Beau Lamarre-Condon promised he “wasn’t doing anything illegal” when he asked a fellow officer whether hire cars and switched-off phones could be tracked, weeks before allegedly murdering two men, a court has heard. Lamarre-Condon, 31, has been accused of fatally shooting Baird and his partner Luke Davies with his police service weapon in Baird’s Paddington home on 19 February 2024. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one charge of aggravated break and enter.
About three weeks before the alleged crime, Lamarre-Condon told his friend and fellow senior constable, Alex Scobie, he wanted to ask her a “work question”, the New South Wales supreme court heard. On 27 January 2024, he drove to her home in a hire car and spent time with her before posing a question about call and mobile internet records, Scobie said. He then asked whether hire cars could be tracked, before saying, “Oh don’t freak out, I’m just asking,” Scobie said.
Earlier on Thursday, the jury heard from Baird’s housemate, known to the court under the pseudonym Belinda Smith. She had seen the bags containing the dead bodies when she took a photo of oozing surfboard covers in their back courtyard on the evening of the alleged murders, without realising the bodies were inside. On 19 February 2024, she returned home from work and went out to the courtyard to check on her washing as it had been raining heavily that day.
There, she saw “two surfboard bags with a blue tarp over the top of them and red liquid”, she told the trial. Smith took a photo of the liquid and sent it to their other housemate, known to the court under the pseudonym Sarah King. The photo was shown to the jury on Thursday.
She believed the liquid was “rusted water from the outdoor furniture”. Asked by crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC if Baird had ever spoken to her about surfing or if she had seen a surfboard in their house, she confirmed she had not. In early 2024, relations had soured between Baird and his two housemates after they asked him to move out so one of their friends could take his spot.
Baird eventually agreed and told their house group chat he would be moving out on 20 February 2024. But when Smith left for work on the morning of the 20th and saw Baird’s belongings had not been packed up, Smith sent a message to King that read: “I’m genuinely scared this dude isn’t moving out today.” A message was then sent from Baird’s phone to their housemate group chat claiming he had hired someone to collect his things and that he “might be doing a road trip to Perth with my mates”. Smith responded she was “confused” and asked him to have his room emptied because cleaners would be arriving the following day.
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