Hanan Shaheen told jurors Tuesday that her Plainfield landlord stabbed her 6-year-old son to death after attacking her while yelling “You Muslim must die.”
Shaheen was the first witness called to the stand in the murder trial of Joseph Czuba.
The 73-year-old Plainfield man is charged with stabbing her and killing her son, Wadee Al Fayoumi, after becoming radicalized by conservative commentary about the war in Gaza.
Shaheen testified that she told Czuba she was Muslim and from Jerusalem when she moved into his property in 2021, and that he expressed no issue at the time with her religion or nationality.
That changed, she said, after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel. A few days later, Shaheen said she saw Czuba in one of the home’s common areas, and he told her; “Your people are killing Jewish [people] and babies in Israel. Muslims are not welcome here, not in my home.”
The morning of Oct. 14, 2023, Shaheen said she was in her bathroom preparing to give her son a shower when she heard a loud banging on her bedroom door.
Shaheen said when she opened the door, Czuba pushed his way inside her unit, “screaming ‘I told you to move out.’” She said she told him she was preparing to give Wadee a shower, but he followed her and became aggressive.
“He said ‘You Muslim must die, and he pushed me,” Shaheen told jurors Tuesday. “Quickly I fell on my back on the ground.”
Shaheen said Czuba began to choke her and pull her jaw, then began to stab her with a knife all over her body.
At one point, Shaheen testified that Czuba dropped the knife, so she grabbed it and began stabbing him. Shaheen said he regained control of the weapon and continued attacking her.
“He is stabbing me on my body, and he’s saying ‘Wadee, I will take care of you, I will raise you, you will grow up with me and Mary [his wife], don’t tell people I killed your mom,’” Shaheen said Tuesday. “I am thinking it’s the moment. … I am dying in this moment.”
Then Czuba left, Shaheen said, and she ran to the bathroom and called 911.
Czuba returned and began pushing at the bathroom door, Shaheen testified, then “I start hearing screaming, my son screaming, screaming, screaming.”
In the 911 call, played for the court, Shaheen tells the operator: “He is killing my baby. He is killing me and my baby.”
Shaheen said she stayed in the bathroom until police arrived.
When officers arrived, they found the boy lying shirtless on a bed, prosecutors have said .
Wadee had been stabbed 26 times, according to the Will County sheriff’s office.
During opening statements Tuesday, prosecutors emphasized Wadee’s age, his size and how many times he was stabbed.
“Wadee was 6 years old on Oct. 14, 2023. Not quite 4 feet tall. 62 pounds. On that day, Wadee Al Fayoumi was stabbed 26 times. 26 times, ladies and gentlemen, by that defendant,” Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Fitzgerald said while pointing at Czuba.
Prosecutors warned jurors they would be shown difficult images and descriptions throughout the trial.
In their openting statements, Czuba’s defense team called on jurors to focus on the “actual evidence.”
“You are going to have to brace yourself,” Will County Public Defender Kylie Blatti said Tuesday. “You are going to have to move beyond those emotions to carefully examine every piece of evidence that is brought before you. … There are holes in the state’s case. There is evidence that is missing that is required.”
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.
Shaheen was expected to resume her testimony after a lunch recess.