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Jury convicts Vermont man of attempted murder in shooting of 3 Palestinian students

Burlington, Vt. (AP) -- A jury on Monday convicted a Vermont man of attempted murder in the shootings of three Palestinian college students who were walking near his home, rejecting an insanity defense rooted in his claims that he was acting on orders from U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies.

Jason Eaton faces up to life in prison in the November 2023 attack in Burlington, which paralyzed Hisham Awartani from the waist down and wounded his friends, Tahseen Aliahmad and Kinnan Abdalhamid.

The men, all 20 at the time, had been visiting Awartani's grandmother for Thanksgiving. They were smoking cigarettes and speaking a mix of English and Arabic as they walked near the University of Vermont campus after dusk. Two of them were wearing traditional Palestinian scarves known as keffiyehs.

The jury deliberated for several hours before reaching its verdict after a weeklong trial that saw testimony from the three men, who recounted how their stroll ended in bloodshed, and defense and prosecution psychiatric experts who offered differing views of Eaton's mental health and criminal culpability.

Eaton, 51, stared ahead blankly as the verdict was read, standing alongside his lawyers -- public defenders whom he tried to fire last week over his concerns that his defense hadn't been "adequately presented." Judge John Pacht, who blocked Eaton's midtrial bid to act as his own lawyer, ordered him jailed pending sentencing, which has yet to be scheduled.

Awartani and Aliahmad watched from the front row of the courtroom gallery, smiling and hugging people around them.

"The verdict cannot undo what happened or erase the trauma our families still carry, but it affirms something fundamental: Jason Eaton is responsible for what he did," Awartani's mother, Elizabeth Price, told reporters afterward.

Eaton had pleaded not guilty but did not dispute that he was the shooter. He claimed that the CIA and Mossad transmitted their orders via FM radio and that God was commanding him to protect his Jewish neighbors. His lawyers had urged jurors to find him not guilty by reason of insanity, an outcome that would've spared him from prison but could have required that he undergo mental health treatment.

Eaton's lawyers, Margaret Jansch and Joshua O'Hara, said he had struggled with mental health issues his whole life, including diagnoses of attention deficit, post-traumatic stress, bipolar, depression and borderline personality disorders, culminating in a psychotic break after losing his job at a credit union two weeks before the shooting.

Prosecutor Sarah George countered that Eaton was a narcissist but not legally insane. He had a grandiose sense of self-importance and lacked empathy but was fully aware of the criminality of his conduct, George said in a closing argument. He appeared nervous when police arrived at his door, repeatedly asked for a lawyer and hasn't claimed to have received any other messages directing his actions, she said.

CNN, MS NOW, Politico sue over denied White House access, citing First Amendment

NEW YORK (AP) -- CNN, MS NOW and Politico on Monday sued President Donald Trump's administration days after they were barred from White House grounds, calling the selective ban -- based on the content of their coverage -- illegal and a "blatant violation" of the First Amendment. Trump said in a post that he "cherished" a free press but not "FAKE NEWS."

"White House access is a privilege -- not a right," the administration posted on X.

The extraordinary ban of the three news outlets' reporters, which began over the weekend, represented a clear escalation of Trump's long-running efforts -- in the courts and through administrative action -- to restrict news coverage he finds objectionable or, in his words, "fake news." They were also the latest test of First Amendment protections in the United States, where the government is constitutionally forbidden from restricting the press.

The Constitution, the banned news outlets said in their lawsuit, "does not allow a president or any other government official to deprive the press of their First Amendment rights and liberty and property interests with no notice or process based solely on his dislike of the content of their reporting."

The three outlets filed the joint lawsuit two days after their reporters were blocked from the White House and prevented from doing their jobs. The reporters' entry badges were disabled on Saturday, a day after Trump had suddenly announced he was barring the outlets because of reporting he considered "fake news."

On Monday morning, the banned TV networks were reporting from an intersection just outside the White House complex. CNN, meanwhile, was removed from its pool duties, which are shared by the five major networks. It had been scheduled to cover the president's trip to New York for the U.N. General Assembly. In an email to members, the TV pool wrote there would be no replacement coverage following the White House actions.

"Effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President," said the email, seen by The Associated Press. "This follows the White House's position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties. There will be no replacement pool put in place."

