‘I stand by that first shot’: Lamarre-Condon admits killing former TV presenter

Warning: Graphic content

Accused killer Beau Lamarre-Condon has told a court that he shot Jesse Baird twice after the former TV presenter lunged at him with a knife before he called Triple Zero in a bid to “save him”.

The former NSW police officer testified for the first time on Friday in his Supreme Court criminal trial about the day Baird and his boyfriend, Luke Davies, died of gunshot wounds from Lamarre-Condon’s police-issued Glock pistol.

The 31-year-old has pleaded not guilty to murdering Baird, 26, a former Network Ten producer and presenter, and Davies, 29, a Qantas flight attendant, at Baird’s Paddington share house on February 19, 2024.

Lamarre-Condon told the court on Friday that he went to Baird’s house that morning to collect some of his belongings after their relationship ended in November 2023. He said the relationship was romantic but not exclusive.

“I was worried if I knocked on the door it may be perceived as harassment … because Jesse told me, ‘please refrain from contacting me’,” Lamarre-Condon said.

He said he had his police gun with him because he had contemplated taking his own life on the night of February 18 over work-related trauma and had yet to return it.

He saw a delivery rider’s bike near Baird’s home, he said, with an “Uber Eats motorcycle helmet”, high-vis hooded jacket, waterproof long pants, gloves and paper bags.

‘I had an idea’

“As soon as I saw that, I had an idea,” he recounted. He appeared to become emotional as he said: “It’s this moment here … I wish that I didn’t do this.”

It struck him that if he “was to put on this helmet and motorcycle outfit and look like a delivery driver” he could knock on Baird’s door without being recognised, and “that way I couldn’t be falsely accused of harassment or an AVO be placed against me”.

Lamarre-Condon said he knocked three times on the door, which was ajar, and said hello loudly. Nobody answered, and he entered the house and looked inside some storage boxes for his belongings, he said.

He “ran upstairs to hide” behind a bedroom door after hearing noises from behind the back door near the kitchen and seeing an arm, he said. He took off the high-visibility jacket and backpack, but “kept the helmet on and the visor was down”.

“Sorry, I’m just going to wait one second,” he added, dabbing at his eyes with a tissue.

The first two shots

Lamarre-Condon said that he waited until he believed the person had left and went back downstairs, where he encountered Baird, who was sealing shut a storage box in the kitchen with masking tape in his left hand and a knife in his right hand.

“He looked up at me … he started yelling ‘we’re getting robbed, we’re getting robbed,’” he said.

“He couldn’t see that it was me because the visor was down. I froze, and then I realised that, shit, he doesn’t know it’s me. He dropped the tape, and he lunged at me [with the knife].”

He said he yelled: “‘Jesse, it’s Beau, it’s Beau, it’s me, calm the f— down.’ Jesse wouldn’t have reacted that way if he knew it was me.”

He said they began to struggle over the knife, and he couldn’t get the visor on the helmet up “because I had both of my hands holding his forearms and his wrist”.

Baird “kept swinging the knife towards me”, he said.

Lamarre-Condon said he was pinned up against a kitchen wall and Baird had the knife near his throat. “The helmet didn’t cover that part of my neck,” he said, indicating the left side of his throat.

He aimed for Baird’s right shoulder and “discharged the firearm”, he said. “Jesse grabbed onto the front of the gun”, he said, and “yanked it forward”.

‘Jesse did not have his finger on the trigger’

Lamarre-Condon said both men fell to the ground, and he accidentally discharged the gun for a second time.

“Jesse did not have his finger on the trigger,” he said. “It was my fault. I’ve said from the start I am guilty of manslaughter and I’m responsible for his death, but it wasn’t intentional.”

He said he was unaware at the time that the bullet went through his head.

‘What do I do to save him’

Lamarre-Condon said that his “first thought process” was to get Baird help and “there was a phone on the kitchen counter”.

“You don’t need to have someone’s password to call … Triple Zero,” he said.

“Again, now I’m into police mode, it’s what do I do to save him. I checked his pulse, and then I started saying, ‘Jesse, Jesse, can you hear me? Please wake up. Please squeeze my hand if you can hear me.’

“I put him into the recovery position. I thought I could actually still feel a pulse at that time, so I thought he was still alive.”

He said he still had his helmet on “and the visor was on” when he encountered a second man that he now knows to be Davies.

‘If I didn’t do it Jesse Baird would be sitting here in the box today, and he would have to explain why he drove a knife into my throat.’

Beau Lamarre-Condon

Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC, put to him during cross-examination that it was not necessary to shoot Baird.

“I stand by the first shot,” Lamarre-Condon said. “The first shot was intentional; the second shot was not.

“I 110 per cent stand by that first shot because if I didn’t do it Jesse Baird would be sitting here in the box today, and he would have to explain why he drove a knife into my throat.”

Hatfield pressed that he went there intending to kill Baird. The Crown case is that he planned to kill the former TV presenter after developing an obsessive and jealous infatuation with him that escalated after Baird ended their relationship.

“I have never had a thought or intention of ever wanting to cause physical harm to Jesse,” the accused replied.

Alleged struggle with Davies

Lamarre-Condon said that when he encountered Davies he was “holding my gun … pointed towards me at my chest”. “He goes, ‘I’m gonna f—ing shoot you,’” he said.

He said he put his hands up, holding the phone in his right hand “calling Triple Zero … [but] I wasn’t aware if it was connecting”.

Lamarre-Condon alleged Davies raised the gun towards his head and “put his left index finger on the trigger”. “Again, my police training kicked in,” he said.

The accused said he “was in the surrender position” and got up to move Davies’ arm to turn the gun away from him. The gun went off and it “got Luke” as he was standing in front of Baird’s bedroom door, and the bullet exited his head and became lodged in the door, Lamarre-Condon said.

The Crown case is that Lamarre-Condon shot Davies through the door. The court has heard police discovered the bullet hole earlier this year. It had been covered in 2024 with a stick-on hook and a felt pad, the court heard.

After the men’s deaths, the accused said he “went into a panic attack which I’ve had before, but never like this”. “It felt like an out-of-body experience,” he said.

He does not dispute that he cleaned Baird’s home and disposed of their bodies in Bungonia, near Goulburn, before turning himself in to police on February 23, 2024.

The trial continues.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491, and Lifeline on 13 11 14.