Prosecutors rest case against Vermont man accused of shooting three Palestinian college students

Prosecutors rested their case Tuesday in the trial for the Vermont man charged with attempted murder in connection with the November 2023 shooting of three college students of Palestinian descent in Burlington.The Chittenden County prosecutors, in presenting their case against defendant Jason Eaton over nearly two days, relied largely on forensic gun evidence and testimony from over a dozen witnesses including police and the three victims.
According to trial testimony, Eaton stepped off a porch and without speaking shot Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmad while they were on a walk. They survived but Awartani was left paralyzed from the waist down, according to the New England News Collab. 
Two of the men wore traditional Palestinian scarves and reportedly spoke mixtures of Arabic and English prior to the shooting, near the University of Vermont. Authorities initially suspected the shooting was a possible hate crime, but prosecutors didn’t have sufficient evidence to pursue such a charge.
The 51-year-old Eaton faces three charges of attempted second-degree murder and could face a life sentence if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty.
The case will now shift toward determining Eaton’s mental state at the time of the alleged crime. His defense team is expected to call a psychiatrist to testify their client suffers from delusions including one about government intelligence agencies commanding him through the radio to carry out the shooting.

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