A former police officer claims he killed two men in self-defence and began cleaning up the crime scene because he was “understandably panicked”, a Sydney court has heard.
Beau Lamarre-Condon, 31, has been accused of fatally shooting 26-year-old Jesse Baird and his partner, Luke Davies, 29, with a police service weapon at Baird’s Paddington home on 19 February 2024.
He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one charge of aggravated break and enter.
The prosecution has argued the former police officer developed an “infatuation” with Baird which manifested in “compulsive” behaviour and escalated after Baird ended their brief relationship in 2023. It’s alleged Lamarre-Condon began planning to murder him in early 2024.
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia emailKourtnee Baird said her brother had confided in her regarding Lamarre-Condon the last time she saw him alive.
“Jesse said that he was fearful he was a NSW police officer,” she told the court on Tuesday.
“He had access to a weapon, a gun, and [Jesse] said he would go on his phone and block contacts from Jesse’s male friends.”
When her brother was on his way home from the gym, he would receive messages from Lamarre-Condon that said, “you looked really good at the gym tonight”, Kourtnee Baird told the court.
Sometimes when her brother went for coffee or a meal, Lamarre-Condon would send him messages saying he looked nice in what he was wearing.
Asked if her brother felt he was being followed, Kourtnee Baird replied: “Very much so.”
Jesse was “very erratic, very shocked and just would explain how crazy some of the things [Lamarre-Condon] was doing were,” his sister said.
Lamarre-Condon’s lawyer, John Stratton SC, told the jury on Tuesday that the policeman had been acting in “self-defence” when he shot Baird.
The morning the couple were killed, Lamarre-Condon entered Baird’s home wearing a motorcycle helmet and disguised as an UberEats driver.
This way, he would not be recognised while picking up his belongings, Stratton said.
He had a key he was given by Baird and had a gun on him because, according to his “training”, he was not allowed to leave a weapon in a car where it might be stolen, the jury was told.
Because Baird did not recognise Lamarre-Condon, a struggle ensued during which the 26-year-old was killed, the defence barrister said.
The officer’s gun was flung across the room and Davies picked it up, Stratton told the court. Lamarre-Condon then grabbed Davies by the arm and pushed the gun towards him.
In the struggle that followed, Davies pulled the trigger and shot himself, the court was told.
“What he did was self-defence,” Stratton said.
After the shootings, Lamarre-Condon immediately began to clean up the crime scene.
This was because he was “understandably panicked”, the defence lawyer said.
“He was a police officer and he knew this looked bad,” Stratton told the court.
“These were the actions of a man who panicked considerably, who knew the gravity of the situation he was in, knew how it would be perceived and was overawed by it.”
Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC alleged Lamarre-Condon entered Baird’s house with a stolen key before shooting him twice and shooting Davies through a bedroom door.
Audio of the three shots was played to the courtroom: the first two coming in quick succession before the third, 51 seconds later. Baird and Davies’ loved ones wiped away tears as they listened in court.
Lamarre-Condon later told a friend he had killed two people, the prosecution said.
According to Hatfield, when the friend asked if he was joking, Lamarre-Condon responded: “I wish I was, I don’t feel like it was me … I feel like I need some help, this job has fucked me up.”
Asked how he did it, Lamarre-Condon allegedly said “with a gun”, made a hand gesture and said “pew pew”.
The police officer later bought a second surfboard bag – days after he had bought the first, the jury was told.
He returned to Baird’s home that afternoon before one of Baird’s housemates came home.
“She did notice the two surfboard bags which, at this stage, were in the back courtyard,” Hatfield told the court.
“She will tell you what she thought was rust [was] seeping out from the bags,” Hatfield told the court.
“She took a photo and sent it to her housemate but didn’t realise at the time that the bags contained two bodies.”
A photo of outdoor furniture with a pool of blood was shown to the court on Tuesday.
On the night of the alleged murders, Lamarre-Condon moved the bodies from the Paddington terrace to a hired van, the crown said.
A day later, posing as Baird and using the dead man’s phone, Lamarre-Condon texted the terrace housemates’ group chat claiming Baird was going on a road trip to Perth, the jury was told.
Lamarre-Condon then messaged one of his own friends, who was living in Perth, and told her he was going to send her a phone by express post.
He said he needed her to turn it on in Western Australia before throwing it into the ocean, the court heard.
Lamarre-Condon subsequently made an unsuccessful attempt to sink the two bodies in a dam near Goulburn, before moving them to a fence line near a monastery in Bungonia, the prosecutor told the court. They were found eight days later.
Jesse’s mother, Helen Baird, told the court about the first time she had met her son’s partner, Luke, a month before they were killed.
“It was early days but they were both smitten with each other,” she said on Tuesday.
A few weeks later, her son sent a photo of himself with Davies at a Pink concert. Her voice broke as she said “underneath [the photo] it said ‘Luke’s my boyfriend’”.
“I sent a big love heart and said ‘I’m so happy for you’,” Helen Baird told the jury.
The trial before justice Natalie Adams continues.
