A Kamloops, B.C., lawyer will spend life in prison after being found guilty of first-degree murder for the stabbing death of his client.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Kathleen Ker handed down the sentence after reviewing the events leading up to the crime, concluding that the killing was deliberate and planned.
The court heard that Rogelio (Butch) Bagabuyo had conspired with client Mohd Abdullah, a lecturer at Thompson Rivers University, to hide money from Abdullah’s estranged wife.
Ker said the evidence indicated Bagabuyo spent more than $780,000 of the funds transferred by Abdullah and when Abdullah began asking for it back, Bagabuyo stabbed him to death and smuggled the body out of his office.
Bagabuyo’s lawyer argued that Abdullah’s murder on March 11, 2022, was not pre-planned but rather “unexpected” and should be considered manslaughter.
Ker disagreed, saying that it “defies logic, common sense and human experience” that the stabbing of Abdullah was not pre-planned.
Ker noted that Bagabuyo had emailed Abdullah on March 1, 2022, to set up a March 11 meeting. The former lawyer had also written a to-do list and bought a “decoy tote” days before the killing, the court heard.
She also said that it defied logic that Bagabuyo could have “accomplished all of the steps” that he did “with precision and skill” in the two hours between Abdullah entering his office, and Bagabuyo leaving the office with Abdullah’s body in a plastic tote.
She said the steps were “carefully thought out and considered over a number of days.”
She handed down a mandatory sentence of life in prison with no opportunity for parole for 25 years.
Ker called Bagabuyo a “fraudster” during the sentencing hearing, saying he told Abdullah “what he wanted to hear” and made it seem he would eventually return the money but said that was a “complete fabrication” because the money had already been spent.
The court was told that Bagabuyo slashed Abdullah’s face and stabbed him 10 times, twice in the neck, seven times in the chest and once in the abdomen.
Ker said the injuries were “inflicted in quick succession,” and that Abdullah was “likely immediately overcome.”
The justice said evidence demonstrated that after the stabbing, Bagabuyo wrapped the body in plastic sheeting, put a homemade garrote around Adbullah’s neck, put him in a bin and secured it with ratchet straps.
She said that Bagabuyo left his office two hours after Abdullah is assumed to have arrived. When he left he was carrying three garbage bags and the tote containing his client’s body.
Charges Laid
Abdullah’s body was discovered on March 17 by the grandson of a friend whom Bagabuyo had asked for help in renting a van and locating a site for burying the tote. Bagabuyo was arrested the next day and was initially charged with indignity to human remains. He was charged with first-degree murder approximately one year later.He was granted bail on July 12, 2023, but was taken into custody following the conviction.
A “custodian,” was appointed to take over Bagabuyo’s legal practice on May 12, 2022, according to the B.C. Law Society. It describes a custodian as a practising lawyer that is appointed by the BC Supreme Court to “manage or to wind up a legal practice.”
