Joseph Czuba Trial: What's Next In Plainfield Hate Crime, Murder Case

PLAINFIELD, IL — Discovery in the murder and hate crime case involving a Plainfield landlord accused of stabbing a 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy to death is set to be shared in March.

Joseph Czuba was indicted on eight felony charges, including first-degree murder, hate crime and aggravated battery, related to the Oct. 14 stabbing of Wadee Alfayoume and his mother, Hanan Shaheen.

The 72-year-old landlord appeared in court for the first time in 2024 on Jan. 3, as prosecutors worked toward a March pretrial date for motions and discovery.

Will County prosecutors said Czuba's attack was motivated by the family's Muslim faith as a result of his grievances with the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

Police and prosecutors allege that on the morning of Oct. 14, Czuba knocked on Shaheen's bedroom door — one of the two rooms she rents in a Plainfield Township house shared by Czuba and his wife — and began arguing with her over the war between Israel and Hamas. The argument turned physical, and Czuba proceeded to stab her about a dozen times before turning on her son.

Just eight days after celebrating his sixth birthday, Wadee was stabbed 26 times and pronounced dead at a Joliet hospital, according to court documents.

RELATED: Read Patch's coverage of the murder case

Since Czuba's indictment, Wadee Alfayoume's father, Odai, filed a wrongful death suit against the defendant. Mary Czuba, Joseph's wife, also filed for divorce from the man whom she married on April 30, 1994.

"The parties experienced irreconcilable differences which led to an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage; the parties' efforts at reconciliation have failed and future attempts at reconciliation would be impractical and not in the best interests of the family," read the Will County petition for dissolution of marriage.

Editor's note: Patch spelled the family's last name based on the wrongful death lawsuit documents.