The American man was sentenced to 53 years in prison for the fatal stab wounds of a six-year-old Palestinian teen after committing hate crimes and murder.
Judge Amy Bertani Tomzack announced the sentence Friday for 73-year-old Illinois landlord Joseph Chaba.
On October 14th, 2023, just a few days after the Israeli war in Gaza began, Czuba attacked two of his tenants, Hanan Shaheen and her young son Wadi Alphayoomi.
Police say Chuba arrives at the door, angry at the war, strangled Shaheen, holding her down before pulling out a military-style knife, and pushing her down his path.
Shaheen suffered more than 12 stab wounds to call 911 to escape to the bathroom and ask for help. Meanwhile, Alpha Yomi was stabbed 26 times. He didn’t survive.
The Czuba trial featured audio from Shaheen’s panicked 911 call and testimony from her mother herself. Witnesses said speaking in English and Arabic that Czuba will become increasingly paranoid and Islamophobic as the war progresses.
Almost two years before the attack, the family rented a bedroom at Cueva’s house in Plainville, Illinois, just outside Chicago.
However, after the war began on October 7th, Shaheen remembered Chaheen as she told her to move out of her accommodation because Muslims were not welcome.
Then, during the attack, she heard him again quoting her Muslim faith. “He told me, ‘You need to die as a Muslim,” Shaheen said.
This incident was one of the most famous acts of anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim violence in the United States after the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
But supporters say it is part of the anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic hatred trend that has swept the country in recent months.
After the attack, police found Chuba sitting on the ground outside the bloody house in his hands and body. Czuba pleaded not guilty and his defense team tried to vacate his beliefs on the grounds that the prosecution played the sentiment of the ju-degree.
Some of the crime scene images were so graphic that the judge ordered the court’s television screen to stay away from the audience. The ju umpire hears Shaheen say the 911 operator is terrified and says, “The landlord is killing me and my baby!”
In an opening statement, Will County State Attorney Michael Fitzgerald described Alphayoumi’s final moments as terrifying.
“He couldn’t get away,” Fitzgerald said. “If this accused had just killed the little boy, he would leave a knife in the little boy’s body.”
In February, it took the ju judges less than 90 minutes to return the guilty verdict.
On Friday, Judge Bertani Tomzack refused the defense’s bid to overturn the conviction. In announcing the verdict, she called Tuba’s actions “brutal” and “sincere.”
She said she was given 30 years in prison for the murder of Alfa Youmi, plus another 20 years for attacks on his mother, and three years for committing a hate crime.
Alphayomi’s great-funcle, Mahmoud Yousef, was the only family who spoke at the verdict hearing. He said he could not make up for the loss his family is suffering.
He also explained that Alfayomi saw him as his grandfather, and that “fake news” about the war in Gaza had questioned what “fake news” that encouraged such violence.
“Some people are bringing this war to this country,” Yousef said. “We cannot do that. We cannot bring war here. We cannot bring hatred to this country.”
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) also responded to the verdict by calling on Americans to reject hatred and prejudice.
“This ruling brings to the tragedy that has been shut down in this case and measures of accountability and justice have shaken our community,” Ayoub, executive director of the group, said in a statement. “We must come together to ensure that tragedy fueled by anti-Arab, anti-Palestinian hatred and Islamophobia is not accepted as the norm for our society.”
In March, the Council on Islamic Relations (CAIR) issued a report that it had received 8,658 complaints of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab cases, up 7.6% last year alone.
It was the highest tally the group has recorded since they began collecting data in 1996.
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