In the days after he is alleged to have shot dead his former partner and the man’s new boyfriend, police officer Beau Lamarre-Condon spent time shopping, eating sushi and having surgery.
The accused double-murderer’s busy schedule in the hours and days after he allegedly murdered TV presenter Jess Baird and his new partner Luke Davies has been laid bare during the fifth week of his trial before a jury in the NSW Supreme Court.
Disguised as an Uber Eats rider, Mr Lamarre-Condon entered the inner-city Sydney home of Mr Baird on the morning of February 19, 2024.
Inside, the former police officer claims his police pistol went off twice and fatally wounded Mr Baird, while the man’s new partner, Qantas host Mr Davies, fatally shot himself during a second struggle.
Prosecutors in turn allege Mr Lamarre-Condon shot Mr Baird “execution-style” in the head before shooting Mr Davies through a bedroom door as he tried to call for help.
Mr Lamarre-Condon has pleaded not guilty to the couple’s murders and is arguing self-defence.
Two days before the alleged murders, Mr Lamarre-Condon bought a surfboard bag, with CCTV footage played to the jury appearing to show the then-officer sizing up the bag against a close friend who cannot be identified for legal reasons.
The man told the jury that Mr Lamarre-Condon told him “I’ve gotta get my surfboard back from Jesse” and asked him to stand up to it so he could measure the size before saying “Oh I’ll get the bigger one”.
It is alleged that about an hour after the couple died on February 19, Mr Lamarre-Condon made a gun gesture with his hand and said “pew pew” while telling the same friend that he shot a person in the head and another through a door, a court was told.
He then purchased a second surfboard bag and is spotted on CCTV going to Bunnings and returning to Mr Baird’s home through the day, the jury was told.
He is accused of stuffing the couple’s bodies in surfboard bags, wrapping them in tarp, and only moving them late that evening before returning to the home again to wash blood from the backyard, the jury was told.
The next day, he again goes to Bunnings and back to Mr Baird’s home, with the jury told messages were sent from the TV presenter’s phone to his friends and flatmates about a road trip to Perth.
He goes for a sushi dinner and stroll along the promenade in Cronulla with his friend that evening, with the man telling the jury Mr Lamarre-Condon denied that one of the people he said he’d killed was Mr Baird and asked if he would “care if it was a pedophile” before joking that he “didn’t realise bodies would be heavy”.
Mr Lamarre-Condon also mentioned needing to find a skip bin to throw out bloodied clothes, with CCTV capturing the moment his friend inspects a skip bin at Club Cronulla on their drive back from the dinner.
Prosecutors allege Mr Lamarre-Condon then dropped the man home before returning to the bin and dumping the couple’s bloodied belongings, with the jury told the items were found by the venue’s greenkeeper the next morning on February 21.
Around the same time that morning, Mr Lamarre-Condon underwent a brief surgery at St Vincent’s Hospital, though it remains unclear what it was for.
He picked up another friend, known for legal reasons as Elizabeth Kennedy, later that afternoon and took her for a drive to Goulburn Bunnings and Cella Farm in Bungonia, with prosecutors alleging he tried to sink the couple’s bodies in a dam at the farm.
Ms Kennedy told the jury the van was “freezing” and Mr Lamarre-Condon would not let her put the windows up or turn the aircon off, and asked her to turn her phone off.
She says Mr Lamarre-Condon left her at the farm gate and she never saw the couple’s bodies nor was given any explanation for the drive, telling the jury he told her he wanted a Lipton iced tea on the drive back because he needed the caffeine as he was “gonna be up all night”.
“I did ask why he had to come back, and he said, ‘Don’t worry, I can’t tell you … I don’t want to involve you’,” she said.
Cop watched ex have sex, made fake dating profiles: court
Claims of Mr Lamarre-Condon’s “obsessive and jealous infatuation” with Mr Baird, and how he allegedly stalked and monitored the TV presenter for nearly a year before he is accused of killing him, was also heard in court.
They briefly dated from late 2022 to April 2023, and then again in September to November that year, with the jury told that Mr Baird was not looking for anything serious as he had recently got out of a long-term relationship.
Ms Kennedy said he told her he took photos of Mr Baird having sex with another man through his window twice, the jury was told.
She also claimed he made fake dating profiles of Mr Baird and would try to “scare” other men off, at one stage sending a man from Grindr to Mr Baird’s home “pretending to be Jesse” while he watched from across the street.
Cop ‘satisfied’, ‘laughing’ after alleged act to TV presenter’s car
On another occasion, Mr Lamarre-Condon allegedly told her he had put water in Mr Baird’s fuel tank, and that the TV presenter’s sister had made an Instagram post about the car breaking down.
“He watched that (Instagram) story from a fake account, and he told me about it — he was laughing,” Ms Kennedy said.
“He felt satisfied, like he’d ruined his trip.”
Mr Baird’s mother, Helen, earlier said her son’s car broke down in December 2023 as water had been poured into the tank, with other trial witnesses telling the jury how Mr Lamarre-Condon had asked what would happen if diesel was put into a petrol car and that he said he “knew how to get rid of Jesse’s car” and “knew what (police) would look for”.
Alleged killer ‘excited’ after breaking into ex’s home: court
The former officer is accused of breaking into Mr Baird’s home several times, at one stage telling Ms Kennedy he did something “crazy” before saying he’d gone into Mr Baird’s home while he was asleep with a key he had got cut.
He allegedly deleted photos on Mr Baird’s phone, turned off his alarms, and turned his Snapchat location on so he could “track” him.
“(He was) excited – like happy, like he’d gotten away with it,” Ms Kennedy told the jury.
The jury was told the second time Mr Lamarre-Condon is accused of breaking into the home, Mr Baird woke up and chased him out of the house, with Ms Kennedy claiming he told her “he would have had to assault” the TV presenter if he caught up with him.
Mr Lamarre-Condon allegedly put a bobby pin in Mr Baird’s front door and took his wallet to make it look like a regular robbery, and “not that he was just after the phone”.
When Mr Baird later told Mr Lamarre-Condon that someone had broken into his home, Mr Lamarre-Condon was allegedly “pleased with himself” and told Ms Kennedy: “Thank God – he didn’t think it was me.”
Ms Kennedy told the jury Mr Lamarre-Condon knew what time the TV presenter would leave the gym and go shopping, and “would plan to be in the area at that time”.
The trial continues.