The jury finds the owner guilty of murder, hate crime in 2023 attack on the American Palestinian child

Joliet, Ill. (AP) – A jury found an owner of Illinois guilty of Hateful murder and crime charges Friday for a brutal 2023 attack against an American Palestinian family who killed a 6 -year -old boy.

Joseph Czuba, 73, was accused of the fatal stabbing of Wadoee Alfayoumi and his mother’s wound, Hanan Shaheen, on October 14, 2023 in Plainfield, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) of Chicago. The authorities alleged that the family, which was renting rooms in the house of Czuba, was attacked due to its Islamic faith and in response to the War between Israel and Hamas That broke out on October 7, 2023.

The jurors deliberated less than 90 minutes for the crime that Renewed fears of anti-musulman discrimination in the large and established Palestinian community of the Chicago area.

The trial presented a detailed testimony of the police officers, the medical workers, the ex -wife of Czuba and Shaheen, who described how Czuba attacked her with a knife before chasing her son in a different room. Prosecutors say the child had been stabbed 26 times. He was found naked with a knife still on his side.

Graphic photos of the murder, a CZUBA knife support that supposedly used that day, along with the police video images were central to the case of Will’s County Prosecutor. Sometimes, the video screens that show explicit images moved away from the public audience that saw where Wadee family members sat during the trial.

“If it were not enough for this defendant to kill that little boy, he left the knife in the child’s body,” said Michael Fitzgerald, a state -owned state prosecutor of Will, the jurors during the opening statements.

Czuba had declared himself innocent. He faced the murder, attempted murder, aggravated the battery and the charges of hate crime in an accusation of eight positions.

The defense lawyers insisted that they tied Czuba to the crimes. His ex -wife, testifying for the Prosecutor’s Office, could only describe an outburst during his 30 years of marriage and said he was wearing knives often because he was useful for the house.

“Go beyond emotions to carefully examine the evidence,” said Kylie Blatti, one of Czuba’s public defenders. “It is easy to get lost in the horror of those images.”

One of the critical parts of the test was Shaheen’s testimony And the 911 he made to inform the crime that occurred a few days after the war began. She said they had not had any problem in the two years they rent from the Czubas. They shared a kitchen and a living room with the Czubas.

Then, after the beginning of the war, Czuba told him that they had to move because the Muslims were not welcome. Later, he faced Shaheen and attacked her, sustained her, stabbing her and trying to break her teeth.

“He told me ‘that you, as a Muslim, must die,” said Shaheen, who testified in English and Arabic through a translator.

Shaheen had more than a dozen white weapon wounds And he took it weeks to recover. The child was pronounced later dead.

Police declared that the officers found Czuba out of the house sitting on the floor with blood in his body and hands.

Separately, civil lawsuits have been filed for the child’s death, even for his father, Odai Alfayoumi, who divorces Shaheen and did not live with them at home.

The case, which generated headlines worldwide, comes in the middle growing hostility Against Muslims and Palestinians in the United States since Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023. The United States Department of Justice also launched a federal investigation of hate crimes.

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