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GOP Senators Making Concessions; Interview with U.S. Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez of California; Eddie Ray Routh Guilty of Murder

Aired February 25, 2015 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I love it, too. Happy Wednesday to you. Have a great day.

NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EDDIE RAY ROUTH, SUSPECT WHO KILLED CHRIS KYLE: I've been so paranoid and schizophrenic all day I don't know what to make of the world right now. I don't know if I'm insane or sane.

COSTELLO: Sane and guilty. Fresh off the verdict for the man who murdered the American Sniper. We're hearing all of the testimony from inside the courtroom for the very first time. From tactical to emotional.

TAYA KYLE, WIDOW OF CHRIS KYLE: We said we loved each other and gave each other a kiss and a hug like we always did and then just -- you know, I left. When I left he was in the driveway still kind of trying to get more stuff in there and get going.

COSTELLO: New insight into the how the jury reached this verdict in just over two hours.

Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

For the first time we're hearing testimony from the "American Sniper" trial. The judge would not allow the audio to be played until after the verdict.

Late last night jurors found Eddie Ray Routh guilty of killing Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield. And it didn't take them long, just over 2 1/2 hours. Immediately after the verdict the judge sentenced Routh to life in prison without parole.

Martin Savidge is in Stephenville, Texas, with more this morning.

Good morning. MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Yes, the verdict came down. It was breathtakingly fast that this jury was able to come up with a unanimous decision. They went out, I think, at 6:36, 7:36 p.m. Eastern Time and when you add up the time, it took longer for the attorneys to make their closing arguments than it did for the jury to come up with its verdict. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUDY LITTLEFIELD, CHAD LITTLEFIELD'S MOTHER: We've waited two years for God to get justice for us on behalf of our son.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): Breaking overnight, the "American Sniper" trial captivating a nation is over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We the jury found the defendant, Eddie Ray Routh, guilty.

SAVIDGE: Deliberating for less than three hours, the jury found 27- year-old defendant Eddie Ray Routh guilty of killing former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield. The former Marine seemingly showing no reaction as the judge sentenced him to a life behind bars without parole.

TIM MOORE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: He thought he had to take their lives because he was in danger.

SAVIDGE: Jurors rejecting defense arguments that Routh, diagnosed with PTSD, was legally insane.

ROUTH: I've been paranoid-schizophrenic all day I don't know what to make of the world right now.

SAVIDGE: The 27-year-old shown here in 2013 moments after police arrested him for shooting Kyle and Littlefield multiple times at a gun range. Later Routh told police he believed his victims were pig-human hybrids.

ROUTH: I've been smelling them this whole time.

SAVIDGE: In an unusual circumstance the judge barred audio from the trial until the verdict was reached.

JODI ROUTH, EDDIE RAY ROUTH'S MOTHER: He was very suicidal.

SAVIDGE: Routh's mother Jodi who claimed Eddie once threatened to kill himself and their family retold what she did the moment she heard her son killed Kyle.

ROUTH: I had Chris's phone number in my phone and I dialed that number praying to God that he would answer.

SAVIDGE: Taya Kyle, the wife of the former sniper, was overcome with emotion on the stand.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Take a minute if you need to. SAVIDGE: Recalling the last time she saw her husband.

KYLE: We said we loved each other and gave each other a kiss and a hug like we always did.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: Carol, I was in the courtroom when Taya Kyle made that emotional testimony, it deeply impacted the jury. You could easily see that.

By the way, Taya Kyle was not in the courtroom last night when the verdict was read. She had stormed out of that courtroom a short time before during closing arguments angered by some of the depictions that the defense used when talking about the murder of her husband -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Interesting. And I do want to play a little more of Chris Kyle's widow on the witness stand talking about how she learned her husband had been killed. So let's listen together, Martin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KYLE: First of all, Leanne, Chad's wife had called me, and said, hey, have you heard from the guys? I haven't heard from them. And so I had -- I called once and didn't get an answer. Then I texted, are you OK? I'm getting worried.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did he text back?

