source : the age
Beau Lamarre-Condon texted a friend the day before he allegedly murdered Sydney couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies suggesting that he may not “get to talk to you again”, a court has heard.
Lamarre-Condon has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder over the shooting deaths of Baird, 26, a former TV presenter, and Davies, 29, a Qantas flight attendant, in Paddington on February 19, 2024. At the time of the alleged murders, he was a NSW police officer.
The court heard on Wednesday that Lamarre-Condon messaged his friend, dubbed Fiona Rosso in the proceedings, on encrypted messaging app Signal on February 15, 2024, four days before the alleged murders: “Watch the movie salt burn [sic]. I see myself playing the lead role of the nerd. It’s a mind f—.”
The following day, the accused messaged her at 11.30am: “Hey watch the movie salt burn.”
Rosso testified on Wednesday that Lamarre-Condon had been taking acting classes and had asked her about a week earlier, while she was helping him to practise lines, whether she would help him bury a body. She thought he was joking, she told the court.
On February 18, the day before the men’s deaths, Lamarre-Condon tried to call Rosso on Signal, the court heard, before messaging her at 8.46pm: “If I don’t get to talk to you again I just want to let you know I love you so much and I value your friendship more than you’ll know.
“Thank you for accepting [me] I love you so much xx”.
Rosso told the court she did not know what this message meant.
On February 19, hours before the alleged murders, Lamarre-Condon messaged Rosso on Signal from 4.49am: “I’ll try call you tonight and update you X. Don’t worry about me though X.”
Rosso replied: “Ok good! … What sign was it? What did the universe say? Yay or nay?”
Lamarre-Condon replied at 4.55am: “No there is no sign I’m doing it.”
Minutes later, at 5.02am, he said: “Also I’ve just gotten rid of all social media for now.”
During a covertly recorded conversation in prison in December 2025, after his arrest in February 2024, Lamarre-Condon told another friend that he had been suicidal from late 2023 because of trauma from work.
The accused told his friend that he was “upset like anyone is” after Baird ended their casual romantic relationship in November 2023, but “it’s normal”.
He said that within two or three weeks, he “didn’t really give a f—king shit about him” and was “dating someone new in February”. The friend replied: “Oh, come on, mate.”
‘Code’ word for search warrant
Rosso gave evidence on Wednesday that Lamarre-Condon used her phone when he visited her home overnight on February 22, 2024, three days after the alleged murders, and told her he had to scrub blood from a van. He said his own phone was on airplane mode “so he couldn’t be tracked”, Rosso said.
At 12.22am on February 23, Rosso’s phone sent a message to the number belonging to Lamarre-Condon’s mother: “It’s ivy’s dad can you answer? Or are you having a hot chocolate?”
Her phone received the reply: “Hot chocolate.” Rosso’s phone gave a thumbs-up reaction to that message, the court heard.
Rosso said Ivy was the name of Lamarre-Condon’s dog, and she did not send the message or react to it.
“When those messages came through I was like, ‘what’s hot chocolate?’,” Rosso said. “He said there was a search warrant happening at his Mum’s house in Balmain.”
Rosso said the accused told her “hot chocolate” was “a code for a search warrant” between Lamarre-Condon and his mother.
Lamarre-Condon handed himself in to police shortly after 10.30am on February 23, the court has heard.
Rosso told the court she feared the accused might “now kill me too” after he arrived unexpectedly at her home on February 22 and cleaned the van. On Thursday, Justice Natalie Adams told the jury that the accused’s barrister properly objected to that evidence.
“It is not any part of the Crown case, and the Crown has no evidence, suggesting that the accused in any way wanted to harm [Rosso],” Adams said.
“She expressed that feeling, but that is not part of the Crown case and there is no evidence to support it, and that was the basis of … [the defence] objection.”
The Crown alleges Lamarre-Condon plotted to kill Baird after developing an obsessive and jealous infatuation with him that escalated when Baird ended their casual relationship in November 2023, and that he killed Davies to eliminate a witness.
According to the defence, Lamarre-Condon acted in self-defence after entering Baird’s home in disguise to retrieve some of his belongings. The defence case is that Baird died when Lamarre-Condon’s police gun went off during a struggle and Davies shot himself during a second struggle.
The accused’s barrister, John Stratton, SC, said in his opening address to the jury that Davies had a knife when Lamarre-Condon first encountered him and the accused later disposed of the knife nearby.
On Thursday, the court heard that a Paddington resident told police that she had found a knife outside her house on February 20 and had washed and used it. Police seized the knife on April 2, the court heard, and it was 25 centimetres in length with a 13 centimetre silver blade.
The trial continues.
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 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.
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