After seven weeks of intense media coverage of the high-profile trial, the accused double murderer finally entered the witness box
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For seven weeks, Beau Lamarre-Condon watched his double murder trial from the corner of the courtroom.
In the squeaky, wood-panelled dock, the former police officer listened as experts, colleagues, and some of his closest friends gave evidence at Sydney’s historic King Street courthouse.
But on Thursday, he entered the witness box and the spotlight as his legal team began mounting his defence.
“My full name is Beaumont Lamarre-Condon,” he tells the court.
The 31-year-old is accused of fatally shooting Sydney couple Jesse Baird and 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.
Lamarre-Condon’s trial has already received significant attention, but the court’s public pews have been packed with prying members of the public since his evidence began.
He wastes no time telling the court about alleged homophobic abuse and confronting experiences while working for NSW police.
Lamarre-Condon worked as an openly gay officer in Surry Hills, where his supervisor would allegedly say things like: “I used to bash gay people in Jindabyne.”
He tells the court he transferred to the youth command division of the police to “escape” the officers who were “tormenting” him in Surry Hills.
Asked by his lawyer, John Stratton SC, about his relationship to Baird, Lamarre-Condon says they were friends “with a sexual relationship” in October and November 2022.
By December of that year they began going on romantic dates, Lamarre-Condon says.
“Jesse was very much like me” he tells the court.
The two stopped seeing each other for the first time in April 2023, the jury hears, after Lamarre-Condon said he was looking for something “serious”, while Baird said he was not ready for a relationship.
Lamarre-Condon claims they recommenced a sexual relationship in June 2023, which continued until November when the officer owned up to lying to Baird and blocking a man Baird was seeing from the TV presenter’s phone.
After this second break-up, Lamarre-Condon tells the court he had tampered with Baird’s ute after seeing scratches on the rim of the Tesla he owned.
“I know tit-for-tat isn’t right … I did go to the street where Jesse parked his car and did pour water into the fuel tank,” he says.
Months later, he went to Bali, where he says his mood was “great” until he learned that a former supervisor he “did not get on well with” could become his boss again.
His voice shakes when he tells the court about the bullying he experienced at work, and he picks up a tissue, wiping it against his face as he describes his suicidal thoughts.
When talking about attempts to take his own life, Lamarre-Condon says: “At the forefront of my mind was not traumatising other people.”
Baird and Davies’ loved ones are in the courtroom, watching the officer give his evidence.
Lamarre-Condon says he did not see Baird again until the day of the alleged murders.
During his second day of evidence, he tells the court he went to Baird’s Paddington home on 19 February 2024 to try retrieve his belongings, which included a Cartier ring and a $2000 “Casablanca” shirt.
That morning, he took his mother’s hire car – because he did not want to be recognised – drove up and down Baird’s street looking for the other man’s ute, and then parked in a spot left by the TV presenter’s housemate, saying he did not want to enter the home if anyone was there.
Lamarre-Condon tells the court he wanted to avoid Baird because he was worried an apprehended violence order would be placed on him. Baird had previously asked the officer to refrain from contacting him, and Lamarre-Condon was worried knocking on the door would be perceived as harassment.
When he got out of the car, he saw what he assumed was a delivery motorcycle with a helmet, hi-vis jacket and waterproof pants, and “had an idea”.
“I wish that I didn’t do this … But I had the thought process that if I was to put on this helmet and outfit, I could knock on Jesse’s door … without any verbal interaction with Jesse,” he says from the witness box.
“And if he wasn’t home, I could get the spare key and get my belongings.”
Lamarre-Condon had his police firearm with him because he had earlier signed it out for a work shift and could get “criminally charged” if he left it in his car, he tells the court.
Wearing the motorcycle helmet, the officer entered Baird’s bedroom and looked through some storage boxes, but couldn’t find his things.
He later says Baird had a knife and tape for sealing boxes, when he saw the officer.
“He started yelling, ‘we’re getting robbed’ … He couldn’t see it was me because the visor was down,” Lamarre-Condon tells the court.
Lamarre-Condon alleges Baird lunged at him with the knife and they began struggling as the officer yelled: “It’s Beau, calm the fuck down.”
But Baird had “too much adrenaline”.
This was when Lamarre-Condon entered “police mode” and aimed his gun at Baird’s right shoulder so he would drop the knife.
He fired the gun, but the two continued to struggle and Lamarre-Condon’s finger remained on the trigger when they tripped over a box and fell to the ground. This is when he “accidentally” discharged the firearm, the jury hears.
“It was my fault … I am guilty of manslaughter,” Lamarre-Condon tells the court.
“I must be truthful and I must take responsibility that I’m responsible for his death but it wasn’t intentional.”
Under cross-examination from crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC, Lamarre-Condon says he “110% stands by” the decision to take the first shot.
“If I didn’t do that, Jesse Baird would be sitting in this spot having to explain why he drove that knife into my throat,” he tells the court.
“You could be sitting here today interrogating Mr Baird.”
But Lamarre-Condon maintains Baird “did not deserve anything like that to happen to him”.
“He did nothing to me to deserve to be killed,” he tells the court.
After the first two shots, the jury hears Lamarre-Condon dialled triple zero to try to get help for Baird.
When he looked up, he saw Davies – who he didn’t recognise at the time – with the officer’s gun, Lamarre-Condon tells the court.
“I said, ‘Please don’t shoot me, I’m not here to shoot you. I’m not a threat; I’m not here to hurt you’,” he says.
“That’s when he raised the gun towards my head and said, ‘Fuck off’.”
A struggle ensued and, once again drawing on his police training, Lamarre-Condon says he attempted to re-direct the muzzle.
Asked by Stratton whether the gun went off, Lamarre-Condon says: “Yes, during this motion. And it got Luke.”
He begins telling the jury about the aftermath of the alleged murders, claiming he told a friend about shooting Baird and receiving help from another to dispose of the bodies.
Lamarre-Condon says he had a “moral dilemma” in the following days about whether to turn himself in, fearful he would be “signing [his] own death wish”.
“I genuinely believed if I was going to jail, I would be killed. Not because of who I was as a person, but because of the uniform I wear,” he tells the court.
He says he had to “trust in god”, handing himself in to police on 27 February 2024 and eventually helping investigators locate the bodies.
“I need to do the right thing for the families,” he says, his voice quivering again.
“Because everyone deserves to bury their loved ones.”
Lamarre-Condon’s evidence-in-chief concludes and the jury hears the first 15 minutes of cross-examination before court adjourns.
The trial before Justice Natalie Adams continues.
