File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Dylana Kneeshaw

FIRST-DEGREE MURDER TRIAL

Former Kamloops lawyer accused of killing client surprises trial, opts out of testifying in his own defence

Sep 2, 2025 | 12:27 PM

VANCOUVER — A former Kamloops lawyer accused of killing his client more than three years ago opted not to share his side of the deadly incident in BC Supreme Court in Vancouver on Tuesday (Sept. 2).

Rogelio ‘Butch’ Bagabuyo was expected to speak in his own defence at Vancouver Law Courts this week as the presentation of defence evidence began. Crown submissions wrapped up in August, with the remaining admissions of fact submitted Tuesday morning.

This entire first week of September had actually been scheduled for Bagabuyo’s anticipated testimony. However, the trial schedule took an about face when Bagabuyo’s lawyer, Mark Swartz, revealed his client’s intention not to call any evidence.

The trial focus will now shift to closing arguments during the week of October 6, with Justice Kathleen Ker’s decision expected sometime after that.

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Bagabuyo is charged with first-degree murder in relation to the March 2022 homicide of Mohd Abdullah. Abdullah, who was a lecturer at Thompson Rivers University, had been a client of Bagabuyo’s during his divorce settlement. Court previously heard how the pair allegedly agreed to conceal nearly $800,000 of Abdullah’s savings to keep his ex-wife from receiving the money.

In the years since the money was transferred to him in trust, Bagabuyo is alleged to have spent hundreds of thousands of his former client’s dollars on personal living expenses.

Crown submissions, which included lengthy email exchanges between the two men, an audio recording of a heated conversation about the money, and testimony from the victim’s friends, fiancee, and financial advisors, allege that Abdullah was growing increasingly frustrated over how long it was taking to see the funds returned to him.

Eventually, a meeting was scheduled for the afternoon of March 11, 2022 at Bagabuyo’s law office in downtown Kamloops. Abdullah was seen on CCTV taking a bus from the university to downtown, then walking along Victoria Street to the law office. That is the last known footage of Abdullah alive, as he wasn’t seen leaving the building.

However that same evening, Bagabuyo was seen on surveillance video taking black garbage bags from his office to his parked vehicle, along with a large black storage tote with a red lid, receiving help from a passerby to lift the tote into the trunk.

Witnesses called by Crown described how several days later, an elderly neighbour of Bagabuyo’s agreed to rent a van in his name and the two men drove more than 600 kilometres around the Kamloops region, apparently looking for a place to bury a large black storage tote. The neighbour who helped Bagabuyo testified that he was unaware of the contents of the tote.

Police were called to the Dufferin driveway the rental van was parked in after the neighbour’s grandson grew suspicious and opened the bin, telling Crown prosecutors that he saw a foot and a pair of legs inside. The remains were confirmed to be Mohd Abdullah, who had been reported as missing to police after not showing up to work that week.

Bagabuyo was arrested and charged with indignity to human remains shortly after that, though he wasn’t charged with first-degree murder until several months later.