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Regulus Baka (Indianapolis Metropolitan Police).
Blood festooned the walls of a residence where a woman was found bludgeoned to death in Indiana on Monday. Now, a man is behind bars.
Regulus Baka, 22, stands accused of one count of murder, according to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.
The victim in the case been identified as Shanaiya McDonald. Details of her death and the immediate aftermath are grim and gruesome.
During the early morning hours of Dec. 30, at 5:43 a.m., the victim’s roommate called police after finding her dead behind a bedroom door, according to court documents obtained by The Indianapolis Star.
McDonald is said to have been suffering from obvious signs of trauma to her head and she was pronounced deceased shortly after emergency medical responders arrived at the apartment located on Ella Dobbs Lane on the south side of Indianapolis.
Responding officers allegedly found a blood-soaked towel on a porch outside. Inside, blood is said to have been spattered everywhere.
Signs of a struggle were present, police added in the court documents obtained by the newspaper. Next to the body was a plastic bag also drenched in blood, police allege. A piece of clear plastic tape had been applied to the upper portion of the victim’s head.
The woman who made the awful find is alleged to have pointed out who she believed might have been to blame for her roommate’s death, police say.
Pieces of the story then fell into place.
Investigators said a witness described hearing a woman scream for help at around 4 a.m. that day.
The apartment management said maintenance workers later found McDonald’s cellular phone in a dumpster – along with a laptop that had her name on the sign-in screen, police allege. In the same dumpster, police allegedly found a tell-tale piece of evidence: clear plastic tape with blood on it – similar to the tape found on the victim’s head.
The dumpster in question happened to be in the line of sight of a surveillance camera, police say. On the footage culled from that device, a man could be seen walking from the complex, throwing something away, and then leaving in a vehicle, police allege.
After that, law enforcement allegedly tied a vehicle in the Baka family to the vehicle seen in the surveillance footage, according to the court documents. Traffic cameras in the area – some four miles away from the scene of the crime – are said to have captured images of that vehicle, a black Ford Fusion, at around 4:33 a.m.
The vehicle was found at a different apartment complex, which police allegedly searched after receiving a warrant. The owner of the car, however, told investigators that Baka was sleeping at his parents’ house around the corner, according to law enforcement.
At Baka’s parents’ residence, several people left when initially prompted to do so by police, according to the court document. The defendant, oppositely, initially refused, police say.
Later, after the SWAT team was called, along with the use of a drone and distraction device, did Baka finally leave, police allege.
Police asked the defendant if he was hurt as he exited.
“Only from last night,” Baka allegedly replied.
The defendant was allegedly quite voluble in a subsequent confession after being Mirandized and interrogated.
At first, detectives used a French translator to make sure Baka understood his constitutional rights, according to the court documents cited by the Star. Baka, for his part, allegedly said he did and then insisted on conducting the interview in English.
The defendant allegedly said the two had a tempestuous relationship wherein the woman frequently cheated on him and otherwise treated him poorly. Baka offered evidence of such mistreatment as McDonald allegedly threatening to kill his family and slapping him in the face without justification, cause or reason.
Baka said he went to visit the victim on Dec. 29 and stayed through the night because McDonald’s birthday was Dec. 31. This said celebration soon deteriorated into the woman slapping the man and threatening to call someone else over to beat him up, he allegedly said.
The defendant insisted that he at first ignored the slaps but finally hit McDonald back after enduring a certain number – prompting a knock-down, drag-out fight, police allege.
At some point, Baka allegedly said, McDonald grabbed a knife and threatened to kill him whereupon he admittedly began repeatedly punching her in the head. The violence surged from there.
With the woman on the floor, the man then allegedly picked up a space heater and bashed her in the head with it four times. Then, he allegedly used a kitchen pan to inflict more of the same sorts of blows.
“I just wanted her dead,” Baka allegedly admitted.
The defendant also allegedly admitted to wrapping tape around McDonald’s nose – to insure she stopped breathing. Baka also allegedly said he stabbed her with a knife before disposing of the cellphone, computer, and roll of tape in a dumpster outside the building.
The defendant is currently being detained in the Marion County Jail. He is slated to appear in court for a hearing on Jan. 3.