KYLE: No, which is -- there's one thing about him, about Chris, is that he never wanted me to worry about anything, and I never wanted him to so I also knew that if I said, hey, I'm worried, that even if there was something serious going on, they were in a deep conversation, that he would take the time to just be like all good, babe, you know, call you later, whatever. Just something quick to let me know. And the guy Chris went to school with who's a police officer pulled up to the house.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was he on duty?

KYLE: He was on duty.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He wasn't just there as a friend?

KYLE: Correct. And even on duty sometimes he would stop by our house just to say hi or check in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So when he first pulls up do you immediately think something's wrong or are you thinking maybe he's pulling up as a friend?

KYLE: You know, it's kind of hard not to -- not to put some of it together that I haven't heard from him and I'm worried, and I haven't heard from him and then a police officer shows up. A lot of times in the military, you know, there's always rumors that somebody has gotten hurt or something has gone down.

But you just -- I mean, from experience you don't ever, ever, ever go to that place where you believe it until it's confirmed because you can borrow a whole lot of trouble that way, so I did see him and I did say, hey, Mark, what's up? You know, just like I'm going to believe in the best. And he said, have you seen Chris' truck? And I said, no, Mark, I haven't. And I said, what's going on? And he said -- he goes, well, I think Chris has been hurt.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Were you eventually, though, told by somebody that Chris was dead?

KYLE: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: That's just so emotional. Martin --

(CROSSTALK)

SAVIDGE: Very emotional moment there, Carol.

COSTELLO: It was. I want you to get a little bit more into why Mrs. Kyle stormed out of the courtroom during closing arguments. Can you tell us more about that?

SAVIDGE: Well, I can only tell you -- first of all, I wasn't in the courtroom. We were in the overflow courtroom. It's a separate setup for members of the media, and so while we're listening to closing arguments there was one point where the defense was speaking and there was a very loud thump as if somebody had taken a very heavy book and thrown it on a desk, and we were all like, what was that? What just happened? But we couldn't see because the camera only focuses on the attorney.

So later it was learned that that was around the time that Taya Kyle, again, upset by something that the defense had said, got up and immediately left that courtroom. It did not disrupt the proceedings. They went on as normal, but it was later we found out that she left and she did not return to hear the verdict.

COSTELLO: All right. Martin Savidge, thanks so much.

A lot of questions this morning for the jurors in the case, mainly surrounding how quickly they came to their decision. Just 2 1/2 hours of deliberations.

On ABC's "Good Morning America" they were asked if the film "American Sniper" might have influenced their decision.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There might have been a few of us that did. Barrett might have.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS: Barrett, you saw the movie. How did it impact you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It gave me a better outlook on Chris's role as a Marine, what that job entitles, a greater respect for it, but as far as the actions that took place on February 2nd, you know, Chad was still in the picture and Chad was not in that movie. I basically put the fact that Chris was a Marine, you know, out of my mind and just looked at him as a person, looked at Chad as a person, looked at Eddie as a person and tried to make, you know, reasonable judgment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: I want to bring in CNN legal analyst Paul Callan.

You know, it does bring to mind, should the judge have allowed the jurors to watch the film, and could this be this basis for an appeal from defense attorneys?

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I don't think the judge should have allowed them to either watch the film or watch the Oscars, which they did, some of them undoubtedly did because the judge did not prohibit it. However, having seen the movie before they were selected, that's a different issue. If a juror says well, I've seen the movie, but it's not going to affect my fairness.

But you don't want things interfering with the trial itself. You don't want things coming in from outside the courtroom. Now on the issue of reversible error, will it get thrown out because of this? The answer to that is no. And the reason I say that is because the movie just made the victim a very likeable, honorable person, it really had nothing to do with the facts of the killing. If it were a case where it was a self-defense claim and the claim was that Kyle was attacking him, then maybe the movie's influence would have impacted.

