VTDigger15%
Judge rejects bid for new lawyer by Burlington man accused of shooting three Palestinian students 1%
By Alan J. Keays0%
7/15/2026, 9:32:23 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 1 faulty reasoning type, including Negativity Bias, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 6.8% saturation with 41 hits. Analysis detected 41 faulty-reasoning hits from 604 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 3.8% and a BS Rank of 1% (16,453 of 16,550 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 99.40% of the article peer group.
BURLINGTON – A Vermont judge has denied a request for a new lawyer by a Burlington man accused of shooting and wounding three Palestinian college students more than two years ago.
The ruling by Judge John Pacht during a hearing Wednesday in Chittenden County Superior criminal court in Burlington clears the way for the trial for Jason Eaton to begin Sept. 10 with jury selection.
Eaton has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder in connection with the shootings of the three young men in Burlington on the same evening in November 2023 .
One of the men remains paralyzed.
The hearing Wednesday featured several exchanges between Pacht and Eaton, who presented his own case as to why he believed he should no longer be represented by a public defender who has been assigned to him from the start.
“You’re acting as your own lawyer and you’re making mistakes,” Pacht said to Eaton at one point.
A moment later, after it appeared the judge was not going to decide in his favor, Eaton told the judge, “I’m not quite ready to give up yet,” and then continued to press his case.
Eaton has made a previous unsuccessful attempt to seek a new lawyer, with the judge denying a similar request last year.
Eaton had argued during an earlier hearing that he was acting on behalf of a federal government agency, though no evidence supports that claim.
Earlier this year, Pacht ruled that Eaton can pursue an insanity defense.
Eaton contended throughout the hearing Wednesday and in a filing he submitted to the court that he wasn’t satisfied with the work of his legal counsel.
Early on in his remarks, Eaton asked the judge to clear the public from the courtroom so he could present information regarding his case without embarrassing other people whose names may be brought up.
The judge rejected that request, and the hearing in the courtroom continued though Eaton said he would forgo raising certain matters he had initially intended to present.
Eaton then talked about records from his past that he believed his attorney should have pursued and spoke of questions he thought should have been asked during pretrial hearings.
The judge later ruled that a new lawyer for Eaton wasn’t warranted.
Pacht said the issues raised by Eaton primarily related to strategy, not an attorney’s ability.
“I strenuously object,” Eaton replied after the judge said he was rejecting his request.
Eaton, 51, has been jailed without bail since his arrest shortly after the shootings.
Margaret Jansch, Eaton’s public defender, said after the hearing that she couldn’t comment on her working relationship with Eaton, citing the need to protect attorney and client confidentiality.
She did say that her client’s mental health has been a central component of the case from the start.
Charging documents allege that Eaton shot Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Aliahmad, three out-of-state university students, in November 2023.
The men were in Burlington to visit friends and family over Thanksgiving.
Awartani remains paralyzed.
No clear motive for the shootings has been revealed.
The judge also Wednesday denied a request from Eaton that he be released from custody on a form of home detention where he would work on a farm during the day and be returned to the jail at night.
Pacht said he didn’t believe such an arrangement would be appropriate, particularly given the seriousness of the charges Eaton is facing.
If convicted of one of the attempted murder charges alone, Eaton faces up to life in prison.
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