A landlord in Illinois who killed a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy shortly after the October 2023 Hamas attack in Israel was sentenced to 53 years in prison today, according to Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow.
The consecutive sentences of Joseph Czuba, 73, include 30 years in prison for the first-degree murder of Wadee Alfayoumi, 20 years for the attempted first-degree murder of the boy’s mother, Hanan Shaheen, and three years for hate crime charges.
Czuba was silent during the sentencing. Due to his age and the length of his sentence, Czuba is likely to die incarcerated.
“There is no sentence that can be imposed to bring justice for the heinous actions Czuba took on October 14, 2023,” Glasgow said in a statement. “The cruelty of this morally reprehensible killer and the impact of his violent conduct on this innocent child and mother is truly unfathomable.”
Before the attack, prosecutors said Czuba was expressing concern over the Hamas–Israel conflict and asked Shaheen to move out of his property because she practiced the Muslim faith.
Shaheen called 911 on Oct. 14, 2023, and reported that Czuba was killing her child with a knife.
When the Plainfield Police Department and Will County Sheriff’s Police arrived at the Plainfield residence, they found the boy lying on a bed unresponsive with multiple stab wounds to his chest and a knife protruding from his torso.
Shaheen, who had multiple stab wounds, told police that Czuba had forced his way into her bedroom, where he attacked her with a large knife. She was able to escape and lock herself in the bathroom.
While she waited for police to arrive, Czuba stabbed her son 26 times until he succumbed to his injuries.
Circuit Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak handed down the sentence following a five-day jury trial that concluded on Feb. 28.
The jury found that the murder of the young boy resulted from exceptionally brutal or heinous behavior that is indicative of wanton cruelty.
Czuba’s public defender attorneys, Kylie Blatti and George Lenard, did not respond to requests for comment.
Mahmoud Yousef, the boy’s great-uncle, said that no matter the sentence length, it wouldn’t be enough. Yousef was the only family member who gave a victim statement.
The sentence was welcomed by Council on American Islamic Relations Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab, who said: “No sentence can restore what was taken, but today’s outcome delivers a necessary measure of justice. Wadee was an innocent child. He was targeted because of who he was—Muslim, Palestinian, and loved.”
