An Illinois landlord who murdered a 6-year-old Muslim boy and severely injured the boy’s mom in a vicious hate-crime assault days after the struggle in Gaza started was sentenced Friday to 53 years in jail.
Joseph Czuba, 73, was discovered responsible in February of homicide, tried homicide and hate-crime fees within the dying of Wadee Alfayoumi and the wounding of his mom, Hanan Shaheen.
Czuba focused them in October 2023 due to their Islamic religion and as a response to the struggle between Israel and Hamas.
Proof at trial included harrowing testimony from Shaheen and her frantic 911 name, together with bloody crime scene pictures and police video. Jurors deliberated lower than 90 minutes earlier than handing in a verdict.
The household had been renting rooms in Czuba’s dwelling in Plainfield, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from Chicago when the assault occurred.
Central to prosecutors’ case was harrowing testimony from the boy’s mom, who stated Czuba attacked her earlier than transferring on to her son, insisting they needed to depart as a result of they had been Muslim. Prosecutors additionally performed the 911 name and confirmed police footage. Czuba’s spouse, Mary, whom he has since divorced, additionally testified for the prosecution, saying he had turn into agitated in regards to the Israel-Hamas struggle, which had erupted days earlier.
Police stated Czuba pulled a knife from a holder on a belt and stabbed the boy 26 occasions, leaving the knife within the little one’s physique. A number of the bloody crime scene pictures had been so express that the choose agreed to show tv screens displaying them away from the viewers, which included Wadee’s family members.
“He could not escape,” Michael Fitzgerald, a Will County assistant state’s lawyer, instructed jurors at 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 earlier than returning a verdict. Czuba is eligible for a minimal jail sentence of 20 to 60 years or life, in response to the Will County state’s lawyer’s workplace.
Prosecutors declined to remark forward of Friday’s listening to and haven’t stated what sentence they’ll search. Illinois doesn’t have the dying penalty.
The assault renewed fears of anti-Muslim discrimination and hit notably exhausting in Plainfield and surrounding suburbs, which have a big and established Palestinian group. Wadee’s funeral drew massive crowds and Plainfield officers have devoted a park playground in his honor.
Czuba didn’t communicate throughout the trial. His protection attorneys argued that there have been holes within the case. His public defender, George Lenard, has not addressed reporters and declined remark forward of the sentencing.
Shaheen had greater than a dozen stab wounds and it took her weeks to get better.
She stated there have been no prior points within the two years she rented from the Czubas, even sharing a kitchen and a lounge.
Then after the beginning of the struggle, Czuba instructed her that they needed to transfer out as a result of Muslims weren’t welcome. He later confronted Shaheen and attacked her, holding her down, stabbing her and making an attempt to interrupt her enamel.
“He told me ‘You, as a Muslim, must die,’” stated Shaheen, who testified in English and Arabic although a translator.
Police testified that officers discovered Czuba exterior the home, sitting on the bottom with blood on his physique and palms.
Individually, lawsuits have been filed over the boy’s dying, together with by his father, Odai Alfayoumi, who’s divorced from Shaheen and was not dwelling with them. The U.S. Division of Justice additionally launched a federal hate crimes investigation.
