Joseph Czuba stands earlier than Circuit Choose Dave Carlson for his arraignment on the Will County, Ailing., courthouse on Oct. 30, 2023, in Joliet, Ailing.
Charles Rex Arbogast/AP
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Charles Rex Arbogast/AP
JOLIET, Ailing. — An Illinois landlord who killed a 6-year-old Muslim boy and severely injured the boy’s mom in a brutal hate-crime assault days after the warfare in Gaza started was sentenced Friday to 53 years in jail.
Joseph Czuba, 73, was found guilty in February of homicide, tried homicide and hate-crime prices within the loss of life of Wadee Alfayoumi and the wounding of his mom, Hanan Shaheen.
Choose Amy Bertani-Tomczak sentenced Czuba to 30 years within the boy’s loss of life and one other 20 years consecutively for the assault on Shaheen. The decide additionally sentenced him to a few years imprisonment for hate crimes. The size of the sentence makes all of it however sure he’ll die behind bars.
“No sentence can restore what was taken, however at present’s final result delivers a crucial measure of justice,” mentioned Ahmed Rehab, Government Director of CAIR-Chicago. “Wadee was an harmless youngster. He was focused due to who he was—Muslim, Palestinian, and beloved.”
Czuba didn’t converse in the course of the sentencing. Czuba’s lawyer, Lenard, declined remark. Will County State’s Legal professional James Glasgow’s workplace issued an announcement calling Czuba a “morally reprehensible killer” and the influence of his actions “actually unfathomable.”
The boy’s great-uncle, Mahmoud Yousef, was the one member of the family who spoke in the course of the listening to. He mentioned that irrespective of the sentence size it would not be sufficient. The boy’s mother and father had plans for him and Czuba robbed them of that, he mentioned.
Yousef requested Czuba to elucidate why he attacked the boy and his mom, asking him what information he heard that provoked him, however Czuba didn’t reply, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Czuba focused them in October 2023 due to their Islamic religion and as a response to the warfare between Israel and Hamas, prosecutors mentioned in the course of the trial.
Proof at trial included harrowing testimony from Shaheen and her frantic 911 name, together with bloody crime scene images 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 from Chicago when the assault occurred.
Central to prosecutors’ case was harrowing testimony from the boy’s mom, who mentioned Czuba attacked her earlier than shifting on to her son, insisting they needed to go away 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 out to be agitated concerning the Israel-Hamas warfare, which had erupted days earlier.
Police mentioned Czuba pulled a knife from a holder on a belt and stabbed the boy 26 instances, leaving the knife within the kid’s physique. Among the bloody crime scene images had been so express that the decide agreed to show tv screens exhibiting them away from the viewers, which included Wadee’s family.
“He couldn’t escape,” Michael Fitzgerald, a Will County assistant state’s lawyer, advised jurors at trial. “If it wasn’t sufficient that this defendant killed that little boy, he left the knife within the little boy’s physique.”
The jury deliberated for 90 minutes earlier than returning a verdict.
The assault renewed fears of anti-Muslim discrimination and hit notably exhausting in Plainfield and surrounding suburbs, which have a big and established Palestinian neighborhood. Wadee’s funeral drew massive crowds and Plainfield officers have devoted a park playground in his honor.
Shaheen had greater than a dozen stab wounds and it took her weeks to get better.
She mentioned 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 warfare, Czuba advised 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 attempting to interrupt her tooth.
“He advised me ‘You, as a Muslim, should die,'” mentioned Shaheen, who testified at trial in English and Arabic although a translator.
Police testified that officers discovered Czuba outdoors the home, sitting on the bottom with blood on his physique and palms.
Individually, lawsuits have been filed over the boy’s loss of life, together with by his father, Odai Alfayoumi, who’s divorced from Shaheen and was not residing with them. The U.S. Division of Justice additionally launched a federal hate crimes investigation.
Yousef advised reporters after the listening to that Czuba was a grandfather determine to Wadee and the household would not perceive what “pretend information” Czuba could have heard concerning the warfare in Gaza that triggered him to assault the boy and his mom. Individuals want to grasp Muslims earlier than judging them, he mentioned.
“Some persons are bringing this warfare to this nation,” Yousef mentioned. “We can not try this. We won’t carry the warfare right here. We can not carry hatred to this nation … we’d like that to cease.”
