A man from Illinois who was sentenced to 53 years in prison for the murder of a young American Palestinian in a 2023 hate crime that surprised the nation that died in prison, authorities said on Saturday.
Joseph Czuba, 73, died on Thursday while serving his sentence, said the Sheriff’s office of Will County in a statement. The authorities did not release their cause of death.
In February, Czuba was convicted of first -degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated battery and hate crimes for fatally stabbing Wadoee Alfayoumi and hurting the child’s mother only a few days after October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel and the launch of the Israel military campaign in Gaza.
The authorities said Czuba attacked the child’s family “because they are Muslims and the ongoing conflict of the Middle East that involves Hamas and Israelis.” The mother and son lived in a rented room in Czuba’s house in Plainfield Township, a Chicago suburb.
Czuba stabbed the young man 26 times and attacked the child’s mother, Hanan Shaheen, leaving her seriously injured with 12 white weapon wounds, according to officials.
Czuba was sentenced 53 years in prison for killing Wadee and attacking Shaheen, after declaring himself not guilty.
Shaheen, who moved to the United States from the West Bank when he was a teenager almost 15 years ago, testified that in the days before the stabbing, Czuba told him “his people” is killing the Jews. Czuba also demanded that she and her son move from her home, she said.
He added that she and her son had no previous problems with Czuba in the approximately two years living in the house, where she and her son shared a kitchen and a living room with Czuba and her then wife.
On attack day, he testified that Czuba broke into his room, opened her and stabbed her more than a dozen times. She said Czuba put her fingers in her mouth in a moment and tried to break her teeth. Throughout the encounter, Shaheen said he pulled Czuba’s hair while he shouted: “You must die!”
His son stopped at the corner of the room and observed the encounter with fear, Shaheen testified.
Czuba told the young man: “Wadee, I will take care of you. I will raise you” and “Don’t tell the people that I killed your mother,” while stabbing his mother, Shaheen said.
Shaheen said he later escaped to the bathroom and called 911 while he could listen to Czuba by stabbing his son.
“He is killing my baby,” he repeatedly told the dispatcher, according to a recording of the 911 call reproduced in the trial.
A Shaheen lawyer did not immediately return a request for comments.
Wadee’s murder surprised the nation and took out the national conviction at a time when tensions around the Muslim and Jewish communities of the country intensified after the attacks of October 7.
The then President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris issued statements that condemn the murder, saying that “this horrible act of hate does not take place in the United States.”
“The child’s Palestinian Muslim family came to the United States in search of what we all look for: a refuge to live, learn and pray in peace,” he said.
Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Office of the American-Islamic Relations Council of Chicago, said in a statement on Saturday that “this depraved murderer has died, but hatred is still alive and well.”
