Mother hired Mazda SUV day before killings, prosecutor tells jury
Jurors in the NSW Supreme Court trial of former NSW police officer Beau Lamarre-Condon have been shown how dozens of CCTV cameras tracked his movements across Sydney well into the night after he allegedly murdered his former partner. Lamarre-Condon, 31, a former senior constable, has pleaded not guilty to the murders of Jesse Baird, 26, and Baird’s new partner, Luke Davies, 29, saying the two men were killed in two separate violent struggles.
CCTV played for the jury on Tuesday shows Lamarre-Condon arriving on foot at an Avis car rental depot at about 9pm on 19 February 2024, about 12 hours after the killings. A receipt from his Uber account shows he hired a rideshare from Kensington, where he left his personal vehicle, to the rental depot, prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC said. The accused can be seen driving out of the depot in a Toyota HiAce van, which forensics officers later discovered had significant blood staining.
GPS data from the van shows it was parked near the rear roller door of Baird’s house in Paddington at about 11pm, Hatfield said. It left 22 minutes later. Further footage of the van near Baird’s house after midnight on 20 February would be played later in the trial, the prosecutor said.
The various vehicles Lamarre-Condon used to get around Sydney and its surrounds while cleaning up the alleged crime scene and disposing of two bodies have been a key part of the prosecution case. CCTV from another car hire business on 18 February — the day before the alleged murders — shows the former officer’s mother hiring an SUV while her son waits outside. Hatfield previously told the jury that Lamarre-Condon had his mother hire the Mazda CX-5 because he intended to kill only Baird.
After being surprised by Davies making a triple-zero call, he shot the 29-year-old through a door and had to upsize his vehicle and make extra purchases to accommodate the extra body, the prosecution has alleged. Audio of the triple-zero call made from Davies’ phone was played to the jury on Friday. After muffled words and sounds, an operator can be heard saying, “Caller disconnected, no request”. “I heard a male say, ‘eff off’, call dropped out,” she says.
Lamarre-Condon’s barrister said his client made the call after killing Baird in self-defence, but it was cut short by a second struggle in which Davies died. The men’s bodies were left in surfboard bags in the share house’s courtyard overnight. Baird’s housemates took a photo of red liquid leaking from the bag when they discovered it later that day.
The purchase of the second surfboard bag after the deaths was a further indicator of the former officer adapting to the unexpected killing of Davies, the prosecution alleged. But Lamarre-Condon’s barrister says the lengths he went to in cleaning and disposing of the bodies showed his panic, rather than a murderous intent. The trial continues.