A former B.C. lawyer who has been charged with the first-degree murder of his client owed him over $700,000, according to Crown prosecutors.

Rogelio “Butch” Bagabuyo is charged with first-degree murder in the March 2022 death of Mohd Abdullah, a Thompson Rivers University computer science professor, in the south-central Interior city of Kamloops.

Bagabuyo’s trial, which is being heard before a judge only, began on Monday. On Tuesday, Crown prosecutor Ann Katrine Saettler told Justice Kathleen Ker that Abdullah had given Bagabuyo the hefty sum in 2016 when his marriage was coming to a close.

According to the Crown’s theory of events, the computer science professor had expected to get the money back after his divorce was finalized — and in March 2022, he was still waiting for Bagabuyo to return it. The money is still missing, according to the Crown.

The last day Abdullah was seen alive was March 11, 2022, when he was filmed walking to Bagabuyo’s office in downtown Kamloops.

His remains were found days later in a plastic bin in the back of a rental van. An autopsy confirmed several stab wounds to Abdullah’s upper left chest and back.

The Crown says it plans to prove that Bagabuyo killed Abdullah in his office, placed the body in a plastic tote bag, and subsequently moved it to the van.

Witness takes stand

Justin Robertson was the first witness to take the stand on Tuesday, having called 911 to report that the rental van outside his grandparents’ home in Kamloops’ Dufferin neighbourhood contained human remains.

Robertson testified he and his grandmother became suspicious after his grandfather told them Bagabuyo asked for his help burying a box. 

The Kamloops man told the court that he put on some garden gloves, entered the rental van and opened the plastic tote containing the victim’s remains. 

Robertson called 911 after seeing a human foot in the bin.

On Monday, the first piece of evidence submitted to court was the rental documents for a Budget van in which the victim’s remains were found.

Other evidence items included a large black storage tote bag, ropes, disposable lighters, cables and black garbage bags with holes cut out of them, as well as a knife, a 12-inch blade, and a shovel.

Bagabuyo was initially charged with interfering with human remains three days after Abdullah’s body was found on March 17, 2022.

More than a year later, he was charged with murder. He has been free on bail since July 2023.

Abdullah, who was 60 years old, worked at Thompson Rivers University for 21 years and played an important role in the Faculty of Science and Open Learning, according to a statement from the university in 2022.

Shortly after his death, Abdullah’s son-in-law told CBC News that Bagabuyo had been Abdullah’s “trusted friend.” Abdullah’s daughter, Sarah Jeet Lalata-Buco, said her father was a quiet and kind man.

Bagabuyo’s trial will continue on Wednesday.