'The Landlord Is Killing Me And My Baby': Plainfield Murder Trial

What To Know Summary:

Charged with the murder of a 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy as well as a hate crime, Plainfield landlord Joseph Czuba is standing trial this week in Will County.

• Hanan Shaheen, mother of 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi, was the first witness to testify Tuesday morning.
• Shaheen was also seriously injured in the knife attack that killed her son.
• Shaheen testified about the morning her son was killed.
• The jury heard Shaheen's 911 call after she was stabbed and her son was killed in October 2023.

JOLIET — Now 33 years old, Hanan Shaheen testified on Tuesday morning as the first witness for Will County's prosecution in the stabbing murder of her son, Wadee Alfayoumi. Shaheen was also stabbed seriously wounded in the attack, the jury heard.

Shaheen testified that she was born in Jerusalem and her life's journey brought her to Plainfield, where she rented two bedrooms from the house of Joseph and Mary Czuba. Shaheen lived at 16201 Lincoln Highway along with her son, who just celebrated his sixth birthday and attended kindergarten in October 2023.

Prosecutor Christine Vukmir displayed the photo of Wadee Alfayoumi sitting on the bench for the jury to see during the start of Plainfield landlord Joseph Czuba's first-degree murder and hate crime trial at the Will County Courthouse in Courtroom 405 of Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak.

"Yes, this is my son," Shaheen testified upon seeing the picture of Wadee.

She and her son rented the two bedrooms on the first floor and the Czubas also lived on the property as landlords. When Shaheen signed the lease to rent the Plainfield house, she informed the Czubas, "I am Muslim."

She told the jury, "I am from Jerusalem."

When asked to describe her relationship with Mary Czuba, Shaheen testified, "Very good." When asked about Joseph Czuba, she answered, "Fine."

From 2021 through 2023, Shaheen, her small boy and the Czuba coexisted peacefully, according to her testimony.

Then, war broke out in the Middle East involving Israel and Hamas. Shaheen remembered she was getting Wadee ready for his school bus when Joseph Czuba approached and "he asked me, did you hear the news?"

Joseph Czuba eventually came to her room and informed her, "I need you to move out. Muslims are not welcome here."

The prosecutor asked Shaheen what else Joseph Czuba told her.

"Your people is killing Jewish babies," she relayed to the jury. "I told him pray for peace."

As the week continued, her Plainfield landlord approached her again, vowing, "I will make you move out. Muslims are not welcome here in my home."

Timeline of the Stabbings

Then came the day of the horrible tragedy, a Saturday.

Shaheen woke up around 6 a.m. for her prayer ritual, then returned to sleep. She and Wadee were moving around and having breakfast around 9 a.m. When she prepared her son for his shower, her angry landlord confronted her.

"I heard the door, the knocking on my door. It was annoying," she testified.

When she opened the door, she said, Czuba stood over her, screaming, "I told you to move out of my home!"

Wadee ran into his separate bedroom and Czuba followed after them. "I told you, your people is killing is babies and Jews, and you're not doing anything about," Shaheen testified Czuba told her. "I said, pray for peace."

According to Shaheen, Czuba grabbed her by her shoulder, and "I fell on my back on the ground. He's trying to strangle me."

Czuba also tried to break her teeth by putting his fingers into her mouth trying to pull her teeth out of her mouth, she testified.

"He's putting all his fingers, prying my jaw," she testified. "I started pushing him back."

As he tried to strangle her, she said Czuba kept screaming at her, "you Muslims, you Devils."

Then Czuba pulled out a medium-length knife and tried to kill her with it, she testified. Czuba stabbed her in the mouth, her face around her eyes, according to Shaheen.

"As you're fighting for the knife, what happened next," Vukmir asked her witness.

"I lost my power and energy," Shaheen told the courtroom. "I give up, I'm scared, feeling blood. I now fall to the floor. I kept laying on the floor."

She remembered hearing Czuba tell her 6-year-old boy, "Don't tell people I killed your mom."

At that moment, Shaheen thought to herself, "I am thinking it's the moment, the day I'm dying. That's the day I am dying in this moment."

Then, she said, Czuba left. She thought her right eye was blind, so she closed the bathroom door "and I went to call 911."

Wadee remained in his bedroom, according to Shaheen.

Jury Hears Mother's 911 Call

The prosecutors then played the roughly 14-minute 911 call for the jury.

While talking to the 911 dispatchers as she hid in her bathroom, Shaheen said, "I heard my son screaming. My son is screaming, 'Oh no! Help! Stop! Oh no!'"

Vukmir then asked Shaheen, "The whole time, you're still with 911?"

"Yes," Shaheen testified. "I stayed in the bathroom until I heard the police behind the door."

The jury saw about 20 hospital photos of Shaheen covered in her own blood from the knife wounds she suffered.

"It's caused during the attack," she testified.

During the 911 call, the dispatchers kept asking Shaheen for more specifics about her emergency. She gave them the address of her house in Plainfield and told them, "The landlord is trying to kill me. He's killing my baby. He's killing me and my baby, please."

The 911 dispatcher calmly asked her if the landlord was still there at the house.

"He's killing my baby with a knife," she insisted during the 911 call. "In the other room."

When the 911 dispatcher again asked her to clarify who was trying to kill her, she responded, "He's the landlord. I'm in the bathroom. ... I am not able to do anything. I don't feel like doing anything."

As the police were en route, Shaheen told the 911 dispatchers her landlord's name is Joseph Czuba and that he owned a white truck.

"I'm renting two rooms from him," she told 911.

Testimony will continue Tuesday afternoon at the Will County Courthouse.

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