Accused double murderer Beau Lamarre-Condon met a friend for dinner and had minor surgery in the days before he disposed of the bodies of Sydney couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies, a court has heard.
The 15-person jury in the former NSW police officer’s double murder trial was played CCTV footage from his dinner at Sushi Train in Cronulla in Sydney’s south on February 20, 2024, a day after the alleged killings.
Lamarre-Condon, 31, is standing trial in the Supreme Court on two counts of murder over the shooting deaths of Baird, 26, a former Network Ten producer and presenter, and Davies, 29, a Qantas flight attendant. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
A police compilation of CCTV footage tracked Lamarre-Condon’s movements across Sydney in the days after the alleged murders, including to the dinner on February 20, a day surgery appointment the following day, and multiple trips to Bunnings.
He is shown paying cash for a wheelbarrow and quick-set cement during a Bunnings trip on February 21. There is no dispute that he disposed of the men’s bodies in Bungonia, near Goulburn, later that week.
Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC, said in his opening address to the jury last month that the friend who had dinner with Lamarre-Condon was expected to tell the court that when they were driving home “the accused said something about needing to find a skip bin”.
According to Hatfield, the friend said he pointed out a bin outside Cronulla Bowls Club on the drive home, and they inspected it briefly. His friend is not accused of wrongdoing.
The court has heard Lamarre-Condon had yet to dispose of the men’s bodies at that time. Later that night, he dumped some of Baird and Davies’ belongings at the skip bin at Cronulla Bowls Club.
CCTV footage played to the jury on Tuesday showed a white van rented by Lamarre-Condon returning to the bowls club shortly before 10pm on February 20.
Footage from February 21 shows Lamarre-Condon attending St Vincent’s Hospital in Darlinghurst for minor day surgery.
The court has heard the accused persuaded another friend to let him use her Instagram account in November 2023 to pose as her to send Baird a 1600-word message claiming, falsely, that Lamarre-Condon had cancer.
He texted the same friend a photo of him in a hospital bed on December 12, 2023. A statement from his doctor, read in court on Tuesday, said Lamarre-Condon was in hospital on that date for an earlier elective day surgery relating to a “recurrent problem”, and his final operation was in February 2024.
The minor procedure on February 21 was completed within two hours, his doctor said.
A former friend of Lamarre-Condon, dubbed Elizabeth Kennedy in the proceedings, told the court on Wednesday that the accused took her on a drive to Goulburn in a white van on February 21, and she saw a blue tarpaulin in the back. She is not accused of wrongdoing.
He was “very bubbly, very talkative” on the way there, she said, and the van smelt like it had been cleaned.
“He asked me to turn my phone off,” Kennedy said. “I wasn’t allowed to put the windows up or turn the air con off.”
He almost hit a bird during the drive, Kennedy said, and he told her: “You know I’d never hurt an animal.”
She said Lamarre-Condon had two phones, an iPhone that was switched off and an Android phone he was using for maps.
Kennedy said she asked him where they were going, and he replied: “Just to a farm. The farms are so beautiful around here.”
Lamarre-Condon told her that he knew the owners of the farm, she said, and he had to break in and help with cattle. He cut the padlock to the property with an angle grinder that he had asked her to buy at a Bunnings nearby, Kennedy said.
“He asked me to put garbage bags over the number plates and I said no,” she said. “I just thought he was up to something.”
Kennedy said she stayed in the van as he cut the lock. She had a panic attack while she waited for him at the property, Kennedy said, while he was out of sight. He came back to the van wearing gumboots and said he would take her home, she said.
Kennedy said Lamarre-Condon asked her to fill up the tank with fuel during the drive back, and he was upset she didn’t know how to do this because she doesn’t drive. “He didn’t want to be on camera,” she said. They got back to Sydney around 11.30pm or 12am, she said.
Lamarre-Condon told her he would have to return to Bungonia that night, she said, but would not tell her why, saying only: “I don’t wanna involve you.”
Kennedy said she saw news reports on February 22 that Baird was missing and tried calling Lamarre-Condon. At 6.28pm, the accused called her on encrypted messaging app Signal, the court heard, in a call that lasted for about 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
She said he told her he didn’t know where Baird was and “it’s just crazy”. He said he had to go into Bondi police station the following day, added that if he could not join her on a trip to Europe he was sorry.
“He sounded a bit panicked,” Kennedy said. “That was the last [call] except for when he called me from jail. He deactivated all social media … before the [alleged] murders.”
She said she went to Bondi police station herself on February 23 after speaking to a lawyer, and subsequently assisted police in Goulburn in an attempt to find the bodies. “We got home at about 12am,” she said.
The bodies were not found that day, the court heard, and Kennedy did not return to Goulburn the following day.
There is no dispute Baird and Davies died on February 19 from gunshot wounds from Lamarre-Condon’s police-issued Glock pistol, and that the accused tried unsuccessfully to sink their bodies in a dam at the farm before leaving them at a nearby property. The bodies were found by police on February 27.
While the Crown alleges Baird’s murder was premeditated and Lamarre-Condon killed Davies to eliminate a witness to the crime, the defence case is that both men died accidentally in a struggle and Davies shot himself.
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.
According to the defence, Lamarre-Condon acted in self-defence after entering Baird’s Paddington share house disguised as a delivery rider to retrieve some of his belongings. He panicked, the defence says, and disposed of the bodies in the following days.
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.
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