Source : Perth Now news
Beau Lamarre-Condon told a friend he “f**ked up” before allegedly trying to revisit false claims after Jesse Baird confronted him, a jury has been told.
Mr Lamarre-Condon dressed up as an Uber Eats rider before allegedly murdering Mr Baird and his new boyfriend, Luke Davies, at the journalist’s Paddington home in Sydney on February 19, 2024.
The former police officer has pleaded not guilty and is arguing self-defence in a jury trial before the NSW Supreme Court.
He briefly dated Mr Baird from about late 2022 to April 2023, and again from September to November of that year.
Their final break-up culminated after Mr Baird discovered the former officer had been going through his phone without him knowing, and an incident regarding an Instagram post Mr Lamarre-Condon made in November 2023.
He allegedly posted a photo of flowers — which he got from the internet — to his Instagram close friends story to make it seem like Mr Baird had sent him the large bouquet, a jury has been told.
Mr Baird couldn’t see it but people Mr Lamarre-Condon believed to be his “romantic rivals” could, the jury was told.
When the TV presenter confronted him about it, asking him “what’s this about?” in a text, Mr Lamarre-Condon allegedly lied and claimed his stepfather had sent them to his mother.
Later that night, Mr Lamarre-Condon texted his friend Shae Davison and allegedly told her “I f**ked up really bad” before sending a screenshot of Mr Baird’s text breaking up with him.
The next day, on November 17, he asked Ms Davison if she could call him because he needed “quick advise (sic)” before sending her a picture of a woman with a bouquet of flowers and another with a handwritten note.
It is alleged he rushed to a florist after Mr Baird confronted him and asked them to make a bouquet to match the photo he had posted online, also making a note that appeared to be from his stepfather to his mother, the jury was told.
Ms Davison alleged in her evidence last week that Mr Lamarre-Condon then staged photos to make it look like his mother’s partner had bought her flowers and asked if he should send it to Mr Baird, the jury was told.
“I believe that he was confronted with the information that Jesse had found out about this Instagram post, and he wanted to try and get his way out of that,” Ms Davison told the court.
There is no evidence that Mr Lamarre-Condon actually sent the photographs to Mr Baird, but he did send the TV presenter a message asking to meet in person so he could “take ownership of something”, but Mr Baird did not reply.
Just a day later, on November 18, Mr Lamarre-Condon allegedly called Mr Baird a “manipulative player” in a text message to the presenter.
“You don’t need to worry about seeing me out etc because you won’t exist, and no further conversation needs to take place,” Mr Lamarre-Condon allegedly said.
He also allegedly texted a man Mr Baird was casually dating — Damon Wilson — that same day claiming that the journalist had led him on and “gaslit” him.
“I would hate to see you get hurt … It took me so long to recover from all the manipulation and he has now tried to make me look like the ‘bad guy’ with no accountability on his end,” Mr Lamarre-Condon allegedly wrote.
Days later, on November 23, Mr Lamarre-Condon allegedly asked a friend, known as Alex Carrol, if her ex-boyfriend could get him a gun, the jury was told.
The trial will continue on Wednesday.
