Jason Eaton tries to fire his attorneys midway through his attempted murder trial

BURLINGTON — A Burlington man accused of shooting and wounding three Palestinian college students told a judge midway through his trial that he wanted to fire his attorneys, contending that his lawyers failed to properly question witnesses and present evidence.

Jason Eaton’s request Thursday morning proved unsuccessful as Judge John Pacht rejected his bid to represent himself. 

“I vigorously object to your denial,” Eaton said to the judge after the ruling.  

The fourth day of Eaton’s trial continued in Chittenden Superior criminal court with a prosecution psychiatric expert rebutting the testimony of a defense expert a day earlier who said he found Eaton legally insane at the time of the shootings on Nov. 25, 2023.

Eaton, 51, faces three counts of attempted second-degree murder. He is accused of opening fire on the three students, who had been visiting Burlington for the Thanksgiving holiday, while they were out for a walk on North Prospect Street.  

Eaton, in a recording played in court Wednesday, said he had been hearing voices through his FM radio and had been directed by government intelligence agencies, including the CIA, to carry out the shootings. 

The court day started Thursday with Eaton, before the jurors entered the room, rising up and standing at the defense table. He said to the judge that his attorneys had been ineffective in trying to press his insanity defense.

“There are records that could be submitted,” Eaton said to Pacht, adding that the testimony and evidence in his trial so far “didn’t come out as a coherent mental health history.”

Eaton, represented by two lawyers assigned to him as public defenders, has tried unsuccessfully prior to the trial to seek new counsel.  

Pacht told Eaton that he had not presented enough information to warrant removing his attorneys from his case.

“We’re in the middle of a trial,” the judge said to Eaton, adding, “It’s awkward for the court to deal with this.”

Eaton repeatedly tried to engage in dialogue with the judge throughout Thursday, with Pacht rejecting many of the issues Eaton raised. 

At one point, when the judge appeared to agree with him, Eaton sat back and clapped his hands in an apparent round of applause for himself.

Dr. Jhilam Biswas, a forensic psychiatrist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and the state’s expert, told jurors Thursday afternoon that in her opinion Eaton did not suffer a mental disease or defect needed to meet the legal standard for insanity in Vermont.

Biswas, under questioning from Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George, said that although Eaton did meet the criteria for personality disorder, he did not suffer from a psychotic disorder.

The psychiatrist said she based her opinion on several factors, including a review of medical and court records as well as a three and half hour interview she conducted with him this summer. 

Biswas described Eaton in the days leading up to the shooting as overwhelmed with stress and anxiety, having recently lost his job and in jeopardy of losing his apartment in Burlington.

Biswas testified that Eaton had long struggled with maintaining employment as well as housing and relationships. 

In the past, Biswas added, Eaton has lost jobs after getting in arguments with his bosses. She said in her opinion that he starts to believe he knows more than his employers about what needs to be done, leading to disputes at the workplace and eventually costing him his employment.

Biswas testified that for five days prior to the shooting Eaton had been staying with his mother in Addison County and that his mother said it was the best the two had gotten along.

“She did not notice anything that was odd, except that he was very nice to her,” Biswas told jurors Eaton’s mother had said in an interview. 

Eaton’s mother drove him back to his Burlington apartment on the day of the shootings, and Eaton reported that he began smoking marijuana and tobacco as well as drinking alcohol, Biswas told jurors. 

Biswas described Eaton as then having cannabis-induced paranoia, combined with the high levels of stress and anxiety he had already been experiencing. 

She said when a person like Eaton with “narcissistic-type personality traits” is walked out of a job it can overwhelm the person. “So that was playing a role in that moment along with using those substances,” Biswas said.

About an hour or two before the shootings, Biswas testified, Eaton reported hearing voices and a mix of messages through his radio from either the CIA, Israel’s Mossad or God.

“That’s when he got messages to go out and shoot,” Biswas said.

Margaret Jansch, an attorney for Eaton, on cross-examination raised Biswas’ limited experience testifying in court in insanity defense cases. “You never testified in Vermont on the issue of criminal responsibility in an insanity defense case?” Jansch asked. 

Biswas said that was correct. 

Also, the defense attorney pressed Biswas on Eaton’s marijuana use on the day of the shootings. Jansch said Eaton had reported that day he was out of marijuana and “scraped together a couple of roaches” to mix with tobacco to smoke. 

“You can have a paranoid experience on marijuana,” Biswas said, adding that Eaton was also under a great deal of stress and anxiety. 

The three men Eaton is accused of shooting — Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Aliahmad — were all treated at hospitals. Awartani’s lower body remains paralyzed. 

In earlier trial testimony, forensic witnesses linked a handgun seized from Eaton’s apartment a day after the shootings to casings found at the shooting scene. 

Jury deliberations could begin as early as Friday after the close of testimony.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Jason Eaton tries to fire his attorneys midway through his attempted murder trial.