Ballistics comparison places muzzle 10 to 20 centimeters from Luke Davies

The New South Wales Supreme Court jury in the murder trial of Beau Lamarre-Condon, accused of shooting the Sydney couple with his police service weapon, viewed a 3D computer-generated reconstruction of the Paddington terrace where Jesse Baird and Luke Davies were allegedly shot dead on February 19, 2024. The animated video, played to jurors on Wednesday, outlined the version of events the prosecution alleges unfolded inside the home and traced the path Lamarre-Condon is alleged to have taken through the residence. The reconstruction included photographs of bullet holes and marks, and highlighted the potential trajectory of the bullets.

Lamarre-Condon, 31, has been accused of shooting the Sydney couple 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. The prosecution has told the court that Lamarre-Condon shot Baird twice in the kitchen before shooting Davies through a bedroom door. The defense has argued the couple were accidentally shot in two separate struggles and that Lamarre-Condon acted in self-defence.

Before the video was shown to the jury, Justice Natalie Adams told the panel it was the crown’s case that Baird was shot at close range, while the defense argued he was shot from further away. The judge warned that the kitchen in the reconstruction was not shown to scale and that not all the evidence relevant to the angle or distance of the shot to Baird’s head had been adduced.

The prosecution’s account of Davies’s death centered on a bedroom door. NSW police firearms examiner Lucas Van Der Walt testified that he was more certain of the trajectory of the bullet that went through the door because it had passed through 35-millimeter-thick wood. Van Der Walt told the jury that “stippling” — the pattern made by gun shot propellant particles — had been found on the door around a bullet hole that the prosecution alleged had been covered with putty and a plastic hook.

The closer a target is to a barrel, the smaller the spread pattern would be, Van Der Walt said. The pattern “is going to pepper itself into that softer surface — in this case a painted door,” he told the jury.

The court was shown a video of police taking the door from Baird’s bedroom and shooting it with the same gun and ammunition that was allegedly used by Lamarre-Condon. Pictures of the original and test bullet holes were compared and shown to the jury. Van Der Walt said there was a “very similar spread pattern of the propellant particles impacting with the paint and the wood in the door.” He suggested the muzzle of the firearm was 10 to 20 centimeters from Davies when it was discharged.

On the side of the door the bullet would have exited, Van Der Walt noted the splintering looked more opaque in the original hole, but he said that was because wood putty had been used to fill the hole.

Asked why no other bullet marks or bullets were found in the room, the expert said the projectile could have struck a hypothetical pillow, jacket or similar item. “If that bullet continued and penetrated any of these surfaces and that object was removed and discarded, we’ll never find that bullet,” he told the jury. A bullet that slowed enough to only lightly impact a surface “might leave behind a scuff mark that’s not convincing that it’s a bullet impacting — it might look like normal wear and tear,” he added.

Bullets fired in this way would land on the ground, he said, and given that the scene had been cleaned extensively, a casing could have been picked up by cleaners.

The trial before Justice Adams continues.