An Illinois jury on Friday deliberated less than 90 minutes before returning a guilty verdict for a landlord accused of the brutal stabbing death of a 6-year-old Palestinian boy after the start of the Gaza war in 2023.
Joseph Czuba had pleaded not guilty in the death of Wadee Alfayoumi and the wounding of his mother, Hanan Shaheen, on October 14, 2023, in the rooms the Palestinian family rented from the Czuba family, The Associated Press said.
Will County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a desperate 911 from Shaheen that morning and found Czuba outside with a cut on his forehead, as CrimeOnline reported. Inside, they found Shaheen and her son, both with dozens of stab wounds. Wadee was stabbed 26 times and was pronounced dead 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.
