The defence case
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. His criminal trial started in the historic King Street court complex on Monday.
Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC, has now delivered his opening address to the jury, which sets out the prosecution’s case. It must prove the offences beyond reasonable doubt.
Today, Hatfield showed the jury a CCTV image of Lamarre-Condon disguised as an Uber Eats rider outside Baird’s home before the alleged murders, and played them footage recording the sound of three gunshots coinciding with the deaths of Baird and Davies.
The Crown alleges that Lamarre-Condon developed “an obsessive and jealous infatuation” with Baird after a short relationship that began in late 2022 and was ended for the first time by Baird in April 2023 and again in November 2023.
The prosecution alleges that the murder of Baird was premeditated but that he killed Davies, Baird’s new boyfriend, to eliminate a witness to his crime.
However, Lamarre-Condon’s defence barrister, John Stratton, SC, presented the jury with the defence case in his opening address on Tuesday.
He said that Lamarre-Condon went to Baird’s home on February 19, 2024, to collect his belongings, including jewellery, and was disguised because he didn’t want to “go through the embarrassment” of seeing Baird.
- Stratton said Lamarre-Condon entered the home when nobody answered his knock at the door and was “surprised by Jesse Baird”, who “understandably did not recognise him because he was still wearing the motorcycle helmet”.
- The defence case is 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.
- He encountered a second man, 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”.
- Stratton said that Lamarre-Condon had entered Baird’s home on an earlier occasion in August 2023 using a key that Baird had given him. Lamarre-Condon has pleaded not guilty to aggravated break and entry to Baird’s home and stealing Baird’s wallet and phone.
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.
Officer in charge gives further evidence
Sasha Pinazza, the detective in charge of the Beau Lamarre-Condon investigation, has returned to the witness box for cross-examination by the accused’s barrister, John Stratton, SC.
Former romantic partner of Baird gives evidence
A man with whom Jesse Baird had a brief relationship in 2023 is giving evidence in court.
He says he first met Baird in Canberra on May 6, 2023, when Baird was there to umpire an AFL match. The pair were “casually dating” for a number of months, the man says.
The Crown has alleged Lamarre-Condon misused his authority as a police officer after Baird ended their relationship for the first time to obtain CCTV footage of Baird on a date with this man at a Paddington pub on May 19, 2023.
The Crown says this footage was “found on his personal computer when it was seized”.
In July 2024, police asked the man to look at still images from the CCTV footage. He was able to identify himself and Baird.
‘Jesse said that he was fearful’: Baird’s sister
Kourtnee Baird, Jesse’s sister, is now giving evidence.
She says she was close with her brother and they stayed in touch on social media and via texting as well as speaking on the phone about once a fortnight.
She says her brother told her about someone called Beau over Christmas dinner in 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 caught the accused doing it.”
She said Jesse also told her Beau had posted on social media about flowers as though the pair were in a relationship. The court has heard Jesse Baird ended the relationship with Lamarre-Condon in November 2023.
She agrees that her brother said he was concerned he was being followed by the accused.
“He couldn’t comprehend that someone could do these things,” she said, and her brother sounded “shaken up” and “shocked”.
Baird and Davies ‘smitten with each other’
Jesse Baird and Luke Davies were “smitten” with each other early in their relationship, Baird’s mother has tearfully told the jury.
Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC, asked Helen Baird, Jesse’s mother, about a visit from the two young men in January 2024, just weeks before they were allegedly murdered by Beau Lamarre-Condon.
“It was early days, but they were both smitten with each other and great together. We spent a few days together, had dinner together,” Helen Baird told the court.
Helen Baird had broken down in tears, moments earlier, saying she was close with her son, who visited her in Victoria.
Jesse had told his mother Lamarre-Condon had become “obsessive” and a female friend of the police officer had reached out saying he had cancer.
Jesse Baird’s mother gives tearful evidence
Jesse Baird’s mother, Helen, is in the witness box now. She says Baird worked on Network Ten’s Totally Wild and Studio Ten and moved to Sydney because of his work on the latter program.
He was also involved in umpiring AFL football in the Queensland league and professional matches at the AFL.
She becomes tearful as she tells the court she had a “very close” relationship with her son and would speak to him “all the time, every week”.
The defence case
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. His criminal trial started in the historic King Street court complex on Monday.
Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC, has now delivered his opening address to the jury, which sets out the prosecution’s case. It must prove the offences beyond reasonable doubt.
Court takes a break
Court has taken the 1pm break for lunch. The hearing will resume at 2pm.
Storage of police firearm
The court is being taken to rules governing the storage of police firearms.
If officers want to store their firearm at home they need to seek permission to do that, the court hears. The accused had not sought such permission, Pinazza says.
Lamarre-Condon’s role as youth engagement officer
The court hears that Beau Lamarre-Condon “attested” as a police officer, which effectively means graduating from the police academy, in 2017.
Pinazza agrees that police officers receive training about when the use of force is appropriate.
As at February 2024, he was a senior constable. Pinazza says he was working as “a youth engagement officer attached to youth command”, a specialist command that deals predominantly with youth issues.
“Was the accused engaged in any active investigation work?” Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC, asks. “No,” she says.
His duties dictated that he worked between locations, she says, and his home station was in Miranda.
He had allocated to him a firearm and two magazines to go with it, with 15 bullets per magazine.
Officer in charge gives evidence
The Crown has called the first witness in the trial: Sasha Pinazza, the detective in charge of the Beau Lamarre-Condon investigation.
She tells the court that she became involved in the investigation on February 21, 2024, two days after the alleged double murder.
The court hears that she became aware a TAG Heuer watch and a wallet belonging to Luke Davies had been found in a skip bin in Cronulla, and they had been drawn to the attention of local police.
Some of Jesse Baird’s belongings were also found in the bin, the court hears.
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