Plainfield man gets 53 years for murder of Palestinian boy, attempted murder of mother

Mahmoud Yousef looked at the man whom a jury convicted of the 2023 hate crime murder of his nephew’s 6-year-old son and challenged him to explain what made him do it during a sentencing hearing in Joliet on Friday.

Joseph Czuba, 73, a former Plainfield Township landlord, was convicted in February of the Oct. 14, 2023, first-degree murder of 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi and the attempted murder of the child’s mother, Hanan Shaheen.

Czuba also was convicted of a hate crime by attacking the mother and child on the basis of their Islamic faith.

At trial, prosecutors told the jury that Czuba was afraid the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel “was going to come to his doorstep,” and he viewed Wadee and Shaheen as “infested rats.”

Yet at Czuba’s sentencing hearing Friday, Yousef wanted to know more about what drove him to stab Wadee 26 times with a knife, a crime that Yousef said went beyond hatred.

He wanted to know what kind of news Czuba had been hearing or listening to.

“We need to know. We need that peace of mind,” Yousef told Will County Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak.

When Bertani-Tomczak offered Czuba the chance to say anything, he declined.

The judge sentenced Czuba to a total of 53 years in prison. Czuba was sentenced to 30 years for Wadee’s murder, 20 years for Shaheen’s attempted murder and three years for a hate crime.

Before Bertani-Tomczak issued her sentence, she denied a defense motion for a new trial or to overturn the jury’s verdict.

Yousef was the only person Friday who gave a victim impact statement in court. Odai Alfayoumi, the father of Wadee, attended the court hearing, but he was too emotional to speak in the courtroom, Yousef said.

“[Joseph Czuba] took care of this little boy. After the news, that’s when everything changed, so we needed him to come up and say something. What did he hear?”

—  Mahmoud Yousef, Wadee Alfayoumi's uncle

Seeking answers

Outside the courthouse, Yousef told reporters, “We needed more answers.”

“Unfortunately, [Czuba] did not give his statement today,” he said.

One reporter asked Yousef if 53 years in prison was enough to send a message about hate crimes against Muslims, but Yousef responded it “doesn’t matter what [the] numbers are.”

“He took [a] life from us. He took a future,” Yousef said.

He said he looked Czuba in the eye because he was “hoping for him to come up and say something,” and he wanted to know what “exactly made him flip the way he did.”

Yousef said before the “fake news that came from high levels of this country,” Czuba was considered a “grandfather figure” in Wadee’s life.

“He took care of this little boy. After the news, that’s when everything changed, so we needed him to come up and say something. What did he hear?” Yousef said.

After the jury’s verdict earlier this year, Ahmed Rehab, a Muslim civil rights leader, contended that Czuba was radicalized by unfounded and dehumanizing claims about Palestinians in media coverage of the Gaza war.

“That’s what [Czuba] was reacting to: these unfounded claims – watching CNN around the clock, the way that the media covered the conflict, showing only one side of what was happening,” Rehab said.

During Shaheen’s testimony at Czuba’s trial, she said Czuba told her that “your people” are killing “Jewish babies” in Israel and told her that “Muslims are not welcome here.”

Prosecutors said in a court filing that Czuba’s ex-wife, Mary Connor, told police that Czuba regularly listened to conservative talk radio.

But the conservative talk radio that Czuba was apparently listening to did not come up in Connor’s testimony during trial.

Shaheen and Wadee were tenants at Czuba’s residence in Plainfield Township. Connor said that before Shaheen and her son moved into the Czuba residence as tenants, she and Czuba learned that Shaheen was a Muslim of Palestinian descent.

That knowledge had no effect on the decision to allow Shaheen and her child to stay at the residence, Connor said.

Connor said she never saw Czuba express any hatred toward others based on their religion or ethnicity during their 30-year marriage.

But on Oct. 10, 2023, Czuba told Connor, “Mary, I feel like Hanan needs to move,” according to Connor’s testimony.

That was three days after Hamas launched what is considered the largest-ever terrorist attack on Israel.

Connor said Czuba asked her whether she knew what happened in Israel. Connor said her ex-husband told her that Shaheen’s friends could come to their residence and harm them.

After viewing news coverage of the attack, Czuba wanted Shaheen and her child out of his residence because “Muslims are not welcome here,” according to testimony.

A Will County wrongful death lawsuit over the murder and attempted murder still is ongoing. The Plainfield Park District also is planning a dedication monument for Wadee and has dedicated a park in his memory.