Crown closing claims Kamloops lawyer planned client’s murder to avoid financial, legal fraud consequences

Bagabuyo was arrested on March 18, 2022, the morning after his client Mohd Abdullah’s body was found in a storage tote in a rental van. Abdullah died after being stabbed more than a dozen times.

The Crown submission is that the killing was planned. It claims Bagabuyo’s legal and financial fraud began in 2016 when Abdullah retained Bagabuyo as a lawyer during his divorce. Abdullah worked as a lecturer at Thompson Rivers University and the two men agreed to hide nearly $800,000 of Abdullah’s retirement savings to prevent his ex-wife from getting it.

Eventually, a frustrated Abdullah wanted that money back. Lawyer Ann Katrine Saettler cited several emails from Bagabuyo delaying this exchange and a fake letter he’d procured pretending to be another law firm to deter Abdullah. Forensic accounting evidence showed all of Abdullah’s money had already been spent by Bagabuyo on personal living costs even before their final, fatal meeting. Bagabuyo was also more than $180,000 in debt.

Saettler made mention of the fact Bagabuyo was undergoing an audit from the Law Society of BC at the time. Between this and spending his client’s money, the prosecution theorized Bagabuyo decided to kill Abdullah to avoid jail time.

Saettler referenced an email exchange between the two men, where Bagabuyo tells Abdullah about apparent issues with trying to move his fiance to Canada and also tells Abdullah that recording other people is illegal. She theorized this was done to deter Abdullah from bringing his fiance to live with him and prevent her from growing suspicious about Bagabuyo’s arrangement with Abdullah’s money.

“The Crown’s theory is that March 1 is really the tipping point. It is the tipping point at which Mr. Bagabuyo comes to the conclusion he had no better option to escape the consequences of his actions thus far than making Mr. Abdullah disappear. This is essentially when he makes the final decision to kill Mr. Abdullah.” Saettler says, describing the tone of the email as “aggressive.”

The killing happened at a pre-scheduled meeting for the afternoon of March 11 under the pretense of beginning the process to transfer Abdullah’s money back to him.

Saettler says Crown has seen no evidence of Bagabuyo planning to come clean to Abdullah about the finances, but even if that had been the case, the Crown’s submission is that the office wouldn’t be a logical place to meet up for a discussion of that nature.

“If he had, why not do it in a public place if he had any, any concerns about Mr. Abdullah reacting violently to him telling him that? We know from other evidence previously that they would sometimes meet in coffee shops. He’d gone to Mr. Abdullah’s office at Thompson Rivers University on February 22. He’d gone to his home,” reiterated Saettler. “It’s hard to imagine why this empty office except that it was under renovation, assumed to have new carpeting, assumed to have new paint, if there were forensic evidence, it wouldn’t linger long.”

The Crown’s submission made reference to specific items purchased ahead of time, suggesting Bagabuyo bought a second ‘decoy’ tote identical to the one Mohd Abdullah’s body was put in to avoid suspicion around a tote bin being taken from his office to his car.

There was also mention of an index card found among police-obtained evidence from Bagabuyo’s home with a note reading, “Bag everything after. Don’t bring phone, e-watch. Turn apps off, location services.”

Saettler submits the second-floor office was purposely chosen for the crime, as it was out of sight from the street, under renovations at the time and law offices are subject to different rules for police to search.

“In the Crown’s submission, he knows what he has to do when he goes to that office, plans it ahead, he thinks he’s got a good chance of getting away with it, and in fact if that body had not been found, it’s quite likely that he would. Any lawyer would know there are special conditions for searching law offices. It’s not an easy place to search for police. It’s an ideal place to commit a crime,” added Saettler.

“He makes a plan, he does what he thinks is his best option not to spend a substantial amount of his life in jail. [He] kills Mr. Abdullah with a place to dispose of the body, Mr. Abdullah disappears, he has no family in Canada, his fiance is still out of the country. Mr. Bagabuyo has an excuse to give to the police that Mr. Abdullah was with someone else and he takes his best chance at solving all his problems in the afternoon of March 11 in that law office,” Saettler concludes. “Except Justin Robertson looks in that bin.”

Bagabuyo is facing a first-degree murder charge and has been out on bail since July of 2023. There’s no date for when Justice Ker will deliver her decision.

by Dylana Kneeshaw

Crown closing claims Kamloops lawyer planned client’s murder to avoid financial, legal fraud consequences

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