Joseph Czuba, Plainfield, Illinois landlord found guilty of murder and hate crime charges in the slaying of 6 year old Muslim boy, Wadee Alfayoumi who was stabbed 26 times and the wounding of his mother, Hanan Shaheen just one week after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.
An Illinois landlord accused of stabbing a 6 year old Palestinian boy no less than 26 times and killing him, was on Friday found guilty of murder and hate crime charges. The conviction comes after jurors deliberated less than 90 minutes.
Joseph Czuba, 73, of Plainfield, IL, was charged in the fatal stabbing of Wadee Alfayoumi and the wounding of his mother, Hanan Shaheen on Oct. 14, 2023 in Plainfield, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from Chicago. Authorities alleged the family — who were renting rooms in Czubas house — was targeted because of their Islamic faith and as a response to the war between Israel and Hamas that erupted on Oct. 7, 2023.
Joseph Czuba found guilty
The trial featured detailed testimony from police officers, medical workers, Czuba’s ex-wife and Shaheen, who described how Czuba attacked her with a knife before going after her son in a different room. Prosecutors say that the child had been stabbed 26 times. He was found naked with a knife still in his side.
Prosecutors stressed the attack was motivated by anti Muslim and anti Palestinian extremism following the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the hands of Hamas which led to 1200 Israeli civilians killed and the taking of 200 captives a week earlier.
‘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.
Citing text messages from the mother to the boy’s father, the suspect reportedly yelled, ‘You Muslims must die!’ ahead of the stabbing, prosecutors stated.
Czuba had pleaded not guilty. He faced murder, attempted murder, aggravated battery and hate crime charges in an eight-count indictment.
Defense attorneys insisted pieces of evidence tying Czuba to the crimes were missing. His ex-wife, testifying for the prosecution, could only describe one outburst during their 30 years of marriage and said he carried knives often because he was handy around the house.
6 year old Chicago area boy targeted by landlord cause he was Muslim
‘Go beyond the emotions to carefully examine the evidence,’ demanded Kylie Blatti, one of Czuba’s public defenders. ‘It is easy to get lost in the horror of those images.’
One of the critical parts of the trial was Shaheen’s testimony and the 911 emergency call she made to report the stabbing, which had happened just days after the Hamas-Israel war 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 the Czubas.
Then after the start of the war, 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 though a translator.
Shaheen had more than a dozen stab wounds and it took her weeks to recover. The boy was later pronounced dead.
Police testified that officers found Czuba outside the house sitting on the ground with blood on his body and hands.
Joseph Czuba was found guilty of attacking his tenant and killing her 6-year-old son, Wadee Al Fayoumi, in October 2023 after becoming radicalized by coverage of the war in Gaza. https://t.co/rFRCMxijuk
— WBEZ (@WBEZ) February 28, 2025
Radicalized by coverage of Hamas-Israel conflict
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.
Ben Crump, the national civil rights attorney representing Shaheen, called the verdict a ‘measure of justice’ in a statement.
‘Wadee was an innocent six-year-old child whose life was stolen in an act of unimaginable violence fueled by hatred,’ the statement says. ‘While we are relieved that his killer has been held accountable, we must continue to stand against the rising tide of hate that led to this senseless act.’
The Council on American-Islamic Relations released a statement on X following the guilty verdict, saying that the organization ‘welcomes the conviction of Joseph Czuba.’
‘This horrific crime is the worst of many violent attacks on American Muslims, Palestinians, and other supporters of Palestinian human rights over the past year and a half,’ the statement says. ‘It is time for our society to stop tolerating the anti-Palestinian racism and anti-Muslim bigotry that have led to hate crimes here at home and a genocide in Gaza.’
The case, comes amid unrestrained hostility involving Palestinians and Israel stretching decades and the intense mobilization of emotions and prejudices the conflict continues to engender. A conflict which post Oct 7, 2023, has led to upwards of 47K Palestinians dead, 110K wounded, 2.2 million Palestinians homeless and still no end in sight.
