Vermont Jury Convicts Jason Eaton in 2023 Shooting of Three Palestinian American Students
BURLINGTON, Vt. — A Vermont jury on Sept. 21 convicted Jason Eaton of attempted murder in the 2023 shooting of three college students of Palestinian descent, rejecting his insanity defense in a case that drew national attention as the Israel-Hamas war deepened tensions in the United States.
Jurors found Eaton, 51, guilty on three counts of attempted second-degree murder in the Nov. 25, 2023, attack on Hisham Awartani, Tahseen Aliahmad and Kinnan Abdalhamid in Burlington. The verdict followed about two hours of deliberations and a six-day trial.
The three victims were in Burlington for Thanksgiving and were speaking a mix of Arabic and English and wearing traditional Palestinian scarves known as keffiyehs when they were shot, prosecutors said. All were 20 at the time and had grown up in the Israeli-occupied West Bank; they were visiting Awartani’s grandmother during a college break.
Eaton pleaded not guilty but did not dispute that he shot the students. His defense argued that he was legally insane at the time, citing his claims that U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies had directed him through radio messages and that God had told him to protect Jewish neighbors.
Defense attorneys called a forensic psychiatrist who concluded Eaton was so delusional that he could not be held criminally responsible. Jurors heard a recording made after the shooting in which Eaton described receiving messages from God, dead relatives and shadowy government agencies. According to the recording, he said those messages instructed him to watch over a Jewish home and take action connected to Armageddon. He also said radio coverage of the Israel-Hamas war contained “a very strong, clear, definitive, absolute, go-stop-them-now message.”
Prosecutors countered with their own psychiatric expert, who testified that Eaton suffered from narcissistic personality disorder, not a sustained break from reality. They also pointed to statements Eaton made after the shooting in which he referred to the victims as dressing “like terrorists” and suggested that the period after the war in Gaza began was not the time “to wear the thing on your head,” an apparent reference to the keffiyehs.
“You march through Ukraine with a Russian flag right now, things wouldn’t go that well,” Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George said, quoting Eaton from a transcript.
George welcomed the verdict. “Today’s verdict affirms that our justice system works best when truth is brought to light and accountability is upheld,” she said in a statement. “The convictions in this case are not just a legal outcome – they are recognition of the harm done and a step toward healing for the victims, their families, and our entire community.”
Eaton faces up to life in prison and a presumptive minimum sentence of 20 years on each count, according to George. No sentencing date has been set.
The attack left Awartani paralyzed from the chest down; his family said he now lives with paraplegia. Aliahmad was shot in the chest, while Abdalhamid was struck in the glute as he ran away, prosecutors said.
The shooting prompted calls for a hate crime investigation, though no hate crime charges were ultimately filed. It occurred amid heightened concerns about anti-Arab, anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish bias in the United States following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the start of the war in Gaza.
After the verdict, the victims’ families said justice “has been rendered” and expressed relief at the outcome. In the courtroom, victims and those close to them quietly celebrated. George and Deputy State’s Attorney Sally Adams hugged Awartani and Aliahmad.
In her statement on Sept. 21, George thanked Abdalhamid, Aliahmad, Awartani and their families. “The patience, kindness and grace they have consistently shown since the day this occurred is humbling,” she said. “It has been one of the greatest honors of my life to meet them, to get to know them and to bring justice to them.”
The case underscored the legal and social fault lines that emerged after the Gaza war began. Although prosecutors did not bring hate crime charges, testimony about Eaton’s views on the victims’ identity and the broader conflict remained central to the trial. For many Palestinian, Arab and Muslim communities, the shooting became a symbol of the fear and discrimination they said escalated after Oct. 7. At the same time, the insanity defense raised difficult questions about mental illness, radicalization and criminal responsibility — issues the jury ultimately resolved by rejecting Eaton’s claim that he could not be held accountable.
Related: Visualizing the death and destruction of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Contributing: Reuters
This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Vermont man convicted in shooting of 3 Palestinian students