Rogelio "Butch" Bagabuyo is seen leaving the Kamloops courthouse with his lawyer, Mark Swartz, on April 15, 2025.

(LEVI LANDRY / iNFOnews.ca)

Lawyers are gearing up to deliver their closing arguments as a Kamloops lawyer and accused killer decided not to testify in his own defence.

Rogelio "Butch" Bagabuyo's last-minute decision was a change in course for the murder trial which was initially set to continue through this week.

"I can confirm Mr. Bagabuyo is electing not to call any evidence," his lawyer Mark Swartz told the court  this morning, Sept. 2.

Accused of first-degree murder in the 2022 death of his former friend and client, Bagabuyo's trial started in Kamloops Supreme Court earlier this year before moving to Vancouver.

Since the beginning, the trial has mainly focused on evidence presented by the Crown as they work to prove Bagabuyo not only killed Mohd Abdullah but that it was pre-mediated and planned.

Bagabuyo's lawyers were expected to call evidence as the trial resumed today, including testimony from Bagabuyo himself, but that changed this morning.

Swartz said the decision was a "late development" in the case as Justice Kathleen Ker confirmed lawyers will stay the course to conclude the trial next month.

The court has heard how years before his death, Abdullah worked with Bagabuyo to hide nearly $800,000 of Abdullah's money. Abdullah was divorcing his now-dead ex-wife and Bagabuyo hid the money in a separate account to remain untouched in the separation, the court heard.

In the lead-up to Abdullah's death, he began demanding the money be returned in a months-long effort that culminated in a final meeting at Bagabuyo's office in March 2022, the court heard.

The Crown alleges Bagabuyo had already spent the money and planned to kill Abdullah when there was no way out.

Bagabuyo is alleged to have stabbed Abdullah and hid the body in a plastic tote, then enlisted an elderly friend to help bury the bin somewhere outside Kamloops.

Abdullah's body was never buried, however, and police found it in a rented cargo van outside a home in Kamloops' Dufferin neighbourhood days after he was reported missing.

Lawyers will return in early October to present their closing arguments before Justice Ker delivers a decision.

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