CNN's chief White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins, explained on air that this meant: "When the president does anything today, there will be no TV camera with the president that is broadcasting and sharing this footage" to the viewing public.

The White House did not respond directly to a request for comment on the lawsuit. But in a news release, it said of the three banned outlets: "The First Amendment protects their right to publish; it does not entitle them to a hard pass, briefing room seat, or place in the press pool."

On his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote that he "cherished" a free press.

"The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish," the president said in his post. "It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America. It is corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, and totally out of control. It is a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!"

Man shot by ICE officer is detained in Texas with a bullet still in his back, attorney says

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- A Venezuelan man shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer was in custody Monday at an ICE detention center in Texas after he was released from a hospital with a bullet still lodged in his back, the man's attorney said.

Speaking by phone during a news conference, Wilber Rafael Garces Perez said doctors didn't remove the bullet because it's near his spine. He said ICE pressed for him to be released quickly from the hospital so it could move him to a detention center. He said he had received no pain medication or treatment there, and had slept on the floor, before eventually being given a "pill" by a nurse on Monday.

Perez, 28, was making a DoorDash delivery in Austin on Sunday when his car was "sideswiped" twice by ICE officers in an unmarked truck, immigration attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch told reporters Monday. He was taken to a hospital, she said, but was released later Sunday into ICE custody with the bullet still inside him.

Perez said ICE officers didn't ask him to stop or turn on any flashing lights until after they had sideswiped him. He said he did a U-turn and was trying to park when the officers rammed his car and shot him in the back of the neck.

"I am not doing well due to the gunshot wound, and I have not received the medical attention that I require," Perez said, speaking in Spanish over the phone as a member of his attorney's staff translated during the news conference.

Perez was being detained at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, about 130 miles southwest of Austin, Lincoln-Goldfinch said. She said Perez told her in a prior phone call that he was being interrogated.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, has released little information and has not said what prompted the shooting. In a statement early Monday, the department said it was investigating the shooting of a Venezuelan man in the U.S. illegally who "had a final order of removal."

Homeland Security did not immediately respond to email messages seeking further comment on the shooting.

Perez entered the U.S. legally in 2024 after using CBP One, a program begun under President Joe Biden that set up appointments with U.S. authorities to be considered for asylum, Lincoln-Goldfinch said. President Donald Trump ended the program on his first day in office.

Sound of Music museum opens where the von Trapp story met Hollywood

SALZBURG, Austria (AP) -- An Austrian museum is alive with "The Sound of Music," a first-ever venue devoted to the classic 1965 singalong movie starring Julie Andrews.

The Sound of Music Salzburg museum, situated in an Austrian city famed for music and perhaps best known as the home of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, opened Sunday.

The attendees included Elisabeth von Trapp, granddaughter of Georg and Agathe von Trapp, whose family story inspired the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical and Hollywood blockbuster. She continues to give guided tours of movie sites in Salzburg today.

"It is intimate enough so you really have a beautiful sense of the storyline of both the Sound of Music and the Trapp family singers -- my relatives. I'm very proud of that," Elisabeth von Trapp said of the new museum.

Her father, Werner, was one of the original Trapp Family Singers -- although moviegoers know his character by another name. "My father is depicted in the movie as Kurt; his name was Werner von Trapp. Just to set the record straight," von Trapp said.

Housed in the 17th-century Hellbrunn Palace, where many scenes from the film were shot, the museum distinguishes the real-life story of the von Trapp family from that of the 1959 Broadway musical and later the Hollywood blockbuster.

Set against Nazi Germany's annexation of Austria in 1938, the story centers on a governess named Maria who teaches seven children in the von Trapp family to sing and love music -- before falling in love with their father and her employer, widower Georg von Trapp.

Museum officials note the real von Trapp, a submarine commander in the Austro-Hungarian navy, was "not a strict paternalist" -- as he was depicted by the film's leading man, Christopher Plummer -- but "a considerate, albeit much-burdened, father."

Visitors are treated to nearly 450 objects including props and costumes from the film, cinema posters and recordings of the music. A centerpiece is the gazebo where teenagers Liesl von Trapp and her suitor Rolf sing the courtship duet "Sixteen going on Seventeen."

