Before he was fatally shot, Jesse Baird became “petrified” of Beau Lamarre and kept repeating that the police officer had a gun, a court has heard.
Lamarre-Condon has been accused of fatally shooting Sydney couple Jesse Baird, 26, and Luke Davies, 29, with a police service weapon at Baird’s Paddington home on 19 February 2024.
The 31-year-old pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one charge of aggravated break and enter.
Lamarre-Condon developed an “obsession and infatuation” with Baird, which manifested in compulsive actions during their brief relationship, the prosecution alleged.
By the time Baird decided he wanted to end things in November 2023, the behaviour had escalated.
Corey-Dean Thorpe, who had previously been in a years-long relationship with the 26-year-old and remained close friends, began sobbing in the witness box as he told the trial how Baird felt.
“He was petrified,” Thorpe told the New South Wales supreme court.
“I’d never heard him so scared in his voice before.
“He just kept repeating, ‘he has a gun’.”
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia emailBaird told Thorpe he was “extremely scared” of Lamarre-Condon because he had a gun and was a member of the police force, the court heard.
Asked by crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC if the 26-year-old had said he was scared to go to the police because Lamarre-Condon was a police officer, Thorpe agreed.
Baird was also worried Lamarre-Condon would make a false allegation against him that would “ruin his career”, Thorpe said.
Because he was a television presenter on children’s show Totally Wild and an AFL umpire, he needed a certification to work with children, the court heard.
During their relationship, Baird told Thorpe that Lamarre-Condon would go through his phone when he was asleep, find other men Baird had been talking to, and block their numbers before deleting their chats.
Lamarre-Condon would also use his own close friends story on Instagram to target “romantic rivals”, the prosecution alleged.
Damon Wilson, who had been casually seeing Baird, told the court about an incident in November 2023 when the TV presenter had to go to Melbourne for work.
Lamarre-Condon added Wilson to his close friends story on Instagram before posting a photo of a bouquet captioned “when he’s in Melbourne but still sends you these” with a heart-eyes emoji.
Baird later told his work colleague Briony Blackstone that he had not sent Lamarre-Condon any flowers, the court heard.
He found out the police officer had created a close friends list that included only one person so Lamarre-Condon could imply he and Baird were in a more serious relationship, Blackstone told the court.
This wasn’t the first time he had done this, the prosecution alleged.
Earlier in 2023, Lamarre-Condon had told his work colleague Rubina Shrestha that he had created a close friends group which had only one person: a Canberra man who had been seeing Baird.
He then posted a photo of Baird or himself with Baird to “send out a message that they’re together and Jesse’s not available,” Shrestha told the court.
When he told her about the bouquet close friends story, Shrestha told him: “that’s crazy” before Lamarre-Condon replied, “it works”.
After seeing the flowers in Lamarre-Condon’s story, Wilson messaged Baird, who confirmed he was not in a relationship with Lamarre-Condon.
Wilson said to Baird in a message: “I was a little confused why he added me to his close friends as soon as we met then starting posting photos of you guys … you getting him flowers. Glad we are on the same page.”
A week later Wilson received a protracted message from Lamarre-Condon warning him about Baird’s supposed “gaslighting”.
“He literally destroyed me,” Lamarre-Condon said in messages read to the court.
“It took me so long to recover from all the manipulation.
“He has tried to make me look like the bad guy.”
Around this time, Baird asked Thorpe for advice on how to break up with Lamarre-Condon.
Baird told Thorpe he was worried about what would happen when he ended things “because of the gun and because the accused had stalked and controlled him”, the prosecutor alleged.
But he pushed ahead with the break-up and confronted Lamarre-Condon about the flowers in the close friends story.
The officer responded by claiming the flowers were sent by his stepdad, who was living in Melbourne, to his mother, the court heard.
Lamarre-Condon later told his colleague Shrestha he “would do anything to get him back”.
On 3 February 2024, months after the break-up, one of Baird’s best friends, Matthew Edwards, asked if he had heard from Lamarre-Condon.
Edwards said Baird had replied: “No, thank fuck, I’m so done with him.”
“Once I move house, this will be the last piece of me that Beau knows.”
Baird confirmed his new relationship with Davies to Edwards soon after during their last phone call together.
“He was almost falling in love with him,” Edwards told the court.
“I’d never seen Jesse as happy with Luke as what I’d seen him ever. There was something about Luke that just lit Jesse up: they were the real deal.”
Lamarre-Condon’s defence team has claimed the police officer was acting in self-defence when he disguised himself as an Uber Eats driver and entered Baird’s home on 19 February.
Defence lawyer John Stratton SC argued a struggle had ensued which led to the shots that killed Davies and Baird.
The trial before justice Natalie Adams continues.
