was telling me he was Dracula, that he was a vampire and wanted to suck people's blood.
He was talking just as calm as you and me talking now, but he was gone, in his eyes he was gone.
'I had a .357 pistol and I pulled it away from him three times. He kept going for it and saying he would hurt himself.
'The third time I emptied all the bullets and threw them in the lake.'
After the verdict, Littlefield's brother, Jerry Richardson, turned to Routh and said: 'You took the lives of two heroes, men that tried to be a friend to you. You became an American disgrace.'
Scarlett, Small Town TX, United States, 23 hours ago
This case has rocked our little town so hard. You would have thought the world just stopped for that trial. I truly feel for all three families involved. No matter what anyone thinks, no parent wants their child to harm another person. I wish these people would all heal and stay out of the media! The victims have CHILDREN. Children who shouldn't have to be reminded of this horror daily.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2993741/Have-watched-scary-movie-villain-s-eyes-turn-BLACK-American-Sniper-killer-s-sister-reveals-moment-brother-confessed-devastating-crimes.html