The murder trial of former NSW Police officer Beau Lamarre-Condon has already delivered a series of shocking allegations, emotional witness testimony and disturbing claims about the months leading up to the deaths of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies.
Now, in its second week, the NSW Supreme Court trial aims to further examine whether Lamarre-Condon, 31, killed his ex-partner Jesse, 26, and his new partner Luke, 29, at their Paddington home on February 19, 2024 with his service pistol.
Lamarre-Condon has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder, and his defence is arguing that he acted in self-defence during two separate struggles with the gun.
“The reason for the self-defence claim will become more apparent as the trial progresses,” Criminal psychologist Tim Watson-Munro tells Woman’s Day.
Here are the five most shocking moments from the trial so far:
1. ‘WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU KILLED SOMEONE?’
A close friend of Lamarre-Condon, Georgia Cook, took to the stand this week to give evidence in the trial. In the months leading up to Jesse and Luke’s death, Lamarre-Condon met up for dinner with Georgia, who told the court the accused was “infatuated” with Jesse during their brief relationship.
During this dinner in May 2023, he allegedly asked her what she would do if he told her he’d killed someone, and what she would do if he killed someone – which she responded that he had no idea.
“After I’d killed them I would take their stuff, I would put it in a dumpster, and I would take their bodies in bushland where nobody would ever find them,” Georgia said Lamarre-Condon told her while she was in the witness box on Monday morning.
“I didn’t know whether to believe anything I’d heard, or whether it was true,” she said in court.
“Hearing a person of power in the police force say that… it felt like I didn’t have anywhere to go and I was really scared by what I had heard.”
After the alleged murders, Lamarre-Condon is accused of placing Jesse and Luke’s bodies into surfboard bags and attempted to dump them in a dam near Goulburn before leaving them near a monastery 20km away.
He is also accused of dumping Jesse and Luke’s blood-covered possessions in a skip bin in Cronulla.
2. THE DISGUISE
On the morning of the alleged murders, Lamarre-Condon was captured on CCTV footage – which was shown in court – near Jesse’s home disguised as an Uber Eats courier.
In their opening address, Lamarre-Condon’s lawyer John Stratton argued that he’d gone to Jesse’s home to retrieve his things after their final break-up in November 2023 and disguised himself as an Uber Eats courier in case someone was home.
Once inside the home, Stratton told the court Lamarre-Condon was surprised to see Jesse was home before the two struggles with the gun began.
The prosecution alleges Lamarre-Condon shot Jesse twice in the kitchen before killing Luke – who was hiding in a bedroom and calling triple zero – to ensure there were no witnesses.
3. THE SURFBOARD BAGS
On February 17, 2024, Lamarre-Condon was seen on CCTV – which was shown to the court – shopping for surfboard bags at a sporting goods store in Tempe with a friend.
The crown alleges Lamarre-Condon asked the friend whether he would fit inside the bag.
The Crown say that when the friend replied no, Lamarre-Condon then said “I’ll grab this one instead, it should be big enough.”
Two days later, the Crown alleges this bag was used to hide Jesse’s body after the shooting, while Lamarre-Condon bought a second bag that morning from the same store to hide Luke’s body.
The jury has previously heard that eight days after Jesse and Luke were killed, both Jesse and Luke’s remains were found in the bags under a fence on a rural property near Bungonia – about 160km south-west of their home in Paddington.
4. LAMARRE-CONDON’S MUM
The night before Jesse and Luke’s death, Lamarre-Condon and his mother rented a SUV under her name. The Crown alleged Lamarre-Condon drove this vehicle to Paddington in the early hours of the following morning.
The Crown also alleged that Lamarre-Condon hired a van in his own name on the night of February 19, which was allegedly used to transport Jesse and Luke’s bodies to Bungonia – before he abandoned it in Grays Point on the morning of February 23, 2024, shortly before he surrendered to police at Bondi.
5. ‘GUILT-TRIPPING’ ON INSTAGRAM
During the first week of the trial, the Crown alleged that Jesse decided to end his relationship with Lamarre-Condon after the accused shared a picture of a bouquet of flowers he claimed came from Jesse to his “close friends” story on Instagram.
“When he’s in Melbourne but still sends you these,” the image was captioned.
A former colleague of Lamarre-Condon, Rubina Shrestha told the court he used the “close friends” function to target perceived romantic rivals and give off the impression that Jesse was unavailable.
It is also alleged that Lamarre-Condon also deleted messages from other men in Jesse’s phone just prior to their break-up.
“There have been a number of examples that have been brought to my attention since we met, that show you’ve acted in a way that’s completely inappropriate,” Jesse told Lamarre-Condon in a message sent after the Instagram story was posted, which was shown to the jury.
“I’m not going to stand for it anymore. I think it’s best if we focus on ourselves and stop seeing each other. I’ve thought long and hard about this and know that it’s the right decision for me. I would appreciate it if you could refrain from contacting me.”
A close friend of Lamarre-Condon, Shae Davison, told the court he used her phone in the days after Jesse ended their relationship to send him a 1600-word message claiming he had a cancerous tumour in his shoulder, and the medication he was prescribed was messing with his hormones.
“He put a lot of pressure on me… he was so upset, he wore me down.” Shae testified.
“It felt like guilt-tripping to me, and using our friendship to get what he wanted out of that.”
‘A GREAT TRAGEDY’
The trial, which is now entering its second week, is expected to run for three months.
When asked whether Lamarre-Condon will testify, Tim says it’s hard to say.
“In general, it’s always a risky strategy to put the accused person in the witness box because they’re under oath and will have to answer questions put to them by the defence and the Crown – and that has the potential to open a Pandora’s box,” he says.
For Tim, who has worked with over 20,000 clients and given expert evidence in court more than 3,000 times as a criminal psychologist, he says the case is heartbreaking for Jesse and Luke’s loved ones.
“It’s a great tragedy,” he says. “For two innocent people to have died, it’s just heartbreaking.”
