source : the age
A former police officer accused of murdering Sydney couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies acted in self-defence after entering Baird’s home in disguise, his defence barrister has told a court.
Beau Lamarre-Condon, 31, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder over the shooting deaths of Baird, 26, his former casual romantic partner, and Davies, 29, in Paddington on February 19, 2024. His NSW Supreme Court criminal trial started in Sydney on Monday.
In an opening address to the jury on Tuesday, Lamarre-Condon’s barrister, John Stratton, SC, said the defence case was that the then-senior constable went to Baird’s home on the day of the alleged double murders with his police gun to retrieve some belongings, including jewellery.
Lamarre-Condon wanted to collect his things “without having to go through the embarrassment of having a further meeting” with Baird after their relationship ended in November 2023, Stratton said.
The accused had his police-issued pistol with him because “his training was that he was not allowed to leave a gun unminded in a car where it might be stolen”, the defence barrister said.
The alleged struggle
The Crown said in its opening address to the jury that Lamarre-Condon should not have had his weapon with him as he was not working that day, nor the next. The court was shown video on Tuesday of Lamarre-Condon arriving at Baird’s home allegedly dressed as an Uber Eats rider.
Lamarre-Condon expected nobody would be home, Stratton said, and “disguised himself … so he could masquerade as a delivery person if anybody unexpectedly opened the door”. He let himself in when nobody answered, the defence said.
Stratton said Lamarre-Condon was surprised by Baird, who “understandably did not recognise him because he was still wearing the motorcycle helmet”.
He said the defence case was that the two men struggled and Lamarre-Condon’s police gun went off twice and fatally wounded Baird.
In the alleged struggle, the gun was “flung into the loungeroom”, Stratton said, and the accused picked up a mobile phone and started ringing Triple Zero.
‘Self-defence’
He encountered a second man, Luke Davies, and “Mr Davies was now holding the gun”, the defence said. Stratton said Lamarre-Condon “grabbed Mr Davies by the arm and pushed the gun away from himself and towards Mr Davies”.
The defence said that in the struggle that followed, Davies “pulled the trigger and fatally shot himself”. He said later that Davies was also “holding on to a knife” when Lamarre-Condon first encountered him.
“It is very much in dispute that the accused Beau Lamarre-Condon ever planned to kill or even cause any harm to anyone [at the home],” Stratton said. “It’s his case that what he did was in self-defence.”
Stratton said his client “understandably panicked” after the deaths.
‘He knew this looked bad’
“He was a police officer, and he knew this looked bad,” Stratton said.
He submitted that Lamarre-Condon’s actions after the men died – putting their bodies in surfboard bags and leaving them near a Greek monastery in Bungonia, after a failed attempt to sink the bodies in a dam – were “not the actions of a man who believed that he was guilty of murder”.
Rather, they were the actions of a man who had “panicked considerably, who knew the gravity of the situation that he was in and how it might be perceived and was overawed by it”.
He presented himself to police on February 23, Stratton said.
The surfboard bag
The Crown has pointed to CCTV footage from a sports store in Miranda Westfield showing Lamarre-Condon buying a surfboard bag two days before the alleged murders as evidence supporting its case that the murder of Baird was premeditated.
The prosecution case is that Lamarre-Condon resolved to kill Baird after developing an “an obsessive and jealous infatuation” with him after their casual relationship, which started in late 2022, was ended by Baird in 2023.
The prosecution alleges that Lamarre-Condon killed Davies, Baird’s new boyfriend, to eliminate a witness to his crime.
CCTV footage played in court
During his opening address, Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC, showed the jury an image from CCTV footage in Baird’s street of Lamarre-Condon dressed as an Uber Eats rider.
The jury was also played CCTV footage containing three audible gunshot sounds between 9.49am and 9.50am. Luke Davies’ mother, Sandra, wept as the footage was played in court.
Hatfield alleged that Lamarre-Condon penned a handwritten statement and sent it to investigators via his lawyers in June 2025, blaming his friend, known in the trial as Elizabeth Kennedy, for the attempts to hide the bodies.
“At some point on Tuesday the 20th of February [2024] I contacted a person, Elizabeth, on Signal,” Lamarre-Condon wrote in the statement.
“I told her Jesse was dead and proceeded to tell her everything that had happened. I asked her for advice on what to do and if I should just go to police and tell them the truth about what occurred.
“[Kennedy] said, ‘no you can’t, they won’t believe you. I watch a lot of crime documentaries. We have to hide the bodies. I’m not free today … stay calm and call me tomorrow and we will figure it all out’,” Lamarre-Condon wrote.
The Crown alleges that this was a lie.
“No no no, you can’t,” Kennedy reiterated, Lamarre-Condon’s statement claims. “They won’t believe you, this is like Taylor Swift’s song No Body, No Crime we have to get rid of them straight away.”
Baird’s family give evidence
Baird’s mother choked back tears on Tuesday afternoon as she gave evidence about her close relationship with her son and his blossoming relationship with Davies. She described the men as “smitten” with each other.
“Jesse messaged me and sent me a photo of him and Luke at a Pink concert. He said, ‘Luke’s my boyfriend’,” she said. “I sent a big love heart and said, ‘I’m so happy for both of you’.”
