Authorities said Joseph Czuba targeted his tenants because they were Muslim and in response to the war between Israel and Hamas.

An Illinois man has been sentenced to 53 years in prison for the 2023 fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy.

Wadee Alfayoumi was stabbed 26 times and his mother more than a dozen in the Oct. 14, 2023, attack inside their home in the Chicago suburb of Plainfield.

Their landlord, 73-year-old Joseph Czuba, was convicted in February on multiple murder charges, as well as attempted murder, aggravated battery and hate crime counts. A Will County jury found Czuba guilty of all counts after deliberating for less than two hours.

Prior to the sentencing on Friday in Joliet, the judge denied a motion from the defense team to overturn the jury verdict that claimed he did not receive a fair trial, Chicago ABC station WLS reported.

The defense has filed a motion to reconsider the sentencing, with a court appearance scheduled for May 7, WLS reported.

Czuba faced a mandatory prison sentence of 20 to 60 years up to a possible life sentence.

Authorities said he targeted his tenants because they were Muslim and in response to the war between Israel and Hamas that had just ignited after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

Wadee’s great uncle, Mahmoud Yousef, addressed the sentencing outside the courthouse, telling reporters, “It doesn’t matter what numbers are. He took a life from us. He took a future.”

  • Catoblepas
    39·
    2 days ago

    Specifically going for a child is so unspeakably vile.

  • inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world
    31·
    2 days ago

    Czuba attacked her first with a knife, stabbing her multiple times, saying, “You devil Muslim, you must die,” as her son watched,

    “I thought they were going to do jihad on me,” Czuba said, according to WLS.

    A racist piece of shit no one will miss. Yet he is also the obvious product of our overtly islamphobic media and goverment. Just 10 days after Oct 7th, this bigot felt emboldened to attack women and children and call it self-defense.

    Disgusting.

    • bean@lemmy.world
      7·
      2 days ago

      “… jihad on me…” so I had to do it first ?

      Fucking sick man. It’s a child, a defenseless child. Rot in that cell.

  • Ænima@lemm.ee
    6·
    2 days ago

    When reports started coming out about Israel making no effort to limit collateral casualties of women and children, I thought I had seen the worst that humanity had to offer. I still think that but this dude is the embodiment of a monster. He deserves to be stabbed as many, or more, times as he did to that child. My son is 5.5yo. I can only imagine the amount of rage this family and the whole of Palestine feels. I can only hope they can find some peace again.

    There will be a special place in hell for Zionist’s and people like this.

    • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
      6·
      2 days ago

      At this point Israeli soldiers are no longer just “making no effort to limit collateral casualties” in Gaza, but pretty obviously “aiming intentionally at children’s heads,” according to the doctors doing cause-of-death exams.