A Vermont jury has convicted Jason Eaton of three counts of attempted second-degree murder for shooting three Palestinian college students in Burlington in November 2023.

The verdict, delivered Monday, Sept. 21, 2026, came after a six-day trial in Chittenden Superior Court. Jurors deliberated for less than two hours before rejecting Eaton’s insanity defense. He was ordered to remain in custody pending sentencing, which has not yet been scheduled. Eaton faces up to life in prison.

The case began nearly three years ago, when three 20-year-old friends — Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Aliahmad — were walking along North Prospect Street in Burlington during the Thanksgiving holiday.

The three men had grown up together in the West Bank and were visiting Awartani’s family in Vermont. Two of them were wearing traditional Palestinian keffiyeh scarves, and the group had been speaking a mixture of English and Arabic.

According to prosecutors and testimony presented at trial, Eaton approached the young men near his Burlington residence on Nov. 25, 2023, and opened fire without saying anything. All three were struck by gunfire.

Awartani suffered a severe spinal cord injury and was left paralyzed from the waist down. Aliahmad was wounded in the chest, while Abdalhamid was also shot but survived.

Arrest Came the Following Day

Eaton was arrested on Nov. 26, 2023, after federal agents and local police searched his apartment building.

At the time of his arrest, Eaton reportedly told an agent, “I’ve been waiting for you,” according to court documents. Investigators recovered several firearms from his apartment, including a Ruger pistol that prosecutors later connected to the shooting.

Eaton pleaded not guilty to the charges. He did not ultimately dispute that he was the shooter, but his defense centered on whether he was legally responsible for his actions at the time.

Mother Had Previously Described His Mental Health Struggles

In the aftermath of the shooting, Eaton’s mother, Mary Reed, told the Los Angeles Times that her son had experienced depression and other mental-health struggles in the past.

Reed said she had seen Eaton on Thanksgiving and that he appeared happy, making the shooting difficult for her to understand. At the time, she expressed disbelief that he could have carried out such an attack.

During the 2026 trial, however, the defense presented a more extensive argument about Eaton’s mental state.

His attorneys argued that he had experienced a psychotic disorder and should not be held criminally responsible for the shooting. Eaton claimed that he believed he was receiving messages through an FM radio from U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies and that he had been instructed to attack the three men.

The defense argued that these beliefs demonstrated that Eaton was experiencing a severe break from reality when the shooting occurred.

Prosecutors disputed that explanation and argued that Eaton understood what he was doing and intentionally fired at the three men. Psychiatric experts for the two sides gave conflicting assessments of his mental state.

Hate-Crime Concerns

The shooting immediately raised concerns that the three students had been targeted because they were Palestinian.

The attack occurred only weeks after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, and the victims were wearing keffiyehs and speaking Arabic and English when they were shot.

Federal and state authorities investigated whether the attack constituted a hate crime. However, Eaton was not charged with a hate crime. Prosecutors instead pursued the attempted-murder charges.

During the trial, prosecutors pointed to evidence they said supported an intentional attack, while Eaton’s defense maintained that his mental state was central to understanding his actions.

Families Welcome the Verdict

After the guilty verdict was announced, members of the victims’ families expressed relief.

Awartani and Aliahmad were present in the courtroom and embraced people around them following the verdict. Awartani’s mother, Elizabeth Price, said the families had endured years of grief and struggle since the shooting.

The conviction does not resolve the physical consequences of the attack. Awartani continues to live with paralysis resulting from his spinal injury, while his friends also continue to deal with the consequences of their wounds.

Eaton now awaits sentencing. The judge has not yet announced a sentencing date.

The case, which began with a late-November shooting that shocked Burlington and drew national attention, has now reached a major legal milestone with the jury’s rejection of Eaton’s insanity defense and his conviction on all three attempted-murder counts.

Sources: New York Post; Associated Press; Reuters; Vermont Public; VTDigger; Los Angeles Times; The Washington Post; Burlington Police Department; Chittenden County Superior Court.