Judge John Pacht speaks from the bench during the trial of Jason Eaton, who is charged with attempted second-degree murder, in Chittenden Superior criminal court in Burlington on Friday, September 18, 2026. Pool photo by Paul Heintz/Boston Globe BURLINGTON — Jurors have heard the evidence in t he trial of a Burlington man accused of shooting three Palestinian students but won’t begin deciding his fate until next week.  The judge sent jurors in the Jason Eaton trial home early Friday afternoon after all the evidence in the case had been presented.  Both sides had rested their cases by midafternoon Friday. Rather than start the expected lengthy closing arguments and then jury deliberations, Judge John Pacht decided it was best to wait until Monday morning. “We will start promptly at 8:30,” the judge told jurors Friday before allowing them to leave Chittenden Superior criminal court, adding that they must avoid media coverage of the trial or talking with others about the case.  Eaton, 51, faces three counts of attempted second-degree murder, accused of shooting and wounding the three students on the evening of Nov. 25, 2023, as they walked on North Prospect Street near an apartment where Eaton had been living.  Eaton’s lawyers have raised the insanity defense, with psychiatric experts for the prosecution and defense offering differing views during the five-day trial on whether he met the standard to be considered not criminally responsible for his actions.  Eaton, in a recording made shortly after he was arrested five days after the shootings, said he had been hearing voices through his FM radio from either the CIA, the Israeli Mossad or God, directing him to carry out the act.  The jury on Friday heard testimony by Emily Eckel, a clinical mental health counselor with a medical care contractor for the state Department of Corrections. Eckel, called to the stand by the prosecution, told jurors that Eaton was screened after he was arrested and incarcerated shortly after the shooting.  She said Eaton did not appear to be psychotic at the time. She said he did report being a daily marijuana and alcohol user. Initially, Eckel added, Eaton had been placed on regular mental health checks, also referred to as suicide watch. She said it wasn’t necessarily due to his mental state, but was done because he had reported a past suicide attempt, he was charged with serious crimes, and it was first time being incarcerated.   In a meeting a few days later, Eckel said, she reported that Eaton appeared to be in good spirits, though she added that he expressed concern that he might be assaulted while incarcerated because of how public his case had been. Also Friday, the attorneys discussed with the judge the instructions to the jurors to help guide them on matters of law during their deliberations.  In addition to the testimony of the psychiatric experts, the jurors heard earlier in the week from a firearms examiner who matched a handgun seized from Eaton’s apartment to casings recovered at the scene. The three men Eaton is accused of shooting — Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Aliahmad — were all U.S. college students visiting relatives of one of them in Burlington over the Thanksgiving weekend in 2023.   They were all treated for their injuries at hospitals, and Awartani’s lower body remains paralyzed.  Awartani has attended the trial daily, seated in a wheelchair along the front row of the courtroom gallery directly behind the prosecutors.  If convicted of even one of the attempted second-degree murder charges, Eaton faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Read the story on VTDigger here: Jurors to begin deliberations after closing arguments Monday in attempted murder trial. ...read more read less