A Vermont jury on Wednesday convicted 51-year-old Jason Eaton of attempted murder in the shooting of three Palestinian college students, rejecting his insanity defense and setting him up for a sentence that could keep him in prison for life.

Eaton did not dispute that he was the shooter. The November 2023 attack happened near the University of Vermont campus in Burlington, where Hisham Awartani, Tahseen Aliahmad and Kinnan Abdalhamid were walking a few days after Thanksgiving when Eaton opened fire without warning. Awartani was left paralyzed from the waist down; his two friends were wounded.

An Insanity Defense Jurors Didn't Buy

Eaton's attorneys argued he should be found not guilty by reason of insanity, telling jurors he believed U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies were transmitting orders to him over FM radio, and that God was commanding him to protect his Jewish neighbors from the three young men. The jury didn't accept it, convicting him on all charges after a trial that revisited one of the most chilling details of the case: Eaton had reportedly told police he'd been waiting for agents to come arrest him.

EATON FACES UP TO LIFE IN PRISON FOR THE ATTACK.

The three victims grew up together as schoolmates in Ramallah, in the West Bank, before reuniting as students in the United States — two at Brown University, one at Trinity College. The shooting happened as they were walking to a relative's house, with at least one of them wearing a traditional Palestinian keffiyeh, according to accounts from investigators at the time. The attack drew national attention amid a wave of reported hate incidents tied to the Israel-Hamas war, and it reverberated well beyond Vermont, drawing statements of concern from officials in the West Bank.

Awartani, left paralyzed by the shooting, has continued his studies and has spoken publicly about his recovery and his frustration that the attack wasn't initially charged as a hate crime. Prosecutors ultimately built their case around the attempted murder charges, which carried the stiffer potential sentence.

What's Next

A sentencing date has not yet been set. Eaton's defense team has not said whether it will appeal the verdict. For Burlington — a city that prides itself on its progressive politics and had never seen anything like it — the conviction closes one chapter of a case that forced a national conversation about safety for Arab and Muslim Americans on college campuses nearly three years ago.