BURLINGTON — A Vermont judge has delayed the trial for a Burlington man accused of shooting and wounding three Palestinian college students more than two years ago.
Judge John Pacht’s decision late Friday afternoon comes after he agreed earlier to allow 51-year-old Jason Eaton to pursue an insanity defense.
Eaton has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder in connection with the shootings of the three young men in Burlington in November 2023. One of the men remains paralyzed.
Eaton’s trial had been set to start with jury selection June 1. Pacht, in his ruling Friday, wrote that the trial will now begin with jury selection Sept. 10.
In allowing Eaton to pursue an insanity defense, Pacht also permitted the prosecution to consider whether it needed to push back the trial in order to rebut that defense.
Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George told the judge in earlier hearings that postponing the trial could mean the three young men who were shot would not be able to testify in person because they had planned to leave the country right after the June trial.
“They are returning to Palestine,” George said.
George said during a hearing Thursday that the three men had agreed to delaying the trial to allow time for the prosecution to rebut the insanity defense.
George, speaking to reporters after the hearing, said for the three young men it has been an “incredibly frustrating” process getting the case to trial.
“They’re the ones having to make all of the concessions and all the adjustments,” George said.
“They’re going to do what they need to do because they want to see this case through and they want to testify and they want the jury and the community to hear from them,” George added. “But, it has been a very unfair and frankly, a false choice, for them to have to navigate.”
It’s possible that with the trial now moved back, the men will need to testify over video, either recorded or livestreamed during the trial. George said the preference still remains for them to testify in person, if it can be worked out.
Margaret Jansch, Eaton’s attorney, told reporters after the hearing Thursday that it was “more than appropriate” to postpone the trial.
“The additional time to prepare properly for an insanity defense on both sides, is in my opinion the right thing to do,” Jansch said. “To rush through preparation for this defense would create an appellate issue, and it’s just not right to either party.”
The prosecution had argued during Thursday’s hearing for the trial to begin the week of Aug. 24, but due to other scheduling matters Eaton’s defense team pushed for a later date. The judge, in setting the new date, said he was trying to balance the interests of both the defense and prosecution.
Eaton’s mental health has been an issue throughout the case. His attorneys told the judge during hearings last month that Eaton had only recently agreed to allow them to pursue an insanity defense.
Charging documents accuse Eaton of shooting Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Aliahmad in November 2023. The men had been attending universities out of state and were in Burlington to visit friends and family over Thanksgiving. Awartani remains paralyzed.
The men told police that Eaton didn’t say anything before he came at them from a porch of a residence, shooting each of them, the documents stated. At the time of the shootings, according to the documents, the students were wearing traditional scarves that are a symbol of Palestinian identity.
No clear motive for the shootings has been revealed.
Eaton had said during an earlier hearing that he was acting on behalf of a federal government agency, though no evidence supports that claim.
After Eaton raised that contention during a hearing more than a year ago, his attorneys contested whether he was competent to stand trial. The judge ruled in April that Eaton was competent.
A defense motion remains pending seeking to move the trial out of Chittenden County, citing a large amount of publicity that the case has received and the potential impact of that publicity on the ability to select a fair and impartial jury.