Fans of the film -- which collected five Oscars including best picture -- have long flocked to Salzburg: Several hundred thousand visit the city each year.

John and Terry Combs, a couple from Dayton, Ohio, were accompanying von Trapp on her walking tour through Salzburg.

"I love the combination of it being much about the movie, of course, but about the real von Trapp family, which I've read much about over the years," said Terry Combs. "And having met and known Elisabeth a little bit -- it just brought it full circle."

The new exhibition is open daily until Nov. 1. After a brief bidding of "So long, farewell" to visitors late this year, the museum is scheduled to reopen next March.

Firefighting helicopter crashes near Yosemite, killing both pilots

Two helicopter pilots were killed when their aircraft crashed Sunday afternoon while conducting water drops on a wildfire at Yosemite National Park, officials say.

The pilots were the only people on board and were employed by the contract aircraft company Precision. One of the pilots was Greg King, who used to work for the Alaska Division of Forestry & Fire Protection and fought several wildland fires in that state before moving to Precision, said agency spokesperson Emery Johnson.

King's close relatives work at the agency and gave their permission to release his name, Johnson said. The identity of the second pilot has not yet been released.

At least 14 people have died while helping with wildfires in the U.S. this year, the most since 2022 when 25 deaths were recorded, according to government reports. In August, two helicopter pilots died while helping fight a fire in Utah and a helicopter pilot in Colorado crashed into a reservoir.

Details about the circumstances surrounding Sunday's crash were not immediately released. It will be investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.

The Super Puma helicopter had been using a water bucket to help suppress the fire when it went down near a lake, said Benjamin Cossel, a spokesperson with the Federal Complex Incident Management Team overseeing the firefighting response.

The Alaska forestry and fire agency called the deaths a devastating loss for the entire wildland firefighting community.

"Greg was a dedicated aviator and a dear friend to many of us. We are mourning both pilots who bravely supported firefighting efforts, and our hearts go out to their families," the agency statement said.

Precision wrote on social media that the company was "struggling to find the words."

Lindsay Clancy's attorney asks judge to investigate the lone juror who wanted to convict her

BOSTON (AP) -- A lawyer for Lindsay Clancy is asking a judge to investigate the conduct of the lone juror who wanted to convict the Massachusetts mother of murder in the deaths of her three young children.

In a motion filed Friday but made public Monday, Clancy's lawyer asked the court to question juror Michael Desronvil about his alleged use of a cellphone during deliberations, his truthfulness on a questionnaire that prospective jurors filled out before the trial began and his truthfulness when jurors were questioned by the judge a day before the trial ended.

Among other things, lawyer Kevin Reddington asked the court to obtain a record of any calls or texts Desronvil made between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on each day the jury deliberated. Phone use during deliberations is prohibited in the state.

The judge declared a mistrial Sept. 4 after the jury insisted it couldn't reach a unanimous verdict, despite days of trying. Eleven of 12 jurors were ready to clear Clancy of criminal responsibility, with the majority feeling that she was in the grip of a rare condition called postpartum psychosis when she strangled her kids.

But Desronvil sided with the prosecutors, who had argued that Clancy knew what she was doing.

Desronvil hasn't been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with his service on the jury, though some other jurors complained that he was inflexible in his opinion that Clancy was guilty. In a statement released by his lawyer last week, Desronvil said he "didn't have any doubts."

Prosecutors have yet to say whether they plan on putting Clancy on trial again. She remains charged with murder and is in a psychiatric hospital until her case is resolved.

In another motion on Monday, another lawyer for Clancy, Martin Weinberg, asked the judge to take the unusual step of dismissing the criminal case, rather than putting on a new trial, on the grounds that a mistrial shouldn't have been declared in the first place.

Weinberg argued that the judge should have replaced Desronvil with an alternate during the deliberations after the jury foreperson complained he was refusing to listen to the law on reasonable doubt.

"Contrary to the court's stated believe at the time, it did have viable choices other than declaring a mistrial," Weinberg wrote.

A spokesperson for Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz would not comment on the motions.

At the trial, jurors heard from psychologists and clinicians who treated Clancy for several months before the killings, when she was suffering from worsening mental health problems that emerged after the birth of her youngest child. She was released from a psychiatric hospital less than three weeks before she killed her children.