An Illinois jury reached a quick decision, taking less than 90 minutes to find a landlord guilty of the brutal stabbing death of a 6-year-old Palestinian boy during the Gaza war in 2023.
Joseph Czuba, the landlord, had previously pleaded not guilty to the charges related to the death of Wadee Alfayoumi and the injuries inflicted on his mother, Hanan Shaheen, on October 14, 2023, within the rented quarters occupied by the Palestinian family in a property owned by the Czuba family.
After Hanan Shaheen made a frantic 911 call that morning, Will County Sheriff’s deputies arrived at the scene to discover Czuba outside the premises with a laceration on his forehead. Inside the residence, they found Shaheen and her son, both with numerous stab wounds. Tragically, young Wadee had sustained 26 stab wounds and was tragically declared dead upon arrival at the hospital.
Shaheen told investigators — and the jury during the trial — that Czuba had come to the door that morning, tried to choke her, and then stabbed her with a knife, shouting, “You Muslims must die!” Shaheen ran to the bathroom room and called 911, and when she came out, she found that Czuba had attacked her son.
“I don’t know if I should be pleased or upset, if I should be crying or laughing,” Wadee’s father, Odai Alfayoumi, said at a news conference, speaking in Arabic, The AP said. “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 to a little too late.”
Shaheen did not speak at the news conference.
Czuba’s sentencing was set for May 2. He was found guilty of 8 charges, including murder, attempted murder, aggravated battery, and hate crime charges.
