This story will be updated.
A jury in Burlington rejected Jason Eaton's insanity defense today and found him guilty of attempting to kill three Palestinian men in 2023.
Jurors deliberated for two hours before convicting Eaton, 51, of three counts of attempted second degree murder for shooting Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmad.
He faces up to life in prison, and will be sentenced at a later date.
“Jason Eaton, the state submits, intentionally shot three people who were simply walking down the street,” Chittenden County State's Attorney Sarah George said during her closing statement today.
Nearly three years ago, Awartani, Abdalhamid and Ali Ahmad, were in Burlington visiting Awartani’s grandmother and uncle for the Thanksgiving holiday. On the evening of Nov. 25, 2023, the young men, who were all 20 and attending college at the time, were walking on North Prospect Street speaking a mixture of English and Arabic. Two of the three were also wearing keffiyehs — traditional Palestinian scarves.
The three young men testified on the first day of the weeklong trial and told jurors that Eaton approached them and, without speaking, drew a pistol and opened fire.
During testimony, the three men described the shooter as an older, skinny white male. But they could not specifically identify Eaton.
Eaton was arrested the day after the shooting while law enforcement officials were canvassing his apartment building. Federal agents testified that when they knocked on his door, Eaton walked out with his hands outstretched and said something to the effect of “I’ve been waiting for you.”
Prosecutors offered other evidence tying Eaton to the shooting. Bullet cases found at the scene of shooting matched ammunition found in Eaton’s apartment. And a firearms expert testified that the shell casing found at the scene were fired from the Ruger pistol that investigators found in Eaton’s apartment.
The heart of the trial focused on Eaton’s mental state at the time of the shooting with dueling testimony from mental health experts.
Eaton’s attorneys argued that he was legally insane at the time of the shooting, which meant he couldn’t be held criminally responsible for his actions.
In the weeks leading up to the shooting, Eaton started getting messages from the CIA while listening to Vermont Public on the radio, Eaton’s attorneys said during the trial. On the night of the shooting, Eaton claimed he was ordered to carry out the attack, according to a recording of an interview between Eaton and his lawyers.
“I was either talking to my ancestors and the divine consult or talking to an intelligence agency using an incredible AI that could come through my FM radio, through my bluetooth headset, through my phone — or I’ve had this incredible psychotic break,” Eaton said in recording, which was taped several days after the shooting.
The defense’s mental health expert, Dr. Fabian Saleh, said he believed Eaton was psychotic and delusional at the time of the crime.
Prosecutors pushed back on Saleh’s findings with their own expert witness, Dr. Jhilam Biswas, who argued Eaton’s wasn’t legally insane during the shooting and that he had an awareness that he might have imagined the purported radio commands from the CIA.
Biswas also pointed to the fact that Eaton, until now, had no record of being diagnosed with a delusional or psychotic disorder.
But public defender Margaret Jansch, one of Eaton’s attorneys, told the jury during closing arguments that his lack of prior diagnosis doesn’t mean he didn’t have a psychotic break on the day of the shooting.
“I'm not trying to suggest that Mr. Eaton's a victim here,” Jansch said. “It's not my purpose. He did know something was wrong with him, and he tried repeatedly to get help with varying degrees of success.”
Several times throughout the trial, Eaton clashed with his attorneys, and even tried to fire them. Judge John Pacht denied that motion.
The high-profile shooting, which occurred just weeks after the beginning of the war in Gaza, made national and international headlines. The victims and their families have said they believed the young men were targeted for being Palestinian, though prosecutors couldn’t find evidence to support hate crime charges.
During the trial, jurors heard some evidence that indicated Eaton targeted the men based on their Palestinian identity.
Eaton told his attorneys days after the shooting that he believed he was the protector of a nearby house that he believed was a Jewish communal home, according to a recording of the interview.
“I really wish that Grandma had been like, 'Hey, my grandkids are going to be in the neighborhood — they're gonna dress up like terrorists,' Eaton told his attorneys, according to a transcript read during the trial. “You know, things are a little tense when you've got American hostages over in Palestine.”
