Chris Kyle, Chad Littlefield families get justice

Fox News producer Jennifer Girdon reports from inside the courtroom

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," February 24, 2015. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Joining me on the phone is the Fox News producer who is actually in the courtroom and had a bird's-eye view when the verdict was being read. Jennifer Girdon is with us. Jennifer, you were inside the courtroom. Tell us what happened, what you saw.

JENNIFER GIRDON, FOX NEWS PRODUCER: I saw an extremely emotional scene inside the courtroom tonight, obviously. The families and friends of these victims have been waiting two years for some sort of justice to come in this case. And they were crying. They were holding hands. At the end they all got up and hugged.

We heard some witness impact statements right after the verdict and the sentence were read that were very powerful.

HANNITY: So the families were actually holding hands. Taya Kyle was not in the courtroom. She had left during closing arguments. She was pretty mad on the defense's closing arguments. Also, verdict impact statements were read today. Tell us what you heard in those statements.

GIRDON: We heard statements from Chad Littlefield's brother, his half-brother and his father. His brother told Eddie Routh "You took the lives of two heroes, men that tried to be a friend to you, and you became an American disgrace."

Chad's dad was extremely emotional, tearing up at the end, and he said, you didn't even know Chad's name when you brutally murdered him, and now you have the rest of your wasted life to remember it. And then he said his name was Chad Littlefield and moved in and spelled his name to Eddie Routh. And Eddie, despite his lack of really emotion or any reaction during the trial, actually turned around and looked at them and seemed to be listening when they were giving these statements.

HANNITY: But Eddie Ray Routh showed absolutely no emotion whatsoever as the verdict guilty, capital murder was read and a polling of the jury, no reaction whatsoever?

GIRDON: None at all. He just sat, looked straight ahead. You know, he blinked a little bit, but it's hard to really tell what was going on. But he showed zero emotion throughout the whole trial. He just wrote a lot of notes, avoided eye contact with a lot of people. And as the verdict was read, everybody was watching him pretty closely, and he showed no reaction at all.

HANNITY: Where the Littlefield and the Kyle families seated near each other? Were they the ones that were actually holding hands at the time the verdict was being read?

GIRDON: Yes. They were all seated a couple rows behind us, the family, friends. Marcus Luttrell and wife were there a good deal of the time. And they were all, you know, they were trying not to be overly emotional or speak up too much. The judge warned them about that sort of thing. But they all had tears streaming down their faces. There were kind of grasping hands. You know -- you can't really say celebrating, but they were obviously very happy that after all of this time that they finally got that conclusion.

HANNITY: Was Wayne Kyle, the father of Chris, in the room?

GIRDON: Yes. Yes.

HANNITY: You know the story about when they first approached him, meaning Clint Eastwood and Bradley Cooper, and told him them they're going to play his son. I don't know if you remember the line that he used. He said, "If you dishonor my son I will open up the gates of hell against you." I don't know if you were familiar with that. I did ask him about it at the time I interviewed him.

GIRDON: I could believe it. They're a pretty amazing family. I can see something like that coming right out of his mouth.

HANNITY: All right, well, thank you, Jennifer, for sharing your insight on what you saw in the courtroom tonight.

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