A Vermont jury on Monday, September 21, 2025, convicted Jason Eaton of three counts of attempted second-degree murder for the late 2023 shooting of three Palestinian American college students in Burlington, according to Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George. The verdict rejects Eaton’s insanity defense, bringing a legal conclusion to a racially and politically charged attack that left one student paralyzed from the waist down.
Trial Outcome and Sentencing Exposure
The 12-person jury reached its verdict in Chittenden Superior Court following a trial that lasted approximately one week, according to prosecutors. Jason Eaton, 51, faces a sentence of up to life without parole, with a presumptive minimum term of 20 years to serve on each count, according to state’s attorney Sarah George. A sentencing date will be scheduled at a later time.
Throughout the proceedings, Eaton did not dispute that he fired the shots. However, his defense team mounted an insanity defense, arguing that Eaton suffered from a psychotic disorder and delusions following the loss of his job two weeks prior to the shooting. According to defense attorneys cited by MS NOW, Eaton believed he was acting under direct orders from the CIA and the Mossad when he confronted the students.
Details of the 2023 Burlington Shooting
The shooting took place on November 25, 2023, in Burlington, Vermont, while the three victims were visiting Hisham Awartani’s grandmother over Thanksgiving break from school. The victims—Hisham Awartani, Tahseen Aliahmad, and Kinnan Abdalhamid—were all 20 years old at the time and grew up together in the Israeli-occupied West Bank before moving to the United States for college.
According to prosecutors, the three men were walking down a Burlington street wearing black-and-white Palestinian keffiyeh scarves and conversing in a mix of English and Arabic when Eaton approached and opened fire. Awartani suffered severe spinal cord injuries that left him paralyzed from the chest down and living with paraplegia, according to his family. Aliahmad was struck in the chest, and Abdalhamid was struck in the glute while fleeing the scene, prosecutors stated.
Broader Context and Community Impact
The attack occurred weeks after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, a period during which U.S. rights advocates noted a sharp rise in anti-Arab, anti-Muslim, and anti-Jewish bias nationwide. Following Monday’s verdict, the families of the victims released a statement saying that justice “has been rendered” and that they feel a profound sense of relief.
The case drew national attention amid a wave of high-profile bias-motivated violence during the conflict, including the fatal 2023 stabbing of a 6-year-old Palestinian American child in Illinois and a 2026 mosque shooting in San Diego.
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