After less than an hour of jury deliberations, Joseph Czuba, 73, a suburban man accused of fatally stabbing a Wadee Al Fayoumi, 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, was found guilty on all charges, including first degree murder, attempted murder, hate crimes, aggravated battery and more.
The trial lasted five days, with both sides resting Thursday, and closing arguments Friday morning. Jury deliberations began about 12:20 p.m. Friday, with a verdict announced around 1:45 p.m.
Czuba pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated battery and hate crimes in connection with the horrifying attack, which also left Wadee's mother, Hanan Shaheen, injured.
In their verdict, the jury said it found Wadee's death resulted from "exceptionally brutal or heinous heinous behavior indicative of wanton cruelty."
A sentencing date was not immediately announced.
In addition to killing her son, Czuba was accused of forcing his way into Shaheen’s room on Oct. 14, 2023, and stabbing her more than a dozen times, according to prosecutors.
Shaheen testified that she had locked herself in a bathroom to call 911, and that’s when Czuba allegedly turned the knife on her son Wadee, who was stabbed more than 20 times and died of his injuries.
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Brandon Vainowski, a firefighter and paramedic with the Plainfield Fire Protection District, testified about his experiences responding to the scene, saying that Wadee’s lungs were punctured and that efforts to resuscitate him failed on the way to the hospital.
“The amount of blood that was on this child, I couldn’t even count how many stab wounds,” he said, according to NBC News.
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Mary Connor, Czuba’s ex-wife, testified Wednesday that in the week leading up to the stabbings, Czuba was outraged about the war between Israel and Hamas, expressing to her his desire for the boy and his mother to move out of their Plainfield home.
“Hanan needs to move, because her friends could come and do us harm,” Czuba allegedly told his ex-wife.
She also testified that Czuba had become withdrawn in the lead-up to the attack, and that he withdrew $1,000 from his bank account because of fears the U.S. banking system would fail.
Prosecutors also played a recording of Czuba in a squad car in the aftermath of the attack.
“I was afraid for my life. I was afraid for my wife,” he told police.
Czuba also said in the video that he did not know that Shaheen and Alfayoumi were Muslim, an argument his ex-wife disputed in court.
After prosecutors rested on Thursday, defense attorneys called a pair of witnesses, two Will County Sheriff’s detectives who testified about interviewing Shaheen in the aftermath of the attack.
During cross-examination of DNA experts in the case, one of the experts said there were no fingerprints on the knife, and concluded that there was no proof the knife had been wiped down after the attack.
Another expert however had testified that Czuba’s blood was on the knife, along with Shaheen and Alfayoumi’s blood, according to prosecutors.
