JOLIET, Ill. – A sentence has been handed down in the case of a landlord convicted in the murder of a 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy in Plainfield.
A Will County judge sentenced c to 53 years in prison on Friday for the deadly stabbing of 6-year-old Wadee Al-Fayoumi and the attack on his mother. The sentence includes 30 years for murder, 20 years for the attempted murder of Hanan Shaheen, and three years for a hate crime.
Czuba, 73, was convicted last month on charges including first-degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated battery and hate crimes after authorities said he targeted the family because of their Islamic faith and Palestinian heritage amid rising tensions over the war between Israel and Hamas.
Deadly hate crime
The backstory:
The attack occurred in October 2023 inside Czuba’s Plainfield home, where the victims had been tenants for more than two years. Prosecutors said Czuba, influenced by inflammatory media and political rhetoric, turned violent just days after the war began, stabbing Al-Fayoumi to death and seriously injuring the child’s mother, Shaheen.
“He told me, ‘You, as a Muslim, must die,’” Shaheen testified during the trial, describing how Czuba attacked her with a knife and left her bloodied before she managed to lock herself in a bathroom and call 911 as her son screamed from another room.
During the trial, jurors watched a police video of Czuba speaking unprompted about the attack. “I was afraid they were going to do Jihad on me,” he said, later referring to Muslims as “infested rats.” DNA evidence, witness testimony, and the recovery of the bloodied knife supported the prosecution’s case.
Czuba’s attorneys did not call him to the stand and focused instead on trying to question the clarity of the evidence. The jury ultimately returned guilty verdicts on all counts.
The case sparked outrage and grief across the region. State Rep. Abdelnasser Rashid (D-Bridgeview), the first Palestinian-American elected to the Illinois legislature, called Wadee’s killing a “preventable tragedy” and pointed to the political climate that may have emboldened Czuba.
The Source: The information in this report came from court and previous FOX 32 reporting.
