A jury found a Merrillville man guilty of murdering a Winfield nurse after several hours of deliberation Friday afternoon.
Raju Rawal, 67, of Merrillville, is charged with murder for her killing on February 23, 2023. He has pleaded not guilty. Rawal’s defense attorney, Kevin Milner, confirmed the guilty verdict around 6 p.m. Friday.
Deputy Prosecutor Arturo Balcazar said in his closing arguments that Rawal was the only one who could do it.
Losinski’s head was struck “in all directions”, causing significant head trauma. An autopsy found her blood alcohol level was so high she couldn’t really defend herself, he said.
In her two interviews with police, Rawal said she had fallen at some point and gave details — such as a mark on her forehead and an injury on her back — that were not public.
Earlier, prosecutors showed Rawal’s first interview with police, in which he denied any involvement with Losinski; first said he was last at her home on Tuesday, then Wednesday, until he was confronted with surveillance footage on Thursday, February 23.
He was not a fragile or chivalrous man. Rather, Rawal fueled a woman’s deep struggle with alcoholism while having sex with her, Balcazar told jurors.
Things changed for Rawal when he returned to the United States from India in December 2022 and Losinski told him that she was also involved with Harminder Singh-Heera, his colleague at the gas station.
Before the case went to the jury, Singh-Heera, 24, took the stand and answered several brief questions. He was investigated and cleared as a possible suspect.
As Judge Natalie Bokota asked his whereabouts from February 22 to 28, 2023, he whispered briefly to his lawyer Mark Gruenhagen, before Singh-Heera entered his plea to the Fifth.
Did you murder Losinski, Bokota asked.
“No,” he replied.
After a few more questions, he was told to wait outside while attorneys had lengthy discussions, including after lunch, about whether he would formally testify before jurors. He ultimately didn’t come back.
Rawal began exploiting a regular customer for what he knew about the relationship between Losinski and Singh-Heera, Balcazar said. That client, Olayinka Olojo, testified earlier this week that it was remarkable that Rawal stopped talking about it — around the time he died, according to court records.
Court records show Olojo previously saw Singh-Heera and Losinski in the back of the gas station, out of view of the camera.
It was Rawal who prompted Losinski to text Singh-Heera in January to tell him she would call the cops if he came, Balcazar said. The couple received hundreds of calls and text messages. Once Losinski died, Rawal never contacted him again, the prosecutor said.
Investigators missed a rubber mallet during their first search. The next day, after another search warrant, they returned and found him under a pillow under his bed.
Balcazar said it wasn’t the murder weapon. There was no blood on it.
They had “no obligation to prove what the murder weapon was,” he told jurors.
Rawal lied to cops during his two interrogations about whether they were involved and when he visited Losinski. He was confronted with videos he picked up around 3:30 a.m. Thursday, before his shift at the gas station. This time, Losinski didn’t call or text him. He turned off his headlights as if he were sneaking home.
All other entrances were locked. Besides her ex-husband and her parents having a key, he was the only one who could access the house through a garage door opener, the prosecutor said.
Her DNA was found on her belly button ring. Cell towers contacted him in the area, including where he worked. Balcazar said Rawal could not say why he was in the area so early.
Milner said texts between Rawal and Losinski that year showed they were on good terms, but the tone of Singh-Heera’s texts was different.
To say the mallet didn’t kill her was “ridiculous,” Milner told jurors. Prosecutors said no, because Rawal’s DNA was “not in it.”
“What is he doing there?” » he said. “Why have it under the bed?”
The blows caused internal damage, explaining why there were no pools of blood other than bloodstains on the bedding, he said.
“I don’t know who killed her,” Milner said. “I only know who didn’t.”
Rawal cooperated with cops, giving them DNA, allowing them to search his car and apartment, Milner said. The clothes he wore that night have not been found. When Rawal went straight to work that morning, walking to the gas station, he did not look disheveled, his lawyer argued.
Balcazar later retorted that a killer didn’t need to wear a “trench coat” or a “twirling mustache.”
No one else was there, he said. Singh-Heera’s DNA has not been found. His cell phone was not in the area, even though he had received “hundreds” of phone calls elsewhere.
An older woman, another nurse, testified Thursday that she and Rawal had a casual romantic relationship that began in 2015. They met at the Marathon gas station.
She didn’t know Losinski, but others at work took notice after his death made headlines. Around this time, Rawal became “more distant,” she said. Losinski was in his phone contacts and the cops were asking him questions about him, Rawal told the woman. He denied their involvement, saying they were friends.
What kind of “friend” is she, the woman asked.
He told her he couldn’t talk on the phone, “they were listening to me.” Later, when the woman was questioned at the police station, Rawal called her to ask what she was doing.
“I’m running some errands,” the woman lied.
On March 9, 2023, it was all over. Rawal eventually admitted that he was in a relationship with Losinski.
“I didn’t want to share it” with another woman, the girlfriend said. She said they were done and she clearly had nothing more to say.
“I’m not done with you yet,” he replied.
Losinski’s parents were subpoenaed, should they be recalled to testify, until closing arguments, meaning they were unable to attend most of the trial.
Losinski’s brother is named in a civil suit against Rawal that is still ongoing.
mcolias@post-trib.com
