A jury in suburban Chicago convicted 73-year-old Joseph M. Czuba of murder and hate crime charges for the fatal stabbing of 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi, a Palestinian American boy, amid rising anti-Muslim sentiment following the 2023 Hamas attacks. Wadee’s mother, Hanan Shaheen, was also severely injured in the attack after tensions escalated with Czuba, their landlord. The assault sparked fear within the Palestinian and Muslim communities in Illinois. Prosecutors argued Czuba was paranoid, believing his tenants posed a threat due to the conflict, while his defense claimed a rush to judgment. Wadee was stabbed 26 times and died in the hospital.
On Friday, a jury in suburban Chicago found a man guilty of murder and hate crime charges for the deadly stabbing of a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy who was living on his property. Authorities reported that the attack, which occurred shortly after Hamas launched an assault on Israel in 2023, was motivated by anti-Muslim sentiment.
Joseph M. Czuba, 73, the defendant, could face a life sentence at his upcoming sentencing.
The heinous act against Wadee Alfayoumi, a kindergartner with a passion for Legos and soccer, received worldwide attention and left many individuals in Illinois’s significant Palestinian and Muslim communities feeling scared and enraged. Community leaders suggested that some of the language used by certain American politicians and media figures dehumanized Palestinians, contributing to the violence.
Wadee and his mother, Hanan Shaheen, who suffered injuries during the attack, had been renting rooms in Mr. Czuba’s home in Plainfield Township, Ill., about 40 miles southwest of Chicago, for two years.
Following the outbreak of violence in the Middle East, Ms. Shaheen recounted to the jury that her relationship with her landlord abruptly deteriorated. She stated that Mr. Czuba started making derogatory remarks about Muslims and insisted that she and her young son vacate the premises.
“I told him, ‘Pray for peace,’” said Ms. Shaheen, who is both Muslim and Palestinian American.
However, mere days later, she recounted, Mr. Czuba knocked on her bedroom door and began assaulting her with a knife, resulting in wounds to her chest, back, and head. After retreating to a bathroom to call 911, she stated that Mr. Czuba then turned his attack on Wadee, who had just celebrated a birthday. Ms. Shaheen recalled her son crying out, “Stop! Oh no!”
“I was sitting on the floor talking to the police, and I felt like in any second I would die,” Ms. Shaheen testified during Mr. Czuba’s trial this week.
Prosecutors characterized Mr. Czuba in court documents as angry, erratic, paranoid, and violent, indicating that he had been consuming radio reports about the Middle Eastern conflict and had grown increasingly worried about his personal safety due to his tenants.
“This occurred because this defendant was afraid that a war that erupted on Oct. 7, 2023 — halfway across the world in the Middle East — was going to reach his doorstep,” prosecutor Michael Fitzgerald informed the jurors.
During closing statements, George Lenard, Mr. Czuba’s attorney, expressed doubts about the thoroughness of the investigation and the robustness of the evidence presented.
“There is no doubt there has been a rush to judgment in this case,” Mr. Lenard told the jury. “From the moment the 911 call was made, this case has been solved.”
Mary Connor, who ended her marriage to Mr. Czuba months following the stabbings in 2023, testified that Ms. Shaheen and her son were exemplary tenants, and that her husband had no issues with them until days after the Hamas attack. She mentioned that Mr. Czuba became increasingly withdrawn and believed Ms. Shaheen posed a threat.
“He said, ‘Hanan needs to move because her friends could come and do us harm,’” Ms. Connor testified. “I immediately responded: ‘Joe, Hanan has never had anyone in our home. She’s never had a guest.’”
The Chicago area is home to a significant Palestinian American community, including a suburban district filled with numerous Arab restaurants and shops referred to as Little Palestine.
Investigators reported that Wadee, sometimes written as Wadea Al-Fayoume, was stabbed 26 times and was pronounced dead at a hospital. Ms. Shaheen, then 32, sustained over a dozen stab wounds and was hospitalized in serious condition.
In court, Ms. Shaheen addressed inquiries from prosecutors about images of her bloodied face taken in the hospital, and she described her attempts to fight back against Mr. Czuba, ultimately taking the knife from him and attempting to stab him before he regained control of the weapon.