Jury selection is set to begin today in the capital murder trial for the former Marine accused of gunning down famed Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle. Eddie Ray Routh, 27, is accused of killing Kyle, 38, and Kyle's friend, father-of-one Chad Littlefield, 35, at a shooting range near Chalk Mountain, Texas on February 2, 2013. Kyle, a married father-of-two, had been trying to help Routh deal with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder on the request of Routh's mother and had taken him to target practice when he was killed. Routh, who struggled with PTSD after serving as a small arms technician in Iraq before leaving the Marines in 2010, is pleading not guilty by reason of insanity.
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Eddie Ray Routh, 27, is accused of shooting dead Kyle, 38, and Kyle's friend Chad Littlefield, 35, at a shooting range in Texas in February 2013
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Kyle had been trying to help Routh cope with his PTSD at the time
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Jury selection starts on Thursday and the trial will begin next Wednesday
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Routh's attorneys have said the popularity of the movie 'American Sniper', based on Kyle's memoir, will make it hard to select an impartial jury
Routh's attorneys also lost a bid to have the trial moved out of @placeholder.