Joseph Czuba, landlord convicted in murder of Palestinian American boy Wadee Al Fayoumi, dies in prison

A Plainfield landlord who was convicted in the hate crime murder of a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy in 2023 has died in prison, the Will County Sheriff's office said.

Joseph Czuba died Thursday at age 73. The cause of death hasn't been determined, but Czuba had stage 4 cancer, according to his attorney.

The attorney couldn't be reached for comment Saturday.

After a little more than an hour of jury deliberations, Czuba was convicted of first-degree murder, hate crime and attempted murder charges in February after the brutal anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian stabbing of 6-year-old Wadee Al Fayoumi and his mom, Hanan Shaheen, in October 2023. Wadee, stabbed 26 times, was killed in the attack, and Shaheen was seriously injured. Czuba was sentenced in May to 53 years in prison.

While Czuba has died, "the hate is still alive and well," said Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Chicago branch. Wadee's father, Odai Al Fayoumi, told Rehab he was grateful Czuba lived long enough "for justice to be served."

The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is nearing 60,000 as Israel continues its consistent raids and mass starvation ravages the area. The United Nations and experts say Palestinians in Gaza are at risk of famine, and now children with no preexisting conditions have begun to starve to death. Rehab said children there are being targeted for being Palestinian, just as Wadee was in the U.S.

"Wadee was stabbed to death 26 times for being Palestinian," Rehab said Saturday. "Two years later, even as we speak, thousands of Gazan children are being shot, bombed and starved to death for being Palestinian. It's the hate that must die."

“I don’t know if I should be pleased or upset, if I should be crying or laughing,” Odai Al Fayoumi said through a translator after the conviction. “People are telling me to smile. Maybe if I were one of you, I would be smiling, but I’m the father of the child, and I lost the child. I feel like this decision came a little too late.”

Czuba, who relatives say had once been close with the family, had been radicalized by conservative commentary about Gaza and called Wadee a "devil Muslim" as he attacked, prosecutors said. He told police he thought “they were going to do jihad on me” and compared them to "infested rats."

The attack was one of the most extreme hate crimes that took place shortly after the onset of the war between Israel and Hamas in October 2023. The highly publicized case reignited attention to Islamophobia in America. Thousands attended Wadee’s funeral, and Shaheen met with then-President Joe Biden earlier this year to discuss Islamophobia.

Contributing: AP