A jury has found Illinois landlord Joseph Czuba guilty of murder and hate crime charges for a brutal 2023 attack on a Palestinian American family that killed a six-year-old.
Czuba, 73, was charged in the fatal stabbing of Wadee Alfayoumi and the wounding of his mother, Hanan Shaheen, on Oct. 14, 2023 in Plainfield, about 64 kilometres from Chicago.
Authorities alleged the family — who were renting rooms in Czuba’s house — was targeted because of their Islamic faith and as a response to the conflict between Israel and Hamas that had erupted just a week earlier.
When police were called to the residence they found Czuba sitting near the driveway with a laceration on his forehead.
The six-year-old boy later succumbed to his injuries in hospital. An autopsy revealed that the boy was stabbed 26 times all across his body with a 30-centimetre-long serrated military-style knife.
The mother, who was age 32 at the time of the attack, suffered over a dozen stab wounds.
Czuba had pleaded not guilty. He faced murder, attempted murder, aggravated battery and hate crime charges in an eight-count indictment.
Mugshot of Joseph M. Czuba, 71, provided by the Will County Sheriff’s Office.
Will County Sheriff’s Office/Facebook
The jury deliberated for just 90 minutes before returning their verdict Friday morning.
Get daily National news
During the trial, the courtroom was shown graphic photos of the murder and police video footage central to the prosecutors’ case. There were moments the video screens were turned away from those seated in the gallery, including the boy’s family.
“If it wasn’t enough that this defendant killed that little boy, he left the knife in the little boy’s body,” Michael Fitzgerald, a Will County assistant state’s attorney, told jurors during opening statements.
One of the critical parts of the trial was Shaheen’s testimony and the 911 she made to report the crime that happened just days after the conflict started. She said they had not previously had any issues in the two years they rented from the Czubas — they shared a kitchen and living room with them.
After the conflict began, Czuba told her that they had to move out because Muslims were not welcome. Later, he confronted Shaheen and attacked her, holding her down, stabbing her and trying to break her teeth.
“He told me, ’You, as a Muslim, must die,” said Shaheen, who testified in English and Arabic through a translator.
Separately, civil lawsuits have been filed over the boy’s death, including by his the father, Odai Alfayoumi, who is divorced from Shaheen and was not living with them at the house.
Odai Alfayoumi, father of 6-year-old Palestinian boy Wadee Alfayoumi, arrives the Will County Courthouse for the verdict in the trial of Joseph Czuba, Friday, Feb. 28, 2025, in Joliet, Ill.
Nam Y. Huh / The Associated Press
“I don’t know if I should be pleased or upset, if I should be crying or laughing,” Odai said at a news conference Friday, speaking in Arabic.
“People are telling me to smile. Maybe if I were one of you, I would be smiling, but I’m the father of the child and I’ve lost the child. And I feel like this decision came a little too late.”
-
Woman arrested in connection with possible hate crime at pro-Palestinian protest
-
Worker wearing hijab spat on in possible New Westminster hate crime -
Speech at Vancouver pro-Palestine protest investigated as hate crime -
Poilievre says Canada should ‘deport’ any temporary resident committing violence or hate crimes
— With files from The Associated Press
