Lamarre-Condon tells court Baird held a knife to his throat during struggle

Beau Lamarre-Condon has demonstrated in court how he claims he shot Jesse Baird, standing in the witness box of the New South Wales supreme court in Sydney on Monday to act out his movements for the jury.

The former police officer is accused of fatally shooting Baird and Baird’s partner, Luke Davies, with his police service weapon in Baird’s Paddington home in Sydney on 19 February 2024. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one charge of aggravated break and enter. Lamarre-Condon handed himself in to police on 23 February 2024.

Giving evidence under cross-examination on Monday, Lamarre-Condon reiterated his claim that Baird was holding a knife while the two struggled inside the house. He told the court the knife was next to his throat, which led him to push Baird back with his right arm.

Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield asked Lamarre-Condon to stand up and demonstrate, telling the accused: “Put your rosary beads down while you do that.” Lamarre-Condon reenacted the struggle for the jury as Hatfield described his movements.

Hatfield told the jury that the accused, with his left arm out at shoulder height, “demonstrated pushing Jesse Baird’s right hand with the knife away from him, so that the left arm was fully extended”. Lamarre-Condon then “gestured pulling the pistol around the area around his belt … then held it up at around chest or shoulder height and demonstrated with a bent elbow firing a shot towards the right shoulder of Jesse Baird”, the prosecutor said.

Lamarre-Condon told the court he “discharged a shot” and said he was aiming towards Baird’s right shoulder. “My arm did extend … I don’t know to what extent … there was constant movement in this struggle,” the accused told the court. “That’s as clear as I can be. This happened very, very quick.”

Hatfield said Lamarre-Condon told the court last week that he was pinned by Baird during the struggle, and asked whether the former officer was now suggesting “something different” by saying there was constant movement. Lamarre-Condon said he was pinned directly before he pushed back and fired the shot, telling the court there was “constant movement” before that.

During his evidence-in-chief last week, Lamarre-Condon stood by his decision to fire the first shot but claimed the second bullet was fired “accidentally”. On Monday he reiterated that he did not intend to fire the second shot at Baird.

Asked what Baird and Davies were wearing, Lamarre-Condon told the court both men were wearing only underwear and were not wearing shoes.

The trial, before Justice Natalie Adams, continues.