The top prosecutor in Chittenden County says she doesn't expect to add hate crime charges against a man accused of shooting two Palestinian Americans and a Palestinian last year in Burlington. There's not currently enough evidence to support the charge, but that could change if new evidence comes to light.
Jason Eaton faces three counts of attempted second-degree murder and faces a life sentence if convicted. He’s pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Vermont doesn’t have a standalone hate crime charge. Instead, state law allows prosecutors to add a hate crime “enhancement” to a charge if the defendant’s actions are motivated by bias towards a protected class, which includes race, gender, class and sexual orientation. The enhancement increases the criminal penalties a defendant faces.
Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George, in a brief interview Tuesday, said there’s currently not enough evidence to add hate crime enhancements to the attempted murder charges against Eaton.
In Vermont, most hate crime cases involve a defendant making incriminating statements during the alleged crime. Last year, a Vermont Public review of a dozen recently filed hate crime cases found that all the incidents involved a person using racial, ethnic or homophobic slurs during the alleged crime.
According to court records, Eaton allegedly stepped off of a porch and, without speaking, shot and wounded Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmad, who were in Burlington for the Thanksgiving holiday last year. Two of the three young men were wearing traditional Palestinian scarves and they were speaking a mix of Arabic and English.
All three were hospitalized, and Awartani, who was hit in the spine, was paralyzed from the waist down.
The attempted murder case against Eaton appears on schedule for trial in late 2025. During a status conference in Chittenden County criminal court on Tuesday, Judge John Pacht said that a recent psychiatric evaluation found Eaton was competent to stand trial.
Pacht set a deadline for both sides to complete witness depositions by May 31 to keep the case on track for trial.
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