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.
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