Joliet, Ailing. — The trial of a suburban Chicago landlord accused of homicide, tried homicide and a hate crime in a 2023 assault on a Palestinian American lady and her younger son is ready to start out Tuesday.
Joseph Czuba, 73, is charged within the deadly stabbing of six-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi and the wounding of Hanan Shaheen on Oct. 14, 2023. Authorities mentioned the household was focused due to their Islamic religion and as a response to the conflict between Israel and Hamas that erupted on Oct. 7, 2023 with a Hamas assault on southern Israel.
Opening statements begin Tuesday morning in a trial that’s anticipated to final a few week.
Czuba has pleaded not responsible to a few counts of first-degree homicide, one depend of tried homicide and different fees. His protection lawyer, George Lenard, declined to remark earlier than the top of the trial.
The assault on the household in Plainfield, practically 40 miles (65 kilometers) southwest of Chicago, has renewed fears of anti-Muslim discrimination within the Chicago space’s giant and established Palestinian group. The proceedings additionally come amid rising hostility towards Muslims and Palestinians within the U.S. since Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023.
“We firmly pray and hope that Mr. Czuba will likely be locked up for the remainder of his life, so we are able to ship a message that hate crimes towards anybody on the premise of their faith and nationwide origin usually are not tolerated,” Joe Milburn, a employees lawyer for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, advised reporters Monday forward of jury choice.
Prosecutors allege Czuba grew to become growing paranoid in regards to the conflict due to listening to commentary on conservative speak radio. Shaheen advised police that Czuba was upset over the conflict and attacked them after she had urged him to “pray for peace.”
The boy — whose identify was initially spelled Wadea Al-Fayoume by authorities — was stabbed 26 instances. Shaheen had greater than a dozen stab wounds and it took her weeks to get better.
The homicide cost within the indictment towards Czuba describes the boy’s dying as the results of “exceptionally brutal or heinous habits.” Czuba remained detained with prosecutors arguing that Czuba was a hazard to Shaheen and others.
Tons of attended the boy’s janazah, or funeral service, the place the boy was remembered as type and into sports activities and Legos.
Individually, the daddy of the boy, who’s divorced from Shaheen and didn’t dwell on the dwelling, has filed a wrongful dying lawsuit.