But here this was strictly a determination of sanity or insanity. It wasn't a whodunit. We know who did it and --

COSTELLO: Right.

CALLAN: So I don't think it will be thrown out because of that.

COSTELLO: So you mentioned that the -- the insanity plea, right? Well, jurors did not buy that at all so I want you to listen to what else they said about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I say there's a pattern that we saw, it was, you know, he would be -- he would get intoxicated, get in trouble and then the police would show up and he would say, I'm a veteran, I have PTSD, I'm insane. You know, and every time something bad happened, he'd pull that card.

And also, golly, just other evidence like his other convictions and then as well as, you know, just patterned behaviors through his interviews with the specialists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So it's interesting because this guy was on medication for schizophrenia so he was diagnosed a schizophrenic, which is a mental illness, correct? But they didn't buy into that at all seemingly. The juror said, you know, he was just faking it to justify his behavior.

The only, you know, factor in my mind is that there's not a motive for why Routh killed these two men.

CALLAN: Well, there is a motive but it's the most minor of all motives. He said that they insulted him by not talking to him in the car. That was really the only motive that was, you know, articulated at trial.

But, you know, I think what this demonstrates is, first of all, the prosecutor's theory resonated with the jury that he was a schemer and a faker and that what he was doing was he was trying to exaggerate his symptoms to make himself look more sick than he really was. And she obviously bought that and said, he pulled out the PTSD card, the mental illness card every time he could. However, he seemed to know what he was doing. He fled the scene after.

COSTELLO: Yes.

CALLAN: He drove 100 miles to Dallas and then went and got something to eat. And he did a number of other things that would indicate planning and awareness that I think resonated with this jury.

COSTELLO: Paul Callan, many thanks.

CALLAN: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Always appreciate your insight.

CALLAN: OK.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the clock ticks down as Senate Republicans back off. Can they hammer out a compromise and prevent a Homeland Security shutdown? We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: In Washington, the countdown clock is ticking. Congress has only three days to pass new funding for the Department of Homeland Security. It's due to run out of cash on Friday, meaning 30,000 administrators will be sent home. Essential employees will still have to work but without a paycheck. As the vice president points out, that includes the secretary in charge, Jeh Johnson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Be good to Jeh. Jeh -- Jeh -- Jeh may need some help because he may lose his pay. You know, the Congress is, you know, shutting down, you know? I don't know, Jeh, man, I think you'd have a little more swac (ph) than that. (END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Maybe Mr. Biden can afford to joke a bit because the pressure is on the Republicans who now control both houses of Congress and in the face of public anger they have made key concessions.

Let's get more details now from CNN congressional correspondent Dana Bash.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Unless Congress acts, the TSA, which keeps airports safe, the coast guard, which keeps America's waters safe, and the Secret Service, which keeps the president safe, would lose funding.

REP. STENY HOYER (D), MINORITY WHIP: Let the Department of Homeland Security do its job for America, for Americans.

SEN. JOHN THUNE, GOP CONFERENCE CHAIR: Democrats continue to try to protect funding for the president's unconstitutional action.

BASH: Senate Republicans back off a bit, saying they would fund Homeland Security, as Democrats demanded, as long as they also vote to end the president's plan giving legal status to millions of undocumented immigrants.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MAJORITY LEADER: An opportunity to express their disapproval at what the president did in November.

BASH: But Democrats want assurances House Republicans will fully fund Homeland Security.

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MINORITY LEADER: The burden is on the Republicans. What they're doing is wrong for the country and they not only will be blamed, they should be blamed for what's going on.

BASH: If the department does shut down, it would mean some 30,000 furloughs, but the vast majority of workers from TSA to border patrol to Secret Service agents would still be required to work, in most cases without pay.

