Wayne Kyle says he and his wife “resent” the media’s portrayal of the murder trial

APRIL 2, 2015 — Wayne Kyle, the father of former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, opened up about his son’s life, death, and legacy in an exclusive interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt.  The elder Kyle spoke publicly for the first time since what he called the “gut-wrenching” trial of Eddie Ray Routh, who was found guilty of murdering Chris Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield.

Holt’s interview aired Thursday night on “NBC Nightly News” and additional portions will air Friday on “TODAY.”

Highlights are transcribed below and video is available online here: http://nbcnews.to/1NLtqK3

Excerpts of the interview may be used subject to the following restrictions:

• Mandatory credit to NBC News on first reference.
• The onscreen “NBC News Exclusive” credit must be clearly visible and unobstructed at all times in any image, video clip, or other form of media.
• Embedded web video must stream from the NBCNews.com media player with the unobstructed credit as described above.

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MANDATORY CREDIT: NBC NEWS / LESTER HOLT

Wayne Kyle on the “gut-wrenching” murder trial and the “relief” of the verdict:

LESTER HOLT: What was it like to sit in the courtroom with him?

WAYNE KYLE: Oh gosh it was horrible. I mean, gut wrenching. And it’s just one of those deals that you just want to jump over the railing and and, you know, kill him with your bare hands.

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WAYNE KYLE: We never had any peace to grieve ourselves.  But once they came back with that guilty verdict, then it was like ‘Okay, that chapter is closed.’ And there was a sense of relief.

On why he “resents” the media’s coverage of the trial:

LESTER HOLT:  It was the ‘American Sniper’ trial.

WAYNE KYLE: That was so, so wrong. I don’t know how every branch of the media portrayed it, but —

LESTER HOLT: I said the words. I bought into it. It was the ‘American Sniper’ trial.

WAYNE KYLE: We resent that because it was just then about the loss of Chris. The loss of Chris was no more of a tragedy than the loss of Chad Littlefield.

On the fears he felt for his son in civilian life:

WAYNE KYLE: I told him one time, I said, ‘Son, I — I worry more about you as a civilian than when you were with the teams.’ And he said, ‘Why is that?’ And I said, ‘Because you were fully trained, highly skilled in what you did.’ But I said, ‘There’s no training to be a civilian.’

On the proposition of posthumously awarding Chris the Medal of Honor:

WAYNE KYLE: If you knew Chris, you would know that he would never want that . He never saw himself as a hero.

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