Illinois landlord gets 53 years for fatally stabbing Palestinian-American child

An Illinois landlord who fatally stabbed a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy and severely wounded his mother has been sentenced to 53 years in prison.

Joseph Czuba, 73, was convicted for murder and hate crimes for the death of Wadee Alfayoumi, and the wounding of his mother in 2023 shortly after the start of the Israel-Gaza war.

The family had been tenants in Czuba’s home in Plainfield, roughly 40 miles from Chicago. Prosecutors said he targeted them over their Muslim faith.

Czuba had pleaded not guilty, but jurors convicted him after deliberating for less than 90 minutes.

The trial included testimony from Alfayoumi’s mother, who described the encounter in harrowing detail, and from Czuba’s now ex-wife, who said he had grown agitated by the war.

On the day of the attack, he forced his way into the home of the Alfayoumi family who had been renting rooms from him and attacked them with a knife, prosecutors said.

He stabbed the mother over a dozen times, prosecutors said, then turned towards the boy and stabbed him 26 times.

“If it wasn’t enough that this defendant killed that little boy, he left the knife in the little boy’s body,” a Will County assistant state’s attorney told the jury.

Evidence during trial included graphic crime scene photos and police saying they found Czuba outside the house after the attack with his body and hands covered in blood.

Czuba did not speak during the trial.

The deadly attack received national attention and renewed concerns of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim discrimination.

Alfayoumi’s funeral drew large, overflowing crowds, and officials in his Plainfield hometown dedicated a park playground in his honour.