Joseph Czuba's Ex-Wife Testifies For The Prosecution In Murder Trial

JOLIET, IL — After being married for 30 years, Plainfield first-degree murder defendant Joseph Czuba watched his now-ex-wife Mary Connor testify as a prosecution witness on Wednesday afternoon in his trial for the deadly stabbing of 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi and the attempted murder of Wadee's mother, Hanan Shaheen, inside the Czubas' rental house in Plainfield.

Will County prosecutor Christine Vukmir questioned Connor during Wednesday afternoon's trial testimony against her 73-year-old ex-husband. Joseph Czuba also faces two hate crime charges in addition to first-degree murder and attempted murder.

Wadee and his mother lived inside Joseph and Mary Czuba's house for two years, from October 2021 until October 2023, at 162021 S. Lincoln Highway. The jury learned that Shaheen made it clear to the husband and wife landlords that she was Muslim and of Palestinian descent.

Vukmir asked if Shaheen's religion or ethnicity caused any concerns for her or Czuba in terms of renting space to them.

"No," Mary Connor answered.

Hanan agreed to pay $300 per month "and she wanted to pay the electricity," Joseph Czuba's ex-wife told the courtroom. "She paid her rent."

Vukmir asked Mary Connor what she thought of Shaheen as a tenant.

"Very good," she testified. "We had a good relationship. Initially, we did more things together. When we first met Hanan, (Wadee) was learning to ride a bicycle. He had training wheels on the bike, and we went to a park together."

Vukmir asked Mary Connor to describe Joseph Czuba's relationship with Shaheen.

"Pretty much the same," she answered.

For nearly two years, Connor said Shaheen and her son lived in the home without any hassles or problems from Joseph Czuba. She testified that things suddenly went downhill, starting on Oct. 10, 2023, which was a Tuesday, four days before the little boy's murder.

"Tuesday night, October 10th, Joe said, 'Mary, I feel like Hanan needs to move out.' I said, 'Why?' ... Joe said, 'Well, do you know what happened in Israel recently?' He said, 'Hanan needs to move out because her friends could come and do us harm.'"

The murder defendant's ex-wife testified that she rejected her husband's suggestion, reminding him that Shaheen never even invited her friends over to their house. "She never had anyone in our home as a guest," Connor testified. "He felt our lives might be in danger, and I refuted it."

Despite her husband's beliefs that Muslims would come to Plainfield to harm them, Connor did not believe that her husband planned to attack or harm their tenants. She did not believe that Shaheen's life was in danger, she told the prosecutor.

The following day, Oct. 11, 2023, Connor said she was in Chicago at a dentist's office when Shaheen began texting her, and Joseph "was calling me." She said Shaheen had texted her to let her know that "Joe knocked on her door and told her she needed to move.

"I was angry he was even asking her to move. In my mind, there was no reason for Hanan to move. ... We have to give her a 30-day notice in our rental agreement. I told her he needed to give you a 30-day notice to move. I indicated that I did not want her to move."

Vukmir asked Connor whether any other unusual behaviors happened between Wednesday and Saturday, leading up to Wadee's deadly stabbing.

"At some point, he indicated a day of Jihad" would happen that Friday, Czuba's ex-wife testified.

Czuba also feared the war in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas would devastate America's banking system, Connor testified.

That Friday, one day before Wadee's murder, Czuba went to the bank and withdrew $1,000 from their account. "He felt that ... the banking system would go down and he would have money," Connor said.

Vukmir wondered if Czuba made any other strange statements leading up to the murder and attempted murder of his tenants inside of their house?

"He said there would be an eclipse that Saturday," Connor testified.

That Friday night, the heat was not working inside their two-story home, she said. She tried to fix their thermostat. Connor said her husband responded, "'I will take care of it tomorrow.' He can fix anything, he's mechanical. He always did building and things."

As for Czuba's behavior the week leading up to the small boy's murder, Connor said, "He was quiet that week from Tuesday to Friday. I never recalled any interaction between him and Hanan. He was just like withdrawn, plus we also had fights twice that week."

When Vukmir asked if the fights involved their tenants or the war in the Middle East, she testified, "No, it was personal."

When she awoke that Saturday morning, still trying to fix the thermostat, she remembered seeing her husband around 7:15 a.m., "sitting at the kitchen table working on a crossword puzzle, just quiet."

Connor left the house around 7:25 a.m. to drive to Joliet for her job in home care.

She did not see Wadee or Shaheen the morning of the tragedy.

"I did not communicate with either of them," she testified.

Later that morning, she said she sent a text message to Czuba asking, "'Any progress on the thermostat?' And I did not hear from him."

The prosecutor showed Connor a few crime photos showing the three small pocket knives found near their house when Czuba was captured by the police. The knives looked familiar to her. "Yeah, because he's always cutting something, doing something," she testified. "In the kitchen, there was a knife hanging on a shelving unit near our refrigerator."

Connor testified that her ex-husband never exhibited any violent behavior toward Wadee or Hanan prior to Oct. 14, 2023. She recalled that Czuba one instance inflated a small backyard swimming pool for Wadee and another time he helped set up sports equipment for Wadee to play basketball.

When asked to describe her relationship with Shaheen, Connor testified, "she wasn't my best friend kind of thing. She was living in my house and we were friends. She was very polite, very kind, very loving."

The witness was asked if Czuba exhibited any religious or ethnic hatred.

"Never," she answered. "I never thought that anything like this could happen."

She was asked if she thought Shaheen's life was ever in any danger while continuing to live in her house.

"Never," she repeated.

"He felt they would come to do us harm and I said, 'Joe, she's never had anyone come to this house.'"

During cross-examination from attorney Kylie Blatti, Connor testified that her ex-husband was Catholic and was "quite religious."

"We were going regularly to church," she testified.

The witness also testified about a time when Czuba apparently saved from Wadee from coming too close to being hit by traffic along the busy Route 30 corridor in front of their house.

"There was a situation one day where Joe felt Wadee was getting too close to the highway. Joe physically picked him up. I mean, this is what I was told," she testified.

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