Illinois landlord stabbed Palestinian 6-year-old 26 times and left knife embedded in body

An Illinois landlord who was found guilty of a barbaric hate crime after he fatally stabbed a six-year-old Muslim boy and wounded his mother at the start of the war in Gaza in 2023 was sentenced to 53 years in prison in court Friday morning.

Joseph Czuba, 73, was present for what sees to be a likely life sentence after he was convicted of murder and hate crime for killing Wadee Alfayoumi, a Palestinian American child, and wounding his mother, Hanan Shaheen, both tenants in Czuba's Plainfield home, in February.

Besides 30 years for Wadee's killing, Czuba has also received a 20-year sentence for attacking the boy's mother as well as an additional three-year term for a hate crime. The sentences will all run consecutively.

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Prosecutors shared the gruesome testimony from Shaheen, who said that Czuba attacked her and then her son, insisting that they had to leave the premises for being Muslim. They also presented the 911 call and showed police footage, as well as testimony from Czuba's wife, Mary, who has since divorced him.

Czuba pulled a knife from a holder on a belt and stabbed the child 26 times, leaving the knife in his body, police said.

They later found him sitting on the ground outside the house with blood on his hands and body.

The crime scene photos were so grisly that the judge agreed to turn television screens away from the audience where Wadee's relatives were present.

Michael Fitzgerald, a Will County assistant state's attorney, told jurors, "He could not escape. If it wasn’t enough that this defendant killed that little boy, he left the knife in the little boy’s body."

Shaheen sustained more than a dozen stab wounds, taking weeks to recover.

Shaheen said that the Czubas did not have any issues with them prior to October 2023, and that they shared a kitchen and a living room.

However, after the start of the war, Czuba grew agitated, his former wife confirmed.

He told Shaheen that they had to leave his residence as they were Muslim.

He later confronted her, before holding her down, stabbing her, and breaking her teeth.

Using a translator, Shaheen testified that Czuba said, "You, as a Muslim, must die."

Czuba did not speak during the trial. His public defender, too, has not commented on the case.

The jury deliberated for 90 minutes before delivering the guilty verdict.

“No matter what the sentence is going to be, it’s not going to justify,” Wadee's great uncle, Mahmoud Yousef, the prosecution's only witness, told the court on Friday. “The day he was killed, his father had memories, had plans for his son.”

"He had no right to take them," Yousef said, turning to Czuba.

Since Czuba kept quiet, Yousef implored him to "speak up."

"That’s [a lengthy sentence] not going to be enough. So for peace of mind, Mr Joseph," Yousef said, looking at Czuba, "say something. Come up. Say something."