Source : the age
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Beau Lamarre-Condon’s double murder trial in the NSW Supreme Court.
The former police officer has pleaded not guilty to murdering Sydney couple Jesse Baird, 26, and Luke Davies, 29, in the eastern suburbs on February 19, 2024.
He has also pleaded not guilty to one count of aggravated breaking and entering into Baird’s Paddington home in August 2023 and stealing a mobile phone and wallet belonging to Baird.
A 15-person jury has been empanelled for the trial, which is expected to run for up to 12 weeks. In the event all 15 jurors are still present at the end of the trial, a ballot will be conducted to reduce their number to 12.
Yesterday, Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC, started delivering his opening address to the jury. This sets out the Crown’s case and is not evidence, but it is a guide to the evidence the prosecution expects to call in the months ahead.
Lamarre-Condon is entitled to the presumption of innocence and his barrister John Stratton, SC, will deliver an opening address today after Hatfield finishes his remarks.
During his opening yesterday, Hatfield alleged that Lamarre-Condon developed an “an obsessive and jealous infatuation” with Baird after a short relationship that started in late 2022 and was ended for the first time by Baird in April 2023.
After a brief resumption of their relationship later that year, it was “firmly and irretrievably ended” by Baird in November 2023, the Crown says.
The Crown case is that the murder of Baird was premeditated but that he killed Davies, Baird’s new boyfriend, to eliminate a witness to his crime.
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.
Beau Lamarre-Condon allegedly blamed a friend for attempts to conceal the bodies of Jesse Baird and Luke Davis in a dam on a remote farm, the court heard earlier this morning.
Police allege Lamarre-Condon had called a friend, known in the trial as Elizabeth Kennedy, and she had accompanied him on the drive down to a property called Cella Farm in Bungonia on February 20, 2024, the day after he allegedly murdered them in Paddington.
They allegedly spoke about how Lamarre-Condon was going to work, as a police officer, at an upcoming Taylor Swift concert.
Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC, alleged on Tuesday that Lamarre-Condon penned a handwritten statement and sent it to investigators via his lawyers in June 2025, blaming Kennedy for the attempts to hide the bodies.
John Stratton, SC, tells the jury that the defence case is that Lamarre-Condon went to Baird’s Paddington home on the day of the alleged double murders to retrieve some belongings including jewellery. He expected nobody would be home, Stratton says.
Stratton says Lamarre-Condon wanted to collect his things “without having to go through the embarrassment of having a further meeting with Jesse Baird”.
He “disguised himself … so he could masquerade as a delivery person if anybody unexpectedly opened the door”. He let himself in when nobody answered his knock on the door.
However, he was “surprised by Jesse Baird” and the two men struggled and the gun went off twice and fatally wounded Baird, Stratton says. Baird “understandably did not recognise him because he was still wearing the motorcycle helmet”.
Stratton says his client had the gun with him because he was a police officer and “his training was that he was not allowed to leave a gun unminded in a car where it might be stolen”.
Lamarre-Condon’s barrister, John Stratton, SC, is now delivering his opening address to the jury.
He says the defence case is that his client “did not murder either Mr Baird or Mr Davies”.
It was accepted that the deaths were “on any view a tragedy”, Stratton said.
There was no dispute that from about late 2022 until April 2023 the accused and Baird were in a relationship, he said. Stratton said they had a break-up in April, but got together again briefly only to break up permanently in November 2023.
Lamarre-Condon was “very upset” by the second break-up and thought Baird “had not been honest with him”, he said. The defence conceded Lamarre-Condon had done “stupid things” including looking through Baird’s phone and deleting contacts and text messages.
Stratton says that in August 2023, months before the alleged murders, his client entered Baird’s house in Paddington, but he used a key that had been provided to him by Baird.
The Crown alleges Lamarre-Condon pressured a friend to whom he had made admissions about both killings “to change his evidence”.
It foreshadows that there will be audio evidence of two meetings the accused had with the friend in December 2025.
Lamarre-Condon allegedly attempted to persuade his friend that he was wrong in his recollection that Lamarre-Condon had admitted shooting the second person, namely Luke Davies.
The Crown says that Lamarre-Condon made a call to a police helpline to report an alleged workplace injury on the way to hand himself in at Bondi police station on February 23, 2024.
The court is expected to be played the call during the trial.
“So can you just write … I have been exposed to multiple destruction, death and trauma with minimal support from NSW Police force. I’ve been bullied by multiple police force members,” he allegedly said in the call.
“All this death and trauma, and psychological abuse and trauma, did I say trauma already, um, has caused me not to sleep.
“It’s caused me to have some symptoms of schizophrenia. Actually, sorry … can you just backspace it up … Just delete that whole thing. We’ll just keep it short and sweet.”
The Crown alleges that Lamarre-Condon tried to sink the bodies of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies in a dam at a farm in Bungonia using concrete and weights, but was unsuccessful.
On the evening of February 21, 2024, police were trying to contact Lamarre-Condon after connecting him to Baird, the prosecution says.
By the morning of February 22, he was aware that police were interested in speaking to him, the court hears. The Crown alleges Lamarre-Condon dumped the bodies that day just outside the fence line of a Greek monastery about 20 kilometres away from the Bungonia farm.
The court has heard Jesse Baird’s housemates photographed red blood pooling next to a roller door in the back courtyard of their home, unaware the blue plastic bags were actually the bodies of Baird and his partner Luke Davies.
The jury were shown two photographs, one showing dark red liquid, a roller door and grey outdoor couch cushions hours after Beau Lamarre-Condon allegedly shot the men inside Baird’s home on February 19, 2024. He has pleaded not guilty to both charges of murder.
The second photograph showed blue plastic-wrapped surfboard bags.
Neither realised they were photographing the bodies of their housemate and his boyfriend.
Prosecutors allege Lamarre-Condon had took steps to conceal the murder by cleaning the scene and had even asked a friend to help him move the bodies, though the friend refused.
The Crown foreshadows there will be evidence that Beau Lamarre-Condon asked a friend “not to judge him” after the alleged double murder, and said he had done something “very serious”.
Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC, alleges Lamarre-Condon told the friend he had “killed two people” and “I didn’t even feel like it was me. This job has f—ed me up.”
He also allegedly used a gun hand gesture to describe the killing and said “pew pew”, Hatfield said.
Lamarre-Condon allegedly told the friend he didn’t want to kill the second person but he heard them trying to make a phone call to police and shot them through the door because he “couldn’t take the risk” they would be a witness.
The friend refused to help dispose of the bodies, the prosecution says.
The Crown alleges Lamarre-Condon bought a second surfboard cover for Davies’ body, having bought the first for Baird before the alleged murders.
The court has heard that Luke Davies called Triple Zero after the first two gunshots, shortly before he was allegedly shot by Beau Lamarre-Condon.
The Crown alleges Davies’ phone was switched off just after 9.50am on February 19, 2024, which is about the same time as the third gunshot was heard in the CCTV footage played in court earlier this morning.
Beau Lamarre-Condon made notes while the jury heard audio recordings from the moment he allegedly murdered Jesse Baird and Luke Davies inside Baird’s Paddington home.
He has pleaded not guilty to both counts of murder.
Footage from a motion-triggered camera from the opposite side of the street, at 9.49am, detected bursts of audio on the morning of February 19, 2024.
The sound of the three shots filled the courtroom this morning.
