Lamarre-Condon’s text to TV presenter before alleged home invasion

A text message accused killer Beau Lamarre-Condon sent Jesse Baird in the hours before prosecutors allege he broke into the TV presenter’s Paddington home has been revealed in his double murder trial.

The former NSW police officer has pleaded not guilty to murdering Baird, 26, a former Network Ten producer and presenter, and Luke Davies, 29, a Qantas flight attendant, on February 19, 2024.

He has also pleaded not guilty to breaking into Baird’s home six months earlier, on August 17, 2023, and stealing his mobile phone and wallet.

Lamarre-Condon has told the NSW Supreme Court that Baird had invited him to stay at his place on the night of the alleged home invasion, and that he used a key that Baird had left out for him.

During his cross-examination on Wednesday, the accused was shown a screenshot of his text messages with Baird hours before the alleged break-in.

Baird had replied that day to an earlier message from Lamarre-Condon but had not engaged with his suggestion of a catch-up.

Lamarre-Condon replied: “Haha I’ll take that as a no to doing the catch up then.” It was followed by a crying laughing emoji and smiley face emoji.

The court heard that Lamarre-Condon had sent a screenshot of that exchange to a friend the day after the alleged break-in.

Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC, put to the accused: “You took it as a no. There was no invitation at all [from Baird], was there?”

Lamarre-Condon replied: “There was.”

The accused said the screenshot “doesn’t reflect any FaceTime calls, this doesn’t reflect any social media messages”, and that he and Baird contacted each other on a number of platforms.

The accused rejected Hatfield’s suggestion that his account of the night of the alleged break-in was deliberately and completely false.

Lamarre-Condon has testified that he panicked and ran down the street when Baird woke to him attempting to take his phone outside to go through his messages. He had been holding Baird’s wallet because it was on top of his phone, he said, but did not intend to steal the items.

Baird did not recognise him and chased him down the street before reporting the alleged break-in and theft to police, the court has heard.

The accused has previously told the court that he put a bobby pin in the front door lock in case Baird woke up while he was trying to take his phone outside, to give the impression that someone else had been in the house.

“I wanted to see if Jesse was in a relationship [with another man] or not,” he said. “My mindset at the time was if Jesse was asleep, I could check his phone without him knowing across the road.

“If he was to wake up and come outside, he would see the bobby pin [and would] not be under the impression that it was me going through his phone.”

The court has heard the men had dinner six days after the alleged break-in, on August 23.

“He never asked me if it was me [who was in the house],” Lamarre-Condon said in his evidence last week.

“If Jesse did ask me, I was planning on telling him the truth but I also was not going to volunteer that information freely. I just didn’t want to have that awkward conversation with him because it was stupid, and I admit that it was stupid.”

He agreed that a friend had called him “Bobby P” in a joke referring to him putting the bobby pin in the door.

Justice Natalie Adams told the 15-person jury shortly after 12.30pm on Wednesday that “an issue has arisen unexpectedly” and they were being sent home for the day.

“These things happen in trials all the time, as you’ve probably learned by now, but it’s going to take more time to resolve than was initially anticipated,” she said.

She said the hearing would resume at 10am on Thursday when Lamarre-Condon would return to the witness box.

There is no dispute that Baird and Davies died of gunshot wounds from Lamarre-Condon’s police-issued pistol on February 19, 2024, and that the accused disposed of their bodies on February 22, 2024.

The defence case is that Lamarre-Condon acted in self-defence, and that Davies shot himself by accident after he entered the home to collect his belongings, dressed as an Uber Eats rider. Baird had ended their non-exclusive relationship in November 2023, the court has heard.

The accused has said he had his gun with him because he had contemplated taking his own life the previous night over work-related trauma.

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.

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