Slain Boy, 6, Naked, Knife Embedded Inside His Chest: Testimony

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.
• On Tuesday afternoon, two Plainfield police officers and one Will County Sheriff's deputy testified they were the first responders to the house. They found Shaheen hiding inside a bathroom and led her safety and also found her slain son in one of the bedrooms.

JOLIET — The body camera footage showing the Oct. 14, 2023 discovery of 6-year-old Plainfield murder victim Wadee Alfayoumi by Will County Sheriff's Deputy Victoria Janovyak was so disturbing and graphic that Joseph Czuba's criminal defense lawyer George Lenard received the judge's permission to turn the giant courtroom television monitor away from the gallery, that way, only the jury saw it.

Deputy Janovyak, along with two Plainfield police officers, arrived at the home of Joseph and Mary Czuba within a few minutes of the 911 call. The caller, Hanan Shaheen, 32, was hiding in the bathroom, alerting the 911 dispatchers that her landlord, Joseph Czuba, was trying to kill her and her son, Wadee.

Tuesday marked the first full day of trial testimony against the 73-year-old Czuba, who is charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and two hate crimes against Shaheen and Wadee. He harmed them both because they were Muslims, according to prosecutors.

The mother and her young son had rented two bedrooms from the Czubas since 2021. She testified Tuesday that she is from Jerusalem.

On Tuesday afternoon, the prosecution team of Christine Vukmir, Mike Fitzgerald and Christopher Koch called Deputy Janovyak to testify. They asked her to recall the events sending her to the two-story house at 16201 S. Lincoln Highway.

"It was for a woman saying her baby was being stabbed," the young sheriff's deputy testified.

She arrived within three or four minutes of the 911 dispatch. A pair of Plainfield officers pulled up to the house seconds earlier. All three officers discovered the front door had several deadbolt locks to prevent them from opening it.

The officers found another door on the north side of the house that was open.

In the body camera video that reporters and the courtroom gallery could only hear, but not see, the voice of a female police officer can be heard screaming, "Holy f***! Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! Holy f***!"

When the video was done being played, the Will County deputy was asked by prosecutor Koch if she discovered Wadee in one of the bedrooms.

"Yes," Janovyak testified. "He was laying on a bed with a large knife in his chest."

Koch asked if she checked the boy to see if he was alive.

"Yeah, I checked for a pulse."

"Were you successful in getting a pulse?"

"No."

The Will County deputy also testified, "I stayed with him until he went to the hospital."

The prosecutor asked if Janovyak learned whether Wadee died at the hospital.

"That he had passed," she testified.

When it came time for Czuba's lawyers, George Lenard and Kylie Blatti, to cross examine the Will County Sheriff's deputy who found Wadee's body, Lenard addressed the judge.

"Judge, we don't have any questions."

Plainfield Police Officer Michael Doornbasch was put on the witness stand to tell the jury of his gruesome discoveries shortly after 11:40 a.m. on Oct. 14, 2023.

"I saw red stains that resembled blood," he testified.

Prosecutors later played the officer's body worn camera video from the murder scene and in the video Doornbasch was heard yelling, "I've got blood! Blood in here!"

Initially, Doornbasch and other officers went upstairs and then into a third-floor attic, finding nobody up there. Then, back on the main level, he joined the female Will County Sheriff's deputy who discovered Wadee.

"I noticed he was not clothed," Doornbasch testified. "He was completely naked ... A large knife in his torso, up to the hilt. We did not find anybody else in the house once she (Hanan Shaheen) had exited."

Doornbasch was asked if he saw Joseph Czuba outside in the backyard after several more Plainfield Police, paramedics and Will County deputies arrived at the property.

"I saw the subject sitting up," he testified.

Once Doornbasch finished testifying for the prosecution, Will County Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak asked the pair of defense lawyers how they wanted to handle the cross examination.

"Judge, we don't have any questions," Lenard announced.

Plainfield police officer Sean Kozak testified he was the first officer to arrive at 16201 South Lincoln Highway following the 911 call about a child stabbing. It took him about two minutes to arrive at the property.

After finding the front door locked, Kozak found a backdoor wide open on the north side of the property owned by Joseph and Mary Czuba. His body camera video showed Kozak announcing his presence and moving throughout the house, room to room, with his gun drawn.

Kozak assisted Wadee's mother out of the house to safety. "She had blood all over his face," he testified.

When Kozak asked Hanan Shaheen where she was stabbed, she told him, "Everywhere. In my neck, in my back, in my face," his body camera footage showed.

In court, the prosecution asked Kozak to describe Shaheen and her demeanor once she was rescued and led to the back porch area where she waited for Plainfield ambulance to transport her to St. Joe's Hospital in Joliet.

"She seemed shocked, she was very quiet and just kind of staring. She was trembling as well," Kozak told the jury.

Czuba's murder trial will resume Wednesday morning. The judge has notified the jury that she hoped to have trial finished on Friday, Feb. 28 or next Monday, March 3.

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