A Plainfield landlord was sentenced to 53 years in prison Friday for attacking his Palestinian American tenant and killing her son, 6-year-old Wadee Al Fayoumi — stabbing him 26 times — in one of the most violent hate crimes to immediately follow the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel.
Joseph Czuba, 73, was convicted of murder and and hate crime charges in late February after a four-day trial. Prosecutors said he carried out the murder after becoming increasingly paranoid about the war in Gaza after listening to commentary on conservative talk radio. A jury deliberated for a little over an hour before convicting him of all counts.
The sentencing concludes a case that drew international attention to Islamaphobia in America following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel. Thousands attended Wadee’s funeral. Earlier this year, Wadee’s mother Hanan Shaheen discussed Islamophobia with then-President Joe Biden at the White House.
At trial, Wadee’s mother Hanan Shaheen testified that Czuba started treating her differently after the Oct. 7 attacks. She testified that Czuba told her, “Your people are killing Jewish [people] and babies in Israel. Muslims are not welcome here, not in my home.”
On the morning of Oct. 14, 2023, Czuba banged on her door as Shaheen was in her bathroom preparing to give her son a shower, she testified. Czuba pushed into the unit and began stabbing her while yelling, “You Muslim must die,” she testified.
Shaheen locked herself in a bathroom and called 911, she testified. But while inside she heard her son screaming. Police arrived and found 62-pound Wadee on a bed, bleeding. He had been stabbed 26 times. Officers found Czuba at the scene covered in blood with a holster for a knife attached to his side, according to police testimony.
Czuba was recorded in the back of a squad car telling an officer that he was afraid for his life. “I was afraid they were going to do jihad on me,” he said in video shown during the trial.
Czuba’s now ex-wife, who was not home at the time of the attack, testified that she pushed back against Czuba’s claims that Shaheen would bring friends over to harm him. She testified that Czuba had no reservations about Shaheen’s Muslim faith or Palestinian background when he began renting to her in 2021 at Czuba’s Plainfield property on Lincoln Highway.
