A former police officer claims he killed two men in self-defence and began cleaning up the crime scene because he “panicked”, a Sydney court has heard.
Beau Lamarre-Condon, 31, has been accused of fatally shooting 26-year-old Jesse Baird and his partner, Luke Davies, 29, with a police service weapon at Baird’s Paddington home on 19 February 2024.
The prosecution told the supreme court on Monday that Lamarre-Condon had become infatuated and obsessed with Baird and began planning his murder in early 2024.
Lamarre-Condon’s defence lawyer, John Stratton SC, told the court on Tuesday that the policeman had been acting in “self-defence”.
Disguised as an Uber Eats driver, Lamarre-Condon had entered the home in a motorcycle helmet, so he would not be recognised while picking up his belongings, Stratton said. He had a key he was given by Baird, the jury was told.
But because Baird did not recognise Lamarre-Condon, a struggle ensued during which the 26-year-old was killed, the defence barrister told the jury.
The officer’s gun was then flung across the room and Davies picked it up, Stratton told the court. Lamarre-Condon then grabbed Davies by the arm and pushed the gun towards him.
In the struggle that followed, Davies pulled the trigger and shot himself, the court was told.
“It’s his case that what he did was self-defence,” Stratton said. “[He was] understandably panicked. He was a police officer and he knew this looked bad.”
Lamarre-Condon has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one charge of aggravated break and enter.
Earlier on Tuesday, crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC outlined how Lamarre-Condon allegedly murdered the two men and concealed their bodies, as the trial entered its second day.
The prosecution alleged Lamarre-Condon entered Baird’s house with a stolen key before shooting him twice and shooting Davies through a bedroom door.
Audio of the three shots was played to the courtroom: the first two coming in quick succession before the third, 51 seconds later. Baird and Davies’ loved ones wiped away tears as they listened in court.
The crown alleges that after the murders, Lamarre-Condon immediately began to clean up the crime scene and moved the bodies. He told a friend he had killed two people, the court heard.
According to Hatfield, when the friend asked if he was joking, Lamarre-Condon responded: “I wish I was, I don’t feel like it was me … I feel like I need some help, this job has fucked me up.”
Asked how he did it, Lamarre-Condon allegedly said “with a gun” and made a hand gesture and said “pew pew”.
The friend refused to help and Lamarre-Condon later bought a second surfboard bag – days after he had bought the first, the jury was told.
He returned to Baird’s home that afternoon before one of Baird’s housemates came home.
“She did notice the two surfboard bags which, at this stage, were in the back courtyard,” Hatfield told the court.
“She will tell you what she thought was rust [was] seeping out from the bags. She took a photo and sent it to her housemate but didn’t realise at the time that the bags contained two bodies.”
A photo of outdoor furniture with a pool of blood was shown to the court on Tuesday.
Lamarre-Condon would eventually buy a bag of quick set concrete and weights, and take the bags to a dam near Goulburn, the crown prosecutor said.
Lamarre-Condon mixed the concrete and put it into the bags with the weights in an unsuccessful attempt to make the bodies sink, Hatfield said.
He later moved the bodies to a fence line near a monastery in Bungonia where they were found eight days later, the jury was told.
On Monday, Hatfield said Lamarre-Condon had developed an “infatuation and obsession” with Baird which manifested in compulsive behaviour that escalated after Baird ended their brief relationship.
The trial before justice Natalie Adams continues.