(on camera): They would have to come to work, so is it really going to be that big of a deal to most of your agency to -- when it comes to the risk to this country?

JEH JOHNSON, DHS SECRETARY: Yes, it is that big of a deal. Let's not forget the Department of Homeland Security interfaces with the American public more than any other department of our government at airports, at ports.

BASH (voice-over): This is the first big leadership test for Republicans since taking control of Congress proving they can govern yet still embracing conservatives who want to challenge the president's policies, and it's a test for freshman Republicans like Senator Mike Rounds who campaigned on ending Washington dysfunction. SEN. MIKE ROUNDS (R), SOUTH DAKOTA: There's a difference between

having a dysfunction in which the system doesn't work and a case of where you have disagreements among members of the United States Senate. Having disagreements --

BASH (on camera): Which one is this?

ROUNDS: This is one where we have disagreements of the members of the United States Senate.

BASH: It's pretty dysfunctional to be on the brink of the Homeland Security Department shutting down.

ROUNDS: Except that we're not there right now. They were smart enough to extend it before.

BASH: Whether you call it disagreement or dysfunction, the Senate Republican leaders have now decided to move past all of that, or at least try, by conceding to Democrats and agreeing to a clean bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, but they still have to get past some conservatives who are going to maybe try to slow the train down in the Senate and then, of course, the House.

So, it is a big question whether or not they can still get this done before the Friday deadline when the Homeland Security Department runs out of money.

Dana Bash, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: All right. I want to bring in Democratic Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez from California.

Good morning.

REP. LORETTA SANCHEZ (D), CALIFORNIA: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning. I'm glad you're here.

Senator McConnell says his plan respects both points of view. If such a plan were up for vote in the House, would you vote yes?

SANCHEZ: Well, I certainly want to keep the Department of Homeland Security open and, you know, it's one of the departments that year after year has one of the lowest employee morale because we -- they really get moved around in such a negative way, especially in these political football games.

And so, I think it's incredibly important that we send these people to work. They're on the frontline. They're doing such an important --

COSTELLO: So, would you vote yes?

SANCHEZ: So, I would vote to keep the Department of Homeland Security open and paid for. Of course, as you know, I believe that what the president did with

respect to keeping families together and working hard to eliminate criminals without the right paperwork in the United States versus moms who don't have paperwork. So, I believe in the president's program and, of course, I would vote to continue on with the president and what he's trying to do.

COSTELLO: I understand.

Back to the homeland security issue for a moment. Senator McConnell, as you well know, is in a bind. He's trying to navigate divisions within his own party. The conservative blog Red State's headline reads, "Eunuch Mitch McConnell squeals like a pig." In the face of that, McConnell did what he thought was best for the country.

So, why don't all Democrats cut him a break on this one?

SANCHEZ: Well, I believe it depends how the vote comes up in the Senate and what they do. The senators have traditionally not been the problem. It's been the right wing of the Republican House members that have continually stopped even these types of compromises where people are moving forward, ideas of how to break the stalemate.

So, while McConnell may be trying to find a solution, it's really about Speaker Boehner and whether he can get the majority of this caucus to actually keep and vote for a funding for the Department of Homeland Security before Friday.

COSTELLO: So, if a similar bill is introduced in the House to what Senator McConnell is suggesting, which is a short-term funding measure, right, will most Democrats in the House vote yes?

SANCHEZ: I believe there will be a lot of Democrats who have already said we want to vote on a clean bill. Whether that would be a full bill through the end of September 30th or whether that would be something to buy us time for three weeks, for a month, for two months, as long as it's clean and it doesn't touch what the president is proposing to do with respect to keeping families together, I believe you would see a lot of Democratic votes in the House. It's the Republicans who are the ones who have said they don't want a clean bill.

COSTELLO: Something that Dana Bash brought up that I want to ask you about. Some conservatives accuse Democrats of using scare tactics to force the issue. Even if DHS is not funded, it will still function. I mean, ISIS is going to suddenly storm our shores.

