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

(LEVI LANDRY / iNFOnews.ca)

A Kamloops murder trial entered its second of ten weeks, but most of it will be heard in the Lower Mainland.

Early next month, the trial of Rogelio "Butch" Bagabuyo will be in Vancouver. Using two courthouses is exceptionally rare, but lawyers on the case won't comment on why the judge-alone trial is in two cities.

A BC Prosecution Service spokesperson acknowledged the move is unusual, but refused to explain why due to a sweeping publication ban that blocked information submitted during pretrial hearings.

"It may be that the submissions regarding the change of venue application are covered by a publication ban and we certainly don't want to run afoul of the court's order," Crown spokesperson Damienne Darby said in an emailed response.

The ban restricts anyone from publishing or broadcasting submissions made by lawyers in all pre-trial hearings until the trial is over. If iNFOnews.ca or reporters from any other outlet were there for those proceedings, they couldn't be shared. The only exception applies to scheduling and the nature of those now-concluded pre-trial hearings.

It was in December 2023 lawyers successfully argued to have the trial moved to Vancouver, largely chalked up to an effort to find impartial jurors for the high-profile murder case. Almost a year later, Bagabuyo opted instead to be tried by a judge alone.

READ MORE: Bagabuyo trial: Man recalls lengthy, 'aimless' search to bury body

"In that case, I don't think it was very controversial why there was a change of venue application because it was presumed that because of the amount of media attention on the case, if you're going to have a jury trial, it'd be really hard to get members of the public who weren't already exposed to the story," Kamloops lawyer Jay Michi said.

Michi has no involvement in the case, but said there are a few considerations a court might take into account over where an accused is tried.

"The guiding (principle) is whether the accused can get a fair trial in the local jurisdiction where the alleged events occurred," he said.

Next is whether witnesses, especially those important to the case, are in the local area. The court might make accommodations for them and move the trial, sometimes temporarily or in its entirety, and sometimes the court may also make a change of venue for the lawyers' convenience.

Michi said he represented a man accused in a Kootenay murder trial, which was ultimately split between two venues, much like Bagabuyo's. The judge and many of the expert and police witnesses were from the Lower Mainland, while the Crown worried about the local civilian witnesses.

They split the trial between Kamloops and Cranbrook and Michi said it was not only a first for him, it may have been a first for BC criminal trials.

"At the end of the day, the judge has to balance what's in the accused's best interest, in terms of making sure he gets a fair trial, and what makes most sense given the kind of witnesses you have," he said.

In the Bagabuyo trial, all the lawyers and the judge are Vancouver-based.

READ MORE: First officer on the scene testifies at Kamloops murder trial

With the trial already scheduled for a jury, Michi said it was likely easier to make adjustments for Kamloops witnesses, while keeping the bulk in Vancouver even after Bagabuyo re-elected to be tried by a judge.

"I think it does make sense to have divided it up into two chunks," he said.

What's unclear is why the publication ban remains on the trial restricting the public from the court's reason.

They're most often imposed to protect the names of victims or witnesses. Other times they cover evidence given during bail hearings or other pre-trial matters in case a jury trial is chosen.

"What could possibly be the publication ban? There's no jury now," Michi said. "Unless there's some unique issue that is inherent to this case we don't know about... That's possible, that there's something (the judge) had to decide she had to shroud in secrecy, but that's strange because there's no jury involved. There's no victim privacy consideration. It would have to be some inherent jurisdiction ruling that's specific to this case."

Bagabuyo's first-degree murder trial started its second week on April 22 with video surveillance evidence from a Kamloops RCMP officer. Once the trial is moved to Vancouver on May 5, it's scheduled to continue up to June 20.

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