An Illinois landlord who was found guilty of a vicious hate crime that killed a 6-year-old Muslim boy and injured his mother days after the start of the Gaza war in 2023 was scheduled to be sentenced Friday.
In February, a jury convicted 73-year-old Joseph Czuba of murder and hate crime charges for fatally stabbing Wadee Alfayoumi, a Palestinian American, and wounding his mother, Hanan Shaheen.
In 2023, the family was renting rooms at Czuba’s home in Plainfield, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from Chicago, when the attack occurred.
The prosecutors’ case was built around harrowing testimony from the boy’s mother, who claimed Czuba attacked her before moving on to her son, insisting they leave because they were Muslim. Prosecutors also played the 911 call and displayed police footage.
Czuba’s wife, Mary, whom he has since divorced, also testified for the prosecution, claiming that he became agitated about the Israel-Hamas conflict, which had erupted days before.
According to police, Czuba pulled a knife from a belt holder and stabbed the boy 26 times, leaving the knife in his body afterward. Some of the bloody crime scene photos were so graphic that the judge agreed to turn television screens away from the audience, which included Wadee’s family members.
“He could not escape,” Michael Fitzgerald, a Will County assistant state’s attorney, told jurors during trial. “If it wasn’t enough that this defendant killed that little boy, he left the knife in the little boy’s body.”
The jury deliberated for 90 minutes before issuing its verdict. According to the Will County state’s attorney’s office, Czuba is eligible for a minimum prison sentence ranging from 20 to 60 years or life.
Prosecutors declined to comment ahead of Friday’s hearing and have not indicated what sentence they intend to seek. Illinois does not have a death penalty.
The attack heightened fears of anti-Muslim discrimination and struck especially hard in Plainfield and its surrounding suburbs, which have a large and established Palestinian community. Wadee’s funeral drew large crowds, and Plainfield officials dedicated a park playground in his memory.
Czuba did not speak at the trial. His defense attorneys claimed that there were flaws in the case. His public defender, George Lenard, has not spoken to reporters and declined to comment ahead of the sentencing.
Shaheen suffered more than a dozen stab wounds and took weeks to recover.
She claimed there were no previous problems during the two years she rented from the Czubas, including sharing a kitchen and a living room.
Then, after the war began, Czuba informed her that they would have to leave because Muslims were not welcome. He later confronted and attacked Shaheen, holding her down, stabbing her, and attempting to break her teeth.
“He told me, ‘You, as a Muslim, must die,'” said Shaheen, who testified in English and Arabic via translator.
Police testified that they discovered Czuba outside the house, sitting on the ground with blood on his body and hands.
Separately, civil lawsuits have been filed over the boy’s death, including one by his father, Odai Alfayoumi, who is divorced from Shaheen and did not live with them. The US Department of Justice has also launched a federal hate crime investigation.
