‘American Sniper’ trial draws daily regulars Dallas Morning News
By TASHA TSIAPERAS
21 February 2015 11:23 PMSTEPHENVILLE — Days before the capital murder trial of an ex-Marine accused of killing former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle and another man, Robert Blevins got a feeling he needed to head to Texas.
The Oklahoma retiree had never watched a trial before, but something about this one was nagging at him.
“Something told me, ‘You need to go to this trial,’” Blevins said. “I came here to honor a hero. I just wanted to see what took this man’s life.”
Blevins, wearing a dark-colored suit and clutching a yellow legal pad, was one of the first people to line up outside the Erath County courthouse two weeks ago to attend the first day of the trial.
But dozens of other spectators join him each day, getting up before sunrise to compete with media hordes for about 100 seats in the courtroom.
Some, like Blevins, have traveled hundreds of miles for the historic trial. Some are inquisitive townsfolk. Some are Kyle’s old friends.
But all of them are here to see firsthand what happens to Eddie Ray Routh, the man accused of killing America’s deadliest sniper and his best friend, Chad Littlefield, at a shooting range near Glen Rose.
David Landrum sits in the back of the Erath County courtroom with his hat tucked under his seat to mourn his lost friend.
As a student at Tarleton State University, Kyle worked at Landrum’s Bluff Dale ranch.
“I made a man out of him, and he was tough enough to take it,” Landrum, 68, said last week outside the courthouse.
Landrum gets a tip-of-the-hat from Kyle in his bestselling book, American Sniper. He’d lost track of Kyle over the years until he saw the news that his former ranch hand had been shot in February 2013.
The trial has been tough to take, but it has given Landrum the chance to meet Kyle’s widow, Taya. She teared up when she met Landrum, and he gave her some mementos from Kyle’s ranching days.
Moments like those have been what makes attending the trial worthwhile.
Air Force veteran Jim Walton met Kyle’s dad after the elder Kyle saw Walton sitting in court one day with a Vietnam War ball cap on his knee.
Kyle’s dad shook Walton’s hand and thanked him for his service.
“That made this trial special for me,” Walton said.
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