BURLINGTON — A court-ordered psychiatric evaluation for a man accused of shooting and wounding three Palestinian students more than two years ago in Burlington has found him competent to stand trial.
Attorneys for the defendant, Jason Eaton, said during a brief court hearing last week in Chittenden County Superior criminal court that they would be seeking their own evaluation of their client.
Eaton has been held in custody without bail since his November 2023 arraignment on three counts of attempted second-degree murder.
Eaton, according to charging documents, shot the three young men as they were walking on North Prospect Street in Burlington on the evening of Nov. 25, 2023. The three men — Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Aliahmad — had been visiting friends and family in the area over Thanksgiving.
The three men attended colleges outside Vermont and did not know Eaton, who police alleged came at them from a porch and, without saying anything, and shot all three. The three men at the time of the shooting were wearing keffiyehs, a traditional scarf that is a symbol of Palestinian identity.
A motive for the shootings has not been revealed and, despite calls for the incident to be prosecuted as hate crimes, the prosecutor has said no evidence has emerged to support that distinction.
The report discussed in court last week followed an earlier one ordered by the court last year that also found Eaton competent to stand trial. Eaton’s defense asked for another review of his competency during a hearing earlier this year when Eaton said that he had been acting under the instructions of government agencies.
Eaton, 50, took part in the hearing by video from the Northern State Correctional Facility in Newport, Vt. He did not speak during the proceeding.
One of the men shot, Awartani, had a bullet lodged in his spine and was left paralyzed from the chest down. The two other men were treated for less severe injuries at the hospital and later released.
The latest report from the court-ordered psychological evaluation is not public but the findings were briefly referenced by the judge and defense attorney during the hearing. Few other details about the 72-page report were brought up at the hearing.
Margaret Mary Jansch, one of Eaton’s attorneys, told Judge John Pacht that she would be seeking a separate psychological evaluation by their own expert.
Pacht said another status hearing in the case would be set in 60 days. The judge added that he was seeking to have the case ready to move to a trial by late spring.
Jansch told the judge that before a trial she anticipated filing a motion to move the case out of Chittenden County.
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