{"id":135936,"date":"2025-05-02T18:51:57","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T18:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/illinois-man-sentenced-to-53-years-for-hate-crime-killing-of-6-year-old-palestinian-american-boy-and-wounding-his-mother-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2025-05-02T18:51:57","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T18:51:57","slug":"illinois-man-sentenced-to-53-years-for-hate-crime-killing-of-6-year-old-palestinian-american-boy-and-wounding-his-mother-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/illinois-man-sentenced-to-53-years-for-hate-crime-killing-of-6-year-old-palestinian-american-boy-and-wounding-his-mother-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Illinois man sentenced to 53 years for hate crime killing of 6-year-old Palestinian American boy and wounding his mother – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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JOLIET, Ill. \u2014 An Illinois man was sentenced<\/a> on Friday to 53 years behind bars for the racially motivated <\/a>killing<\/a> of a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy and attacking his mom, days after the Israel-Hamas war<\/a>\u00a0erupted in 2023.
Wearing a red jail uniform and appearing thin and frail, 73-year-old Joseph Czuba appeared before Will County Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak and heard what amounted to a likely life sentence for murder and attempted murder.
A jury in February found the landlord Czuba <\/a>guilty of first-degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated battery and hate crimes for the Oct. 14, 2023, killing of Wadee Alfayoumi, whose family were tenants of the murderer.
Czuba was sentenced to 30 years for killing Wadee, who was stabbed 26 times.
\u201cNo matter what the sentence is going to be, it\u2019s not going to justify\u201d Wadee\u2019s death, the prosecution\u2019s only witness, great uncle Mahmoud Yousef, told the court on Friday. \u201cThe day he was killed, his father had memories, had plans for his son.\u201d\u00a0
Yousef then turned to face Czuba and said:\u00a0 \u201cHe had no right to take them.\u201d
Czuba also wounded the boy\u2019s mother, Hanan Shaheen, whom he stabbed more than a dozen times in the Chicago suburb of Plainfield Township.
In addition to the 30 years for Wadee’s killing, Czuba was hit with a 20-year sentence for attacking the boy’s mother and an additional 3-year term for a hate crime. All of the sentences are set to run consecutively.
Czuba declined to speak on his own behalf on Friday. It did not appear he had any family members in court to support him.
The victims had been been renting rooms in Czuba\u2019s home when he launched into anti-Muslim rants after the Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attacks into Israel by Hamas-led militant groups, witnesses said.
The boy\u2019s mother <\/a>testified that Czuba told her \u201cyour people\u201d are killing Jewish people and babies in Israel and that Muslims were not welcome in his home.
Before sentencing, the judge denied defense’s bid to vacate the verdicts.
Defense lawyer George Lenard had accused prosecutors at trial of inflaming the emotions of jurors by making points of argument during the rebuttal portion of their case.
\u201c(Prosecutors are) not supposed to give arguments in rebuttal, especially that amount to prejudice,\u201d Lenard said. \u201cIt\u2019s our position that these grounds in and of themselves are grounds for a reversal of the verdicts. But if you look at all these errors, if you accumulate them, they\u2019re additional argument for why the court should grant Mr. Czuba a new trial.\u201d
The great uncle, Yousef, said the killer and his victims appeared to get along before Czuba\u2019s frame of mind seemed to spiral of nowhere.
\u201cThat\u2019s (a lengthy sentence) not going to be enough. So for peace of mind, Mr Joseph,\u201d\u00a0Yousef said, turning toward the killer, \u201csay something. Come up. Say something.\u201d
The boy\u2019s father Odai Alfayoumi, echoed that thought, saying the killer had always seemed to like his son before suddenly snapping.
\u201cThis is America and when I came right here, I came because this is a free country,\u201d Alfayoumi told reporters outside the courthouse.
\u201cSo right now I\u2019m confused. There is, like some people, they call my son, they call him as an angel. And they heard that a lot. Some people too, they call him as a devil Muslim. They make me confused. The same guy, he was looking at my son as an angel (and) right now, he call him as a devil. So I don’t know. This is America?”
Samira Puskar reported from Joliet and David K. Li from Los Angeles County.<\/em>
Senior Breaking News Reporter
© 2025 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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