Plainfield's Murder, Hate Crime Defendant Returning To Court

JOLIET, IL — The 71-year-old Plainfield landlord and property owner who authorities say stabbed a 6-year-old boy to death and stabbed his mother several times will return to the Will County Courthouse on Monday.

Assistant Will County State's Attorney Mike Fitzgerald filed a motion Thursday regarding the return of property and a motion to advance Plainfield murder defendant Joseph Czuba's pretrial date. As a result, Will County Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak will hold a hearing in Courtroom 502 for Czuba at 9:30 a.m. Monday.

Czuba was not supposed to be in her courtroom until January.

According to Fitzgerald's filing: Czuba is charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder in the killing of little Wadee Alfayoumi and the stabbing of Wadee's mother, Hanan Shaheen.

As renters, mother and son had lived for the past two years under the roof of Czuba and his wife, Mary. Joseph Czuba is accused of killing the child and stabbing his mother because they were Muslim, blaming them for the turmoil in Israel involving Hamas, according to courtroom testimony.

Fitzgerald's motion notes that the Will County Sheriff's police seized several personal items of Shaheen's that "she needs returned to her to function in her everyday life."

Items include two Social Security cards, three debit cards, one credit card, her car keys, a purse, an unknown amount of cash, two cell phones, two medical insurance cars, a food stamp Link card, a ring and her makeup.

"The victim has asked the State's Attorney's Office to have an order entered allowing those items to be returned to her by the Will County Sheriff's Department after those items have been photographed and in the case of the cell phones, forensically copied by the Will County Sheriff's Department," Fitzgerald stated.

Also, Fitzgerald asked Judge Bertani-Tomczak to change Czuba's pretrial hearing from Jan. 8 to Jan. 3 so that the homicide victim's father's family can attend.

Related:

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