Nearly three years after a gunman opened fire on three young men walking near the University of Vermont campus, the man accused of shooting them stood trial this week as his alleged victims took the stand to describe the night that changed their lives. Jason Eaton, 51, pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder and faces up to life in prison if convicted, with his defense resting on a claim of legal insanity.
Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Aliahmad — all 20 years old at the time of the November 2023 shooting — testified during the trial's opening days, according to NBC Boston. The three young men had grown up together and become friends in Ramallah in the West Bank before pursuing college in the United States — Awartani at Brown University in Rhode Island, Aliahmad at Trinity College in Connecticut, and Abdalhamid at Haverford College near Philadelphia. They were walking together, speaking a mix of English and Arabic, with two of them wearing Palestinian keffiyeh scarves, when prosecutors say Eaton approached them from a distance of roughly five to 10 feet and opened fire with a handgun.
Awartani was shot in the chest and has since become paralyzed from the waist down. Abdalhamid was shot in the right buttock, and Aliahmad was shot in the collarbone. A witness, Jacob Pyne, called 911 after hearing four to six gunshots, per the same NBC Boston account of the case.
Spectators Ordered to Remove Keffiyehs Amid Jury Concerns
The opening day of trial saw an unusual courtroom order: Judge John Pacht directed spectators to remove Palestinian keffiyehs, worn in solidarity with the victims, out of concern that the garments could influence the jury, according to Seven Days. The judge made an exception allowing the three victims themselves to wear their scarves while testifying.
Prosecutor Sally Adams told the court that evidence would show Eaton intended to kill the three men and that he was not legally justified in shooting them, the outlet reports. Adams also said a state psychiatrist concluded Eaton did not have a mental disease or defect, and argued that he does not meet Vermont's legal test for insanity.
Competing Diagnoses at the Heart of the Insanity Defense
Eaton's defense did not concede that he was the shooter, though NBC Boston reported that Eaton does not dispute that point; his defense has centered on claims that he was suffering from a delusional psychotic disorder. According to NBC Boston, Eaton claimed the CIA and Mossad transmitted messages to him via FM radio, and that he believed he was hearing CIA communications while listening to a local NPR affiliate. He claimed those messages allegedly told him he had to shoot somebody, and separately claimed that God commanded him to protect his Jewish neighbors. Defense lawyer Joshua O'Hara made the claim that Eaton was suffering from a delusional psychotic disorder in an opening statement, the outlet reports. Eaton had lost his job at a credit union two weeks before the shooting.
That defense theory has run into a battle of dueling experts. Court-ordered forensic psychologist Dr. Keelin Garvey, who examined Eaton twice, diagnosed him with narcissistic personality disorder and ADHD rather than a psychotic disorder, according to New England Public Media. That directly contrasts with defense expert Dr. Fabian Saleh's evaluation that Eaton suffered from untreated delusions. Chittenden County State's Attorney Sarah George maintained during a March competency hearing that Eaton was intelligent and acting intentionally rather than incompetent, per the same station's report.
Before trial, Judge Pacht denied a defense motion to disqualify prosecution expert witness Dr. Jihlam Biswas, a Massachusetts forensic psychiatrist whom defense attorneys alleged lacked a Vermont medical license, according to VTDigger. Defense attorneys had argued the out-of-state testimony amounted to unlicensed medical practice in Vermont. In May, Pacht also ruled that Eaton could pursue an affirmative insanity defense despite missing a procedural deadline, rejecting prosecutors' opposition; prosecutors had argued the late notice risked delaying trial proceedings.
Why Hate Crime Charges Were Never Filed
Under Vermont statute 13 V.S.A. § 4801, a defendant claiming legal insanity bears the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that a mental disease or defect caused him to lack adequate capacity to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the law, according to the Vermont General Assembly. If found not guilty by reason of insanity, Eaton could be ordered to undergo mental health treatment rather than face prison.
No hate crime charges were ever filed in connection with the shooting, despite public calls for them given the attack on three men associated with Palestinian identity. Seven Days reports that prior to the shooting, Eaton had shared social media posts that appeared to express sympathy for Palestinian causes — a factor that complicated prosecutors' efforts to establish anti-Palestinian animus necessary for hate crime charges. Law enforcement found no clear proof that Eaton harbored anti-Palestinian views.
The Investigation and Evidence Against Eaton
Authorities found three shotguns and a Ruger .380-caliber handgun in Eaton's apartment, and crime lab testing concluded the Ruger was the weapon used in the shooting, according to NBC Boston's reporting. Eaton had purchased the handgun seven months before the shooting from a Vermont gun store. Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, working alongside Burlington police, arrested Eaton at his residence on November 26, 2023, while canvassing the neighborhood near the UVM campus, according to the Associated Press.
A judge separately declined a defense request for access to the victims' shooting-related phone records, ruling that the victims' connection to conduct justifying the request had not been independently shown, according to WPTZ.
A City Still Grappling With Public Safety
The trial unfolds against a backdrop of renewed anxiety over violence in Burlington. In August, a fatal stabbing and multiple gunfire incidents downtown prompted Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak to address community concerns over public safety, according to VTDigger. A public safety guide published by the University of Vermont in August 2025 had noted that while Burlington's violent crime rate historically remained low by national standards, debates over public safety intensified due to police staffing shortages and drug-related offenses, even as campus officials said violent crime remained rare compared to property offenses.
