Image: CFJC Today

By Dylana Kneeshaw

BAGABUYO MURDER TRIAL

Court hears testimony of victim and accused’s financial scheme leading up to Abdullah killing

May 1, 2025 | 4:58 PM

KAMLOOPS — The continuation of a first-degree murder trial for a former lawyer in Kamloops accused of slaying his client heard more witness testimony related to the financial actions both men took leading up to the killing.

On Thursday (May 1), testimony from a friend of the victim shed more light on the financial situation Mohd Abdullah had gotten into with his lawyer at the time, Rogelio ‘Butch’ Bagabuyo.

The witness brought in for the morning proceedings, Angela Milanese, testified that she works as a Bowen therapist in the area and had been friends with Abdullah since the early 2000’s.

Over the years, Milanese says Abdullah would often stop by her and her husband’s home on his way home from work to visit and have coffee. She testified that over the years, she had also provided Bowen therapy sessions for Abdullah, though she claims he never paid her for those appointments.

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When asked by Crown lawyer Ann Katrine Saettler about Abdullah’s spending habits, the witness described him exercising frugality with his grocery shopping and other activities.

“He was a miser. He saved every penny in every which way he could.”

Milanese says she was aware of several relationships and a marriage Abdullah had over the years, though he was very private and shared limited details about those partners. In early 2016, she says Abdullah told her his marriage was ending and he was going to see a lawyer for his divorce.

By 2018, the witness told the court Abdullah had remortgaged his house and started to buy more expensive clothing, mostly merino wool items.

“I was shocked.”

Milanese then describes an interaction she’d had with Abdullah in 2018, when he came to her office for a session and appeared upset. When getting into a discussion about what was going on with him, the witness says she’d suggested trying different lawyers for his divorce. That’s when Abdullah told her he couldn’t change lawyers and shared the extent of his financial situation.

She claims Abdullah told her he’d given ‘much, much more’ than $200,000 of his money to his lawyer.

“All I could think was, ‘Oh my god, Mohd, what have you done?'” Milanese told Crown prosecutors. “I knew right there and then something underhanded was going on.”

“He said that he was hiding the money because of the divorce,” Milanese says when asked if Abdullah told her why.

Previously, prosecutors stated Abdullah’s ex-wife had passed away in 2019, after their divorce was final. After that, Milanese claims Abdullah told her he had received litigation papers and they were related to his ex-wife’s estate. Defense lawyer Mark Swartz asked about comments Abdullah made to the witness regarding his ex-wife, citing a specific sentence used in an email exchange between Milanese and Abdullah after she’d checked in on his house on one occasion.

‘Angela, I can’t believe what it would take for her to leave. Thanks for your time. Worse than a leech. Take care, Mohd.’ Swartz read from the email, before asking if Milanese felt Abdullah thought he was being taken advantage of financially by his ex.

“Never once did he mention to me that she was taking financial advantage of him.” Milanese stated in her reply.

Thursday’s trial also heard from a former fund manager at Manulife, who had Mohd Abdullah as a client since 2013. Saettler went over a document which outlined a withdrawal Abdullah had made in 2017, paid in trust to Bagabuyo & Company. The witness says he was told Abdullah wanted money in the trust account because of his divorce.

Swartz then asked about Abdullah’s investment portfolio and heard that the accounts had grown in recent years.

Earlier in the trial, Crown lawyers claimed Bagabuyo and Abdullah had worked to conceal more than $700,000 from his ex-wife. A forensic accountant is expected to testify that those funds are gone, apparently spent on Bagabuyo’s personal living expenses.

Crown opening statements described a frustrated Abdullah wanting his money back as the catalyst for the meeting between the two men at Bagabuyo’s Victoria Street law office on March 11 of 2022, where it’s alleged Abdullah was stabbed to death.

Bagabuyo is alleged to have put Abdullah’s remains into a large storage tote he’d bought from Home Depot shortly before that meeting. Several days later he reportedly recruited the help of an unknowing elderly friend to rent a van and look for a place to bury the bin. This led to the friend’s grandson discovering the contents of the tote and police being called.

Proposed changed to Bagabuyo’s bail conditions were a subject of discussion several times, the details of which are protected under a court-ordered publication ban.

The remainder of the trial is scheduled to move to Vancouver after this week.