Former NSW police officer has pleaded not guilty to murdering Jesse Baird and Luke Davies before concealing bodies in bags bought from sports store
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Beau Lamarre-Condon was seen sizing up a surfboard bag used to dispose of a victim days before the police officer murdered two men, prosectors have alleged in a Sydney court, with chilling CCTV footage shown to the jury.
Months earlier, the 31-year-old had asked a friend over a video call to help him obtain something, and then formed a gun gesture with his hand, the NSW supreme court trial heard on Thursday.
Lamarre-Condon has been accused of fatally shooting Sydney couple Jesse Baird, 26, and Luke Davies, 29, with his police service weapon at Baird’s Paddington home on 19 February 2024.
The 31-year-old earlier this week pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one charge of aggravated break and enter.
CCTV footage taken from Miranda Westfield on 17 February was played to the NSW supreme court trial on Thursday showing Lamarre-Condon’s movements before the alleged murders.
In the compilation, Lamarre-Condon’s grey Tesla is seen passing by the shopping centre before the police officer and a friend enter a Decathlon store.
The pair walk straight to the surfboard bag section, where Lamarre-Condon runs his hands across the options before picking out a cover.
He holds it up and appears to measure it against his friend’s height as the other man stands straight. The bag clears his friend’s head by a few centimetres.
Watching from the pews of the Sydney courtroom, Davies and Baird’s family shook their heads as the footage was played.
During the prosecution’s openings on Monday, crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC alleged Lamarre-Condon asked his friend whether he would fit in the bag.
In the footage, Lamarre-Condon takes the bag to the cashier and pays for it using $90 in cash, according to receipts shown to the court.
Two days later, the police officer would allegedly shoot the two men and place Baird in the bag bought from the Westfield, the prosecution alleged.
Lamarre-Condon returned to the same store shortly after the shooting to buy a second surfboard bag to conceal Davies’ body, Hatfield said.
More than 14,000 hours of CCTV footage was obtained from 200 locations during the police investigation, the detective in charge, Sasha Pinazza, told the court.
Other videos played to the jury on Thursday showed Lamarre-Condon collecting the alleged murder weapon from a police gun locker the day before the shootings, and his mother at a car rental business picking up the vehicle he would use to drive to Baird’s house.
In footage from the morning of the alleged crime, the policeman is seen walking in the vicinity of Baird’s home before CCTV from a neighbouring house captures the sound of three gunshots.
The audio had been played during the crown’s opening remarks on Monday. But as the recording was again heard in the court room, the couple’s friends and family flinched at the sounds of the bangs.
The prosecution has told the jury that Lamarre-Condon developed an “infatuation and obsession” with Baird that manifested in compulsive behaviour during their brief relationship.
During his opening statement, Hatfield said Lamarre-Condon had misused his authority as a police officer after CCTV footage of Baird with another man at the Royal hotel in Paddington in May 2023 was allegedly found on Lamarre-Condon’s personal devices. That video was played to the jury on Wednesday and released to the media on Thursday.
His behaviour allegedly escalated after the younger man broke things off for the last time in November 2023.
An old friend of Lamarre-Condon, who used the pseudonym Alex Carrol in court, told the jury the accused called her on 23 November 2023.
They began a call before Lamarre-Condon said: “Can I ask you for something? But I can’t ask you over the phone – can we FaceTime?”
He then asked for a favour from the father of her children, referred to in court as Robert Thomas.
Carrol told the court Lamarre-Condon formed his hand into a gun and mouthed the words “can Robert get me a gun?”
She and her sister, who could see the screen, looked at each other in shock. Carrol then asked Lamarre-Condon: “Why would you ask for a gun, you’re in the police?” He shrugged off the question, the court heard.
It’s alleged Lamarre-Condon began planning to murder Baird in early 2024.
The defence team has claimed the police officer was acting in self-defence after he disguised himself as an Uber Eats driver and entered Baird’s home on the day of the shootings.
The trial before justice Natalie Adams continues.