So, are those critics fair?

SANCHEZ: Well, first of all, it's not that ISIS is going to storm our shores, it's that there are people that have returned, there are lone wolves out there. There's always the potential for a secure -- for a terrorist attack in the United States.

But let me tell you why I believe this is so important. I told you that the morale of those people who worked day in and day out to protect us at airports, on our coasts, on our borders, et cetera, that they have the lowest morale in the government. And when they are used as a pawn in political maneuvering over here in Washington, D.C., when they have to go to work not knowing whether they're going to get paid for what they did, then I think that that continues to bring the morale down.

And if you work -- had worked in an office where you see that the morale is low, you will know that mistakes can happen and so, what we need to do is we need to tell the employees of the Department of Homeland Security just how important they are to America and to Americans and that's why we need to fund them through September 30th and we need to fund them with a clean bill. Let's get this done.

COSTELLO: Congressman Loretta Sanchez, thanks so much for your insight. Thanks you for joining me this morning. I appreciate it.

SANCHEZ: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM: French authorities on alert again following a second night of drones over the skies of Paris.

Samuel Burke is following that story for us from London.

Good morning, Samuel.

SAMUEL BURKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. These drones are flying over the most recognizable and important landmarks in all of Europe. Details in just a moment on NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Twenty-seven million people under winter storm warnings right now. Dallas and its suburbs, you are under an advisory. This is a picture from south of the city and, oh, it looks cold, doesn't it.

Also, we're looking at messy weather from Texas, all the way to Delaware. Snow and ice landing more than 1,400 miles. Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama all declaring states of emergency ahead of crippling conditions. So, be careful out there.

In other news this morning, the mystery deepens for a second night in a row. Drones have been spotted in the skies over Paris. Last night, unmanned aircraft were seen over several landmarks, including the national assembly and one of Paris's largest subway stations.

Samuel Burke is following the story for us from London.

Hi, Samuel. Tell us more.

BURKE: Good morning, Carol.

The plot certainly thickens. These aren't sites that are recognizable to tourists, they are some of the most important democratic institutions in all of Europe and certainly in France. I want to remind people where the drones were spotted. On Monday night, those were the first sightings, where five drones

were spotted over the Eiffel Tower, the Bastille, Place de la Concorde, which is a large public square known to many who visited France, Les Invalides, which is an important museum, as well as the U.S. embassy which is most concerning to Americans. We contacted the embassy. They have no comments.

And then, again, last night after all of this, they were spotted in five different locations, Carol, over the Latin Quarter, also over the French National Assembly, which is of course the equivalent of the United States Congress, and then over Gare de l'Est, which is one of the largest rail stations, and over two metro stations.

Important to note that, Carol, unlike some places where the drone rules are not very clear, it's very clear in Paris. You cannot fly a drone under 20,000 feet without explicit permission, which was not given by the Parisian municipal government. It's absolutely banned to fly drones overnight in Paris.

COSTELLO: So, what do authorities make of these drones?

BURKE: Well, the police say they've opened up on investigation. It is being handled by the police and the prosecutor's office and not by the military at this age.

Keep in mind this is a city reeling from the attacks on "Charlie Hebdo" and the Jewish super market. So, of course, they're concerned and what the authorities are indicating and drone analysts say that, in all likelihood, if history is any indication, likely a drone enthusiast or a group of them flying them over the city at nighttime. Of course, it might be difficult for them to record footage, which is a lot of drone users do.

But, of course, the real threat here, actually they say in all likelihood if a drone fell from the sky and actually crashed into the street, Carol, into a person or into an airplane, that's probably the largest threat that would have authorities most concerned.

COSTELLO: All right. Samuel Burke reporting live from London this morning -- thank you.

Still to come on the NEWSROOM: ISIS targets women, children and the elderly in a terrifying string of door to door raids in Northeastern Syria.