Kamloop’s lawyer accused of first degree murder in the murder of a client three years ago has decided at the last minute not testifying in his own defense.
Rogelio (Butch) Bagabayo was scheduled to occupy the position on Tuesday morning when his trial only resumed, and he was expected to testify until the end of the week.
On the other hand, Bagabuyo’s lawyer, Mark Swartz, announced at the beginning of the procedures a “late development”, saying that the defense would not call any evidence.
Bagabuyo is accused of stabbing the computer professor at the University of Thompson Rivers, Mohd Abdullah, until the death of more than three years ago.
The 55 -year -old lawyer is not in custody. At Tuesday’s shortened audience in Vancouver, he sat at a table behind Swartz, with a dark suit and glasses, with a stack of papers in front of him.
Abdullah was last seen alive on March 11, 2022, when he was captured on video walking to the Bagabuyo office in the center of Kamloop.
His remains were found days later in a plastic container at the back of a rental truck. An autopsy confirmed several white weapon wounds in the upper left chest of Abdullah and the back.
At the beginning of the trial, the prosecutor of the crown Ann Katrine Saettler told Judge Kathleen Ker that Abdullah had given Bagabuyo more than $ 700,000 in 2016 when Abdullah’s marriage was finishing.
According to the theory of the Crown events, the computer teacher hoped to recover the money after his divorce was over, but in March 2022 he was still waiting for Bagabuyo to return it. The money is still missing, according to Crown.
Bagabuyo was initially accused of interfering with human remains three days after Abdullah’s body was found on March 17, 2022.
He was accused of murder more than a year later, and has been free on bail since July 2023.
Abdullah, who was 60 when he was killed, worked at the University of Thompson Rivers for 21 years and played an important role in the Faculty of Science and open learning, according to a University statement in 2022.
The closing presentations at the trial are scheduled to start on October 6 in Vancouver.
