'American Sniper' Trial: The Bizarre Message the Alleged Killer Left for Chris Kyle

The court heard four voicemail messages the men exchanged.

ByABC News
February 16, 2015, 12:09 PM

— -- The "American Sniper" jury heard voice mail messages that accused killer Eddie Ray Routh exchanged with Chris Kyle before they met to go for a fatal trip to a Texas gun range.

Four voice mails were played for the court and, while three were perfunctory, one gave some insight into Routh's apparent state of mind leading up to the Feb. 2, 2013, shooting.

"Kind of a sad day when it rains. It's a good sad. Rain will come and rains will leave. I guess that's what they do," Routh was heard saying on the tape.

Jeff Shaffer, a former Secret Service agent who now specializes in cybersecurity and computer forensics, analyzed the calls and said Kyle and Routh spoke several times, with those calls lasting between two and 15 minutes each.

Kyle's call logs show that in addition to receiving two calls from his wife, Taya, he had missed calls from people close to Routh.

Routh's girlfriend, Jennifer Weed, tried to call Kyle at 1:37 p.m. and 6:14 p.m. on the day of his slaying, along with Routh's mother, who called the former Navy Seal at 6:06 p.m.

Kyle regularly worked with veterans after retiring from the military and he offered to try to help Routh, a former Marine, after Routh's mother reached out to him.

The phone records came this afternoon as part of the fourth day of the double murder trial, following the testimony of three law enforcement officials involved in the case.

The Texas jailer who transported Routh after the slaying of Kyle and Kyle's friend Chad Littlefield said the suspect was irritated during the drive.

Sgt. Kenny Phillips of the Erath County Jail testified this morning about Feb. 2, 2013, when he transferred Routh from one jail to another after he was arrested in the shooting deaths of Kyle and Kyle's friend Chad Littlefield.

Phillips said Routh, now 27, asked for a cigarette during the drive.

"I would call him under the influence maybe," Phillips said in Erath County court this morning, noting that Routh's attitude changed “a great deal" during the ride.

Phillips said Routh "was in a detox situation for a while.”

Routh's use of marijuana on the morning of the shooting had come up in the trial last week, with his uncle testifying that they smoked together before he went to the gun range with Kyle.

Today marks the fourth day of the murder trial and, like last week, the families of both Kyle and Littlefield are in the courtroom.

Routh was seen taking notes throughout this morning's testimony. He faces life in prison if he is found guilty. He has entered a not guilty plea and his defense team will be arguing that he was insane at the time of the shooting.