Baird’s sister Kourtnee testified that Baird told her he was afraid of the accused in December 2023.
“Jesse said that he was fearful that he was a NSW police officer, he had access to a weapon, a gun, he said that he would go on his phone and block contacts from Jesse’s male friends,” she said.
“Jesse said he would be heading home from the gym and would receive messages [from Lamarre-Condon] saying, ‘you looked really good in the gym tonight’.”
The alleged break-in
Lamarre-Condon has pleaded not guilty to aggravated break and entry into Baird’s home in August 2023, months before the alleged murders, and stealing Baird’s wallet and mobile phone.
Stratton said Lamarre-Condon used a key Baird had given him.
The defence conceded that Lamarre-Condon had done “stupid things” before the alleged murders, including looking through Baird’s phone and deleting contacts and text messages.
The trial continues.
THE CROWN’S TIMELINE OF ALLEGED EVENTS
February 19, 2024
- 9.10am: CCTV footage captures Lamarre-Condon disguised as an Uber Eats rider near Baird’s Paddington terrace, where he stands for about 20 minutes
- 9.49am: CCTV footage from a neighbouring house captures the sound of a gunshot, followed by a second gunshot four seconds later.
- 9.50am: A Triple-Zero call captures a male voice, which the Crown alleges was Davies, saying “Get out, f— off” or similar. A third gunshot can be heard on the CCTV footage from the neighbour’s house.
- 10.49am: The accused appears on CCTV leaving Baird’s terrace in the Uber Eats disguise
- 11.06am: Lamarre-Condon allegedly calls a friend and says he’s in “a bit of trouble” and allegedly tells him in person he “killed two people”.
- 12.41pm: The accused allegedly purchases a second surfboard cover, after purchasing one two days earlier.
- 1.30pm: Accused allegedly purchases a duffel bag, mop, bleach, cleaning cloths and garbage bags.
- 2:50pm: He returns to the Paddington house before leaving a couple of hours later.
- 4:51pm: Accused allegedly sends a message from Baird’s phone to his prospective new housemate, saying: “Change of plans … I might be flying to Perth tonight.”
- 5.30pm: Baird’s housemate returns home and notices the two surfboard bags – with what appeared to be “rust” seeping out – in the courtyard of the terrace. A second housemate who arrives home within a few hours also notices the bags.
- 6.43pm: The accused texts and calls his friend to say his earlier story was “just a joke” and “I should get an Oscar, hey”.
- 7.39pm: The accused books a Toyota hire van, which CCTV captures him collecting from Kensington about 10.37pm, after a trip to Bunnings where he purchases tarpaulins and scissors.
February 20
- 1.13am: CCTV captures the accused walking in Paddington carrying a blue bucket.
- 1.54am: The accused arrives home in Balmain after allegedly leaving the bodies in the van in Kensington.
- 5.56am: CCTV captures the accused leaving home before stopping at Balmain police station. He then drives back to Kensington and later stops at Bunnings, where he buys items including gumboots, a high-vis jacket and a cordless drill.
- 10.04am: CCTV captures the accused in Paddington wearing the motorcycle helmet, high-vis vest and carrying a cardboard box. The white van is captured driving away from Paddington with some furniture visible inside shortly after midday.
- 5.27pm: The accused goes to Balmain police station, where the Crown alleges he was pretending to retrieve the gun to return to his home station, before he drives to Miranda police station at 6.34pm. He later catches up with his friend at Cronulla.
- 9.59pm: After returning to Kensington, Lamarre-Condon drives back to Cronulla in the white van and allegedly dumps furniture and bloodied items belonging to Baird and Davies in a skip bin at Cronulla Bowls Club before returning home about midnight.
February 21
- In the morning, bowls club staff find the items in the skip bin.
- 12.29pm: The accused visits a sports shop where he buys two further much larger surfboard bags and two 10kg weights. The Crown alleges he discovered the deceased did not “fit fully into the first two … covers”.
- 1.41pm: The accused allegedly returns to Bunnings where he buys a wheelbarrow and a large bag of quick-set concrete.
- 6.30pm: The accused arrives in the white van at a farm in Bungonia, near Goulburn, where the Crown alleges he tries unsuccessfully to sink the bodies in a dam. About the same time, police link Lamarre-Condon to Jesse Baird and attempt to contact him.
February 22
- The accused returns to Bungonia in the early hours of the morning before returning to Sydney, where he allegedly leaves the bodies in the van in Kensington.
- He allegedly dumps the bodies elsewhere in Bungonia that day.
- 6.40pm: The accused phones Bondi police station and says he will come in the next day. He drives to New Lambton.
February 23
- He returns to Sydney and later abandons the white van in Grays Point about 9am.
- After 10am: Lamarre-Condon phones the police helpline to report an alleged workplace injury on his way to hand himself into Bondi police station.
- The accused arrives at the station, where he is arrested and charged with murdering Jesse Baird and Luke Davies.
February 27
- The bodies of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies are found inside surfboard bags near the fence line of a Greek monastery in Bungonia. The bags are “crudely” covered in rocks and sticks, the Crown says.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) or the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491.
