Jason Eaton told his attorneys that he was the overwatcher of what he believed was a Jewish house in his neighborhood and that intelligence agencies ordered him to shoot three Palestinian college students, according to an audio recording played in court on Wednesday.
The interview, recorded just days after the Nov. 25, 2023 shooting, was admitted into court to support the findings of Dr. Fabian Saleh, a psychiatrist hired by the defense who found Eaton was legally insane when the shooting occurred.
In a hearing before the jury entered the courtroom, Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George and deputy state’s attorney Sally Adams argued that the recording shouldn’t be presented and asked Judge John Pacht to bar certain portions.
Pacht agreed to limit some of the recording, but still allowed Eaton’s attorneys to play several sections. Pacht told the jury that the purpose of playing the interview was to help evaluate why Saleh reached his opinion.
In one of the sections played in court, Eaton described to his legal team how he’d been receiving messages from the CIA through his FM radio and that on the night of the shooting, government agencies commanded to carry out the attack.
“I was either talking to my ancestors and the divine consult or talking to an intelligence agency using an incredible AI that could come through my FM radio, through my bluetooth headset, through my phone — or I’ve had this incredible psychotic break,” Eaton said in the recording.
Eaton told his attorneys that initially the CIA communications were complimentary and praised his investigative skills.
Eaton said believed he ended up in Burlington to serve as a protector of a nearby house that he believed was a Jewish communal home.
On the evening of November 26, people in trench coats and keffiyehs — traditional Palestinian scarves — were lingering in front of the house, Eaton said, according to the audio recording.
“I got a very strong message, a clear definitive absolute, go stop them now,” Eaton said.
The commands coming through the radio and bluetooth headset were to shoot someone, Eaton said, though he claimed it wasn’t clear who to shoot.
In the recording, Eaton told his attorneys he prayed to God and saw the three young men walking in his “minds eye,” so he went down to the street and shot them.
According to prior trial testimony, Eaton stepped off a porch and, without speaking, shot Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmad while they were on a walk. All three survived, but Awartani was left paralyzed from the waist down. Eaton faces three charges of attempted second-degree murder and could face a life sentence if convicted
After the shooting, Eaton went back to his apartment, where he believed the CIA or Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, would be waiting to kill him as well.
“How did you feel after this,” asked Margaret Jansch, one of Eaton’s attorneys, during the recorded interview.
“I felt like an out-of-body experience,” Eaton said.
“I’m still confused, I still don’t know the answer. Were they innocent victims, were they planning an attack?” Eaton added.
Saleh, the defense team’s expert witness, testified on Wednesday that based on this interview and other records he reviewed, Eaton was delusional at the time of the shooting.
“He was operating under the delusional belief that this was a legal, authorized action,” Saleh said. “He didn’t consider his actions to be criminal.”
Saleh said based on his review of the case, which included examining Eaton’s medical history and interviewing him, that Eaton suffered from delusional and psychotic disorders.
Eaton’s mental health history also included diagnosis of attention deficit disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression, Saleh said.
Saleh said the records indicated Eaton has bipolar disorder. But prosecutors, during their cross-examination, noted that Eaton has never been formally diagnosed.
George, the Chittenden County state’s attorney, pushed back on Saleh’s conclusions that Eaton suffered from delusions and had a psychotic disorder.
George said that Eaton’s mental health history — including a visit to the University of Vermont Medical Center just days before the shooting — doesn’t include any delusional or psychotic disorder diagnoses.
At the visit, George said the doctor indicated Eaton’s thinking was logical, linear, and optimistic.
George asked Saleh if he believed a person with delusions, who wasn’t on medication, would be able to hide their delusions.
Saleh pushed back, saying that without asking the right questions, Eaton’s delusions would never come up.
“If you don’t measure your fever with the proper instrument I can’t just say you’re not feverish,” Saleh said.
Eaton’s defense team also called his sister, Amy Rube Right, to the stand on Wednesday. She testified that her older brother has struggled with mental health issues throughout his life.
During her testimony she recounted a phone call she’d received from him in December 2021, where Eaton told her that he was a “lightbear” meant to alleviate suffering in the world.
“I was shocked and confused, I’d never heard him talk like that before,” Rube Right said.
The trial is scheduled to continue on Thursday with the rest of George’s cross-examination of Saleh. The prosecution is also expected to present their own mental health expert who they say will refute Saleh’s findings.
