A Will County jury has convicted a Plainfield, Illinois, landlord on all counts in the hate crime murder of a 6-year-old Palestinian boy, and the stabbing of the boy’s mother.
Jurors deliberated little more than an hour before convicting Joseph Czuba of one count of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder, two counts of aggravated battery, and two counts of hate crime in the attack that killed Wadee Alfayoumi and seriously injured his mother, Hanan Shaheen in 2023.
Czuba faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced on May 2.
Prosecutors have said Czuba attacked his two tenants because they were Muslim.
The boy’s mother, mother, Hanan Shaheen, who also was stabbed in the Oct. 14, 2023 attack– took the witness stand on Tuesday. It was the first time she had spoken publicly about the alleged attack.
Shaheen said she was seeking justice for her son and said Czuba had previously tried to kick them out of the home, referencing the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack in Israel.
She recalled one exchange in which Czuba told her, “Your people is killing Jewish and babies in Israel. Muslims are not welcome here in my home.”
During the trial, prosecutors showed the jury graphic photos of Wadee’s injuries, and called several first responders and medical staff who treated Wadee, his mother, and Czuba after the attack.
A witness recalled Czuba “had blood all over his body, on his hands, and he was sweating profusely.”
Of Wadee’s mother, the witness said, “I observed her to be bleeding profusely from the face.”
Of Wadee himself, the witness said, “The amount of blood that was on the child, I couldn’t even count the amount of stab wounds.”
Prosecutors also relied on body camera video as part of the evidence in the case, and called one witness who showed the clothes Czuba was wearing on that day.
Jurors also heard the 911 calls from Wadee’s mother, and heard the boy’s screams from another room as she told dispatchers, “He’s killing my baby. He’s killing me and my baby. Please. The landlord is killing me and my baby.”
CAIR-Chicago, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, plans to hold a press conference immediately following the verdict.
