CROWN POINT -- A Winfield woman was brutally beaten to death last February by a man 30 years her senior who took advantage of her alcoholism and became jealous when he learned she was having sex with a coworker of his, a deputy prosecutor told a jury Friday.
The jury agreed. After about two hours of deliberations, a Lake Criminal Court jury found 67-year-old Raju Rawal guilty of the murder of 36-year-old Haley Losinski, who was found dead Feb. 27, 2023, inside her apartment from blunt force trauma to the head.
"The evidence is clear," Deputy Prosecutor Arturo Balcazar said during closing arguments. "There is no other reasonable explanation."
Prosecutors presented evidence over a five-day trial that showed Rawal, a clerk at a nearby Marathon gas station at 8031 E. 109th Ave. in Crown Point, would frequently go to Losinski's home in the early hours of the morning before he went to the gas station for his 4 a.m. shift, according to surveillance footage from a neighboring house of Losinski's in the 11000 block of Pike Place. Losinski was heavily abusing alcohol at the time and Rawal would frequently bring over alcohol or food at her request. Rawal told police that sometimes they had sex when he went over, according to testimony Thursday from Winfield police Detective Jordan Billups.
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The jury viewed multiple videos of Rawal arriving at Losinski's home in the days leading up to her murder. On the morning of Feb. 23, 2023, Rawal was captured on surveillance footage pulling into her driveway around 3 a.m. in a Toyota RAV4. He pulled up to her home with his headlights off, which he typically did when arriving at that hour, but then kept the headlights off when he left her home shortly after. He left and did not come back at all over the next few days, nor did he reach out to Losinski despite the fact that the two communicated almost daily and were each other's top contact, according to analysis of phone records by an Indiana State Police analyst.
Her concerned parents went to her house the evening of Feb. 27, 2023, after they had not heard from her in a few days. They used a key provided by Losinski's ex-husband to get inside and found her dead in her bedroom. Her body was cold to the touch, her mother Kathy Losinski testified Monday.
Forensic pathologist Zhou Wang testified Tuesday that based on the decomposition of her body, she had been dead between one and seven days before she was found. Her blood alcohol content level was high, which slowed the decomposition process. This also reduced the likelihood that she would have been able to fight back against her attacker.
A rubber mallet was found near Losinski's body and was initially believed to be the murder weapon. However, Balcazar said whoever killed her would not have necessarily had to use such an object to beat her, as she was hit with multiple blows around all areas of her head, not necessarily in the same spot. Forensic analyst Alexis Coburn testified Rawal's DNA was not found on the weapon or on various items around Losinski's home, but it was found on her bellybutton ring.
Defense attorney Kevin Milner said Rawal did not have the size and stature to commit such a crime, nor the disposition of someone who would commit such a violent murder. There was no indication he was angry with Losinski before the killing, based on texts between them, and his former girlfriend testified he wasn't typically the jealous type.
Milner said while Rawal and Losinski were engaged in their relationship, another man he referred to as "Hammy" began working at the gas station. Milner said when Rawal went to visit India in late 2022, Losinski and Hammy began a sexual relationship. A witness who testified at trial saw the two together at the gas station in what appeared to be a romantic or sexual manner on occasion. Losinski was supposedly seeing other men at the time who could have been fulfilling a similar role as Rawal and Hammy, he said.
The Times is choosing not to identify Hammy, as he was never charged with the crime.
When Rawal returned from India, Losinski supposedly cut off the relationship with Hammy. Rawal told her to tell him not to contact her, Balcazar told the jury, and he said he would oblige. However, he reached out to her again shortly before her death but she told him "no more," Milner said. This was corroborated by text messages between them.
"How can you not have some reasonable doubt about what occurred here?" Milner asked.
There was much talk in court of testimony from Hammy, who was subpoenaed by the defense. Hammy was planning to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during the testimony, according to his attorney Mark Gruenhagen. When Hammy went in to court outside the presence of the jury, Lake Criminal Court Judge Natalie Bokota asked him if he was planning to invoke that right and he said he was. She then asked him the question he would likely be asked, which was if he killed Losinski. He did not invoke the Fifth Amendment and said no. He said he does not know who did.
When attorneys asked Hammy if he would answer other questions about his knowledge of the circumstances of the murder or his whereabouts that night, he said he would assert his Fifth Amendment right. Ultimately, it was decided Hammy would not testify because witnesses who invoke this right are not required to testify at a trial. Milner asked if the jury could receive an instruction for deliberation about this, but Bokota ruled against it.
Milner said Rawal was cooperative with police when interviewed in the days following the murder. He turned over his phone, car and allowed them to search his house. He disrobed so police could see if he had any scratches or wounds on his body and he did not. Milner referenced video evidence from Rawal's interrogation in which Billups repeatedly asks Rawal if he killed Losinski and accuses him of killing her. He keeps his composure and denies he had anything to do with hit.
"Never once did he lose his temper," Milner said. "[Whoever committed the crime is] a different type of guy than the person you watched talk to those police officers."
Balcazar rebutted the arguments about Rawal's disposition or appearance.
"Rawal apparently doesn't look like a murderer," he said. "Whatever that means."
Balcazar said Rawal is not a frail man, despite what Milner wants the jury to believe.
"He is a man who took advantage of someone who was sick," Balcazar said. "Haley Losinski deserved the right to get better."
Rawal's sentencing date has not yet been scheduled, according to online court records.
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Public Safety Reporter
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