Beau Lamarre-Condon has said he is “guilty of manslaughter” but said shooting Jesse Baird wasn’t intentional, as he gave evidence in his double-murder trial. The former police officer is accused of fatally shooting Baird and his partner, Luke Davies, with his police service weapon in Baird’s Paddington home in Sydney on 19 February 2024. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one charge of aggravated break and enter.
Lamarre-Condon continued giving evidence at the New South Wales supreme court on Friday. He described the moment he shot Baird, at which point Baird’s mother, Helen, left the courtroom. And Jesse Baird was going to be sitting in my position today.” He told the jury about an occasion when he went to the Royal national park with a friend and shot his gun.
At this time he was thinking of taking his own life, and he wanted to test how loud his gun was, he told the jury. He says he fired it at a tree. The court also heard Lamarre-Condon signed out his firearm for a shift, three days before the alleged murders.
He had permission to do this, he told the court, and on the way to work had stopped at East Village shopping centre in Zetland to get his car washed. The former officer claimed in court that it was common for police to get coffee or stop off elsewhere on the way to work. He said he was thinking of stopping at Paddington to get his belongings from Baird before the other man got home from work, which would have put him in the “exact same” position he was in today as his firearm was still in his backpack.
On the day of the alleged murders, the officer said he wanted to retrieve his surfboard, clothes and Cartier ring from Baird’s home. He took his mother’s car, because he did not want to be recognised, and began driving up and down Baird’s street to look for his ute, the jury heard. Lamarre-Condon then parked the car in a spot left by Baird’s housemate, he told the jury.
He claimed he did not want to come into contact with Baird due to a risk the other man could take out an apprehended violence order against him as Baird had previously asked him to “please refrain from contacting me”. Lamarre-Condon told the court he had seen what he assumed to be someone’s delivery motorcycle: “As soon as I saw that I had an idea … I saw a hi-vis hooded jacket, waterproof long pants and gloves. The accused claimed Baird’s room was empty when he entered the home and that he looked through some storage boxes in the bedroom in search of his clothes but couldn’t find them.
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