A Vermont man accused of shooting and hospitalizing three college students of Palestinian descent a year ago is fit to stand trial, according to a ruling following a hearing in Chittenden County Superior Criminal Court.
Jason J. Eaton, 49, was deemed competent to stand trial by an evaluator who conducted a psychiatric evaluation, Judge John Pacht said, according to an audio recording of Tuesday’s hearing provided by the courts.
There was no other discussion of the evaluation.
Court records show that Eaton’s public defender requested a competency evaluation on Aug. 27. The evaluation was conducted by Dr. Keelin Garvey on Sept. 20, and Garvey’s report was filed Sept. 27.
Eaton allegedly shot the three 20-year-old students outside his apartment near the University of Vermont campus in Burlington on Nov. 25, a Saturday evening, authorities said.
Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid, and Tahseen Ali Ahmad were walking down a residential street, chatting in a mixture of English and Arabic, police said. Two were wearing keffiyehs, traditional Palestinian scarves.
Then, according to police, a man stepped off a porch with a gun and shot each of them, without saying a word.
The three students survived their injuries but were initially hospitalized in intensive care.
Two days after the shootings, Eaton pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder. He has been held without bail since he was arrested last year at his Burlington apartment.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Pacht extended a Dec. 16 deadline for depositions until May 31, at Eaton’s lawyer’s request.
Eaton’s lawyer, Peggy Jansch, said she needed more time to complete depositions of an estimated 30 prosecution witnesses, about two dozen of them law enforcement.
Prosecutors objected saying such a delay would push a trial back until late 2025.
Pacht set a status hearing for next March.
“You’ll have a better sense of the direction the case is going then,” Pacht said.
Tonya Alanez can be reached at tonya.alanez@globe.com. Follow her @talanez.
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