In the week leading up to 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi’s death, his landlord became withdrawn and agitated over the little boy and his mother renting rooms from him, the man’s ex-wife testified Wednesday.
Mary Connor, who divorced Joseph Czuba in 2024, said she didn’t understand his anger toward Wadee and his mother, Hanan Shaheen. They had been ideal tenants and their religious background — they were Muslims of Palestinian descent — had never previously bothered Czuba, who is Catholic.
Shaheen had talked about her religion during an in-person interview when she applied to let two rooms in Czuba’s unincorporated Plainfield home in 2021. Her Islamic faith played no role in their decision to offer her a $300-a-month lease, Connor said.
But after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Czuba decided he should evict Shaheen and Wadee, Connor testified.
“He said Hanan needs to move because her friends could come and do us harm,” she said. “He felt our lives might be in danger, and I refuted it.”
On Oct. 14, 2023 — four days after saying he wanted the family evicted — authorities say Czuba killed Wadee and attacked Shaheen while his then-wife was at work. Prosecutors allege he attacked the family because he blamed Muslims — and Palestinian Muslims, specifically — for Oct. 7.
Currently on trial in Will County, 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. If convicted, the 73-year-old landlord could face life in prison without parole.
During the second day of testimony Wednesday, Connor described Shaheen as a friend and recalled how she accompanied them when they went to the park. Connor and Czuba also bought the boy an inflatable pool, some toys and sports equipment. They placed some stairs by the basketball hoop to help his shots reach the rim.
“I was angry he was even asking her to move,” Connor said. “In my mind there was no reason for her to move.”
At one point, Connor said, Czuba indicated there was going to be a “day of jihad” and he withdrew $1,000 from the bank in case the banking system was affected by the Israel-Hamas war.
The morning of Wadee’s death, Connor watched her husband do a puzzle at the kitchen table before she left for work, she testified. He had been withdrawn that week, and the two of them fought over personal matters, she said.
Connor sent him two text messages that morning to see if he fixed a broken thermostat, she said. He didn’t respond.
Czuba had never previously mentioned harming Shaheen or Wadee, his ex-wife testified. She assumed it was safe for them to stay at the home, she said.
“I never thought anything like this could happen,” Connor said.
In other testimony Wednesday, Will County Sheriff’s Deputy Matthew Starcevich told the jury he was dispatched to an unincorporated Plainfield home on Oct. 14, 2023, based on a 911 call involving a landlord killing a child with a knife.
According to his body camera recording, Starcevich initially found Shaheen, who was “bleeding profusely from the face.” He then came across the body of 6-year-old Wadee, who had been attacked in a bedroom and showed no signs of life.
An autopsy would later show the boy suffered 26 stab wounds.
Starcevich testified he was searching the kitchen for the attacker when he spotted Czuba in the backyard.
“I’ve got someone in the back. Outside. Outside,” he said in the recording.
Starcevich’s body camera video showed him approaching Czuba, who was lying in the grass outside the Lincoln Highway home where he lived. Shaheen, who was divorced from Wadee’s father, rented two bedrooms there from Czuba and his wife.
As the deputy approached the landlord, Czuba sat up.
“He had blood all over his body, on his hands,” Starcevich told the jury. “He was sweating profusely.”
Starcevich asked Czuba if he was the landlord and Czuba nodded in confirmation.
Starcevich was working that Saturday morning with his partner, Riguberto Cisneros, who also testified about the events that unfolded that day.
The two Will County sheriff’s deputies said they saw a knife holster on Czuba’s waistline along with several pocket knives in the area.
When they approached Czuba outside, Cisneros said he had his gun pointed down in a low, ready position. He walked fast, but wasn’t running, Cisneros said.
Starcevich said he approached Czuba with his gun drawn because he believed he was the individual who had attacked Shaheen and Wadee.
Czuba’s defense attorney George Lenard said that when the deputies approached him, the landlord sat up and placed his hands behind him, but not in a way that he assumed he would be handcuffed. Starcevich didn’t put in his police report that he observed Czuba sweating, Lenard said.
The Plainfield Fire Department arrived on the scene and removed the knife holster from Czuba’s waist, handing it to a Plainfield officer, who handed it to Starcevich.
Starcevich followed the ambulance to AdventHealth Hospital in Bolingbrook where Czuba was treated for injuries. Authorities say he sustained the wounds when Shaheen fought back against him.
Shaheen was treated at Ascension St. Joseph Hospital in Joliet under an alias for her protection, according to court testimony.
Alan Favela, a physician assistant at St. Joseph’s, told the jury he treated laceration wounds to Shaheen’s face, scalp and right hand.
Shaheen required 19 stitches on her face for cuts ranging from 1 to 4 centimeters, Favela said. She also needed two stitches on her right hand and two staples where her scalp meets her neck, he said.
Plainfield Fire Protection District Lt. Brandon Vainowski said his crews rendered as much aid to Wadee as possible in the house and in the ambulance while notifying hospital officials at St. Joseph’s to have their trauma crew on standby.
They began CPR and stabilized the knife so it would not cause additional damage and tried to jumpstart Wadee’s heart, the lieutenant testified.
“I couldn’t really count how many stab wounds,” he said.
At the hospital, emergency room physician Nikolai Arendovich testified, they did what they could to bring Wadee back, but he had no cardiac activity. At no point were they able to find a pulse, he said.
At 12:19 p.m. they pronounced him dead.
Michelle Mullins is a freelance reporter.
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