Jury in ex-police officer's double murder trial visits crime scene

Jurors in the double murder trial of Beau Lamarre-Condon have visited the Sydney home where the former police officer is alleged to have shot Jesse Baird and Luke Davies.

The 15 jurors arrived at the terrace on Brown Street, Paddington, shortly after 10:30am on Friday after travelling by bus from the King Street Courthouse.

Part of the street was closed off for the jury view.

Jurors were joined by the judge, Justice Natalie Adams, the prosecution team, including Crown Prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC, and Mr Lamarre-Condon's lawyers, including defence barrister John Stratton SC.

A witness who had previously given evidence about what police found in the terrace soon after the alleged murders, Senior Sergeant Bronwyn Lansley, was also present. Mr Lamarre-Condon did not attend.

The 31-year-old has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one of aggravated break and enter. His lawyers will argue self-defence.

He is alleged to have used his police pistol to shoot Mr Baird, a television presenter, and Mr Davies, Mr Baird's new boyfriend and a Qantas flight attendant, on February 19, 2024, after Mr Baird's two housemates had left for work.

Senior Sergeant Lansley, a specialist crime scene officer, has previously given evidence at the trial, during which, the court was shown a floor plan of the property and dozens of photographs from inside.

Why scene visit is taking place

Ahead of the view, Justice Adams told the jury that the point of the visit was about "perspective and context".

"It's not always the same seeing it in the photograph, as seeing the actual premises," she said on Thursday afternoon.

Jurors have this week seen a 3D reconstruction video of the property showing the potential angles from which the gun could have been fired, according to evidence given by a ballistics expert from NSW Police.

The crime scene photographs shown to jurors included a fired cartridge case found on top of a kitchen cabinet, damage to a wall in the same room, and damage consistent with a bullet hole on the floor.

In a sub-floor area under the kitchen, police recovered a bullet.

Investigators belatedly discovered another hole in the door of the ground-floor bedroom in July this year, which had previously been covered by a stick-on hook.

The Crown's case is that Mr Lamarre-Condon developed an obsessive and jealous infatuation with Mr Baird after the two were romantically involved from 2022 into parts of 2023, a relationship Mr Baird considered casual.

Mr Baird ended the relationship in November 2023 after discovering Mr Lamarre-Condon had interfered with his phone by blocking contacts, and had posted an Instagram story falsely suggesting he had sent Mr Lamarre-Condon flowers while in Melbourne.

The Crown alleges the accused dressed as an Uber Eats delivery driver and was wearing a helmet as he entered the Brown Street share house and shot Mr Baird twice in the kitchen, describing the second shot as an "execution-style" shot which went through the floor.

The prosecutor previously told jurors Mr Davies attempted to call Triple Zero (000) from the bedroom, and he was allegedly shot through the door by Mr Lamarre-Condon to eliminate a witness to Mr Baird's alleged murder.

Mr Lamarre-Condon's defence lawyers have indicated their case will be that Mr Baird and Mr Davies died during two separate struggles with the pistol.

They argue that he panicked afterwards and cleaned the home because he knew how the situation would be perceived.

Multiple areas of blood staining in the home were documented, tested, and confirmed via DNA results to be that of Mr Baird and Mr Davies.

Forensic evidence gathered from the scene

The Crown alleges Mr Lamarre-Condon cleaned the property after the shootings and his housemates did not realise anything was amiss, a chemical called luminol was used to show a blue glow indicating the possible presence of blood on the floor, including large areas in the bedroom.

Under the floor, bloodstaining was discovered on timber beams and on the ground beneath the kitchen and bedroom, after police looked in the sub-floor area.

Mr Baird's two housemates, who were expecting him to move out that week, have recalled seeing two surfboard bags left in the courtyard with a red liquid underneath, which one housemate suspected was rusted water.

It is alleged Mr Lamarre-Condon stored the men's bodies in those bags before returning later to move them using a hired van.

The bodies were ultimately found near a monastery in rural Bungonia, south of Sydney, eight days after the deaths.

Mr Lamarre-Condon is alleged to have unsuccessfully attempted to sink the bodies in a dam at a farm in the area using cement and weights, before returning to relocate them.

The jury has heard he had previously been to that property, which was owned by the family of a man he met on a dating app, in November 2023 after being invited for a weekend away.

The view of the Brown Street terrace marks the end of the fourth week of the trial, which has an estimated duration of three months.