Ill. Landlord Convicted of Fatally Stabbing Palestinian American Boy 26 Times in Anti-Muslim Hate Crime

An Illinois man has been convicted of murder and a hate crime for killing his 6-year-old Palestinian American tenant in 2023, days after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel, the Associated Press reports.

The boy, Wadea Al-Fayoume, was fatally stabbed by 73-year-old Joseph Czuba, who stabbed the boy’s mother Hanan Shaheen as well during the Oct. 14, 2023, attack in their Plainfield, Ill., home, the Will County Sheriff’s Office said at the time.

After being stabbed, when Shaheen tried to call 911 from the bathroom, Czuba attacked Wadea, per her testimony, NBC Chicago and ABC 7 Chicago reported. She told the jury that she could hear the child scream “oh no, stop!” as Czuba stabbed him, per ABC 7 Chicago and NBC News.

During the trial, prosecutors said the child had been found naked with the knife still inside after he had been stabbed 26 times, per AP.  

“If it wasn’t enough that this defendant killed that little boy, he left the knife in the little boy’s body,” Michael Fitzgerald, a Will County assistant state’s attorney, said in court during opening statements, per AP.

The jury also heard a recorded conversation between Czuba and an officer where the landlord is heard referring to Wadea and his mother as “infested rats,” NBC News reported.

Shaheen alleged Czuba told her following the Oct. 7 attack that she and her son had to leave the residence.

“He told me, ’You, as a Muslim, must die,” she testified in court, per AP.

Czuba was also found guilty of attempted murder, per NBC Chicago. He had pleaded not guilty to the charges he faced.

His defense attorneys argued in court that the investigation was missing key pieces of evidence, AP reported. They claimed Czuba’s ex-wife, who testified on behalf of the prosecution, could only recount one outburst in their three-decade long marriage.