During his ride to the police station, the landlord suspected of stabbing his Palestinian American tenant and killing her 6-year-old son told a sheriff’s police sergeant the woman was a “trained fighter” who put him in danger: “They were just like infested rats.”
“I was afraid for my life,” Joseph Czuba said in the back of a Will County sheriff’s police vehicle. “I was afraid for my wife. I was afraid they were going to do Jihad on me.”
Jurors heard the remarks in a video played Thursday in a Will County courtroom where Czuba is on trial for the attack on Hanan Shaheen and the slaying of 6-year-old Wadee Al Fayoumi.
Prosecutors rested their case Thursday after calling their final witness, Will County Sheriff’s Sgt. Patrick Jones.
Jones responded to the scene in Plainfield on Oct.14, 2023 and transported Czuba to the sheriff’s office after the blood-covered suspect was first checked for injuries at a hospital. In a video of the ride in Jones’ squad car, Czuba begins by making unprompted comments about “PLO,” possibly referring to the Palestine Liberation Organization.
“I can’t believe all these protests and people that are supporting PLO,” Czuba can be heard saying in the car. “It’s so evil. … It’s like Nazis, it’s crazy.”
Czuba continued to speak without any questioning from Jones, mentioning his safety concerns.
“She was a trained fighter, let me tell you,” Czuba said. “They are just like infested rats.”
Czuba, 73, is accused of stabbing Shaheen, and killing Wadee after becoming radicalized by conservative commentary about the war in Gaza.
Speaking from the backseat of the squad car, Czuba does not mention Shaheen or Wadee by name but says he “tried to be his friend,” by buying the boy toys. He also says he had “tried to help her out,” and that “she didn’t tell me she was Muslim.”
“I begged her to get out for three days,” Czuba says in the video. “She would not leave.”
In earlier testimony Thursday, a forensic scientist told jurors that DNA from Wadee, Shaheen and Czuba was likely in the blood mixture found on the base of the knife and knife handle found lodged in the side of the young boy.
The scientist said they do not use the term “match” when testing a mixture of samples but that there was “very strong support,” to indicate the DNA of all three was included in the blood mixture she tested.
Wadee and Czuba’s DNA was also likely found in the sample pulled from the landlord’s blood-stained pants, she testified.
Speaking to a packed court on Tuesday, Shaheen told jurors Czuba attacked her while yelling, “You Muslim must die.” Shaheen said Czuba eventually left, and she ran to the bathroom to call 911.
But Czuba returned and attempted to enter the bathroom, Shaheen testified, saying she then began “hearing screaming, my son screaming, screaming, screaming.”
Wadee had been stabbed 26 times, according to the Will County sheriff’s office.
When police officers responding to Shaheen’s 911 call found Czuba, he “had blood all over his body, all over his hands and he was sweating profusely,” and there were “a few knives laying around him,” Deputy Sheriff Matthew Starcevich testified on Wednesday.
Deputies also noticed a knife holster on Czuba’s waistband, which Starcevich recognized as a sheath for a ScubaPro dive knife. That same sheath was shown to jurors.
An investigator with the Will County sheriff’s office testified Wednesday that the knife found in the side of Wadee’s abdomen was also manufactured by ScubaPro.
Czuba has pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder, two counts of aggravated battery and two counts of committing a hate crime.
After prosecutors rested their case, Czuba waived his right to testify. His defense lawyers instead called just two Will County law enforcement officers as witnesses, asking them if on the day of the attack Shaheen told them of certain comments she later related in her testimony on Tuesday.
Will County Sheriff’s detective Michael Earnest testified that Shaheen never mentioned Czuba telling Wadee “Don’t tell people I killed your mom,” when he interviewed her that day.
But he also mentioned she was “distraught,” and that her answers to his questions were “very short.”
Prosecutors and defense attorneys are expected to make their closing arguments on Friday.