00:00:02
Speaker 1: Today's biggest news from The Australian, I'm Claire Harvey with the front's afternoon headlines. Former police officer Beau Lamar Condon says he accidentally shot his former lover, Jessie Baird, and then struggled with Baird's boyfriend, Luke Davies, who fatally shot himself in the melee. Lamar Condon, 31, has pleaded not guilty to murdering his former boyfriend, Jessie Baird, and Baird's new partner, Luke Davies. For the first time, a jury in the NSW Supreme Court has heard Lamar Condon's version of what happened on 19 February 2024 when the two men died at Baird's home in Sydney's Paddington. A barrister for Lamar Condon, John Stratton SC, told the jury Lamar Condon is not guilty of the murder of Baird or his new partner, Luke Davies. Stratton told the jury Lamar Condon and Baird had a breakup, which left Lamar Condon very upset, but that Lamar Condon had never threatened to harm Jesse Baird. We've used a voice actor to bring you John Stratton's words.
00:01:07
Speaker 2: The case for the accused is that he admits entering the house where Jesse Baird was living, that is 60 Brown Street, Paddington, on the 19th of February 2024. His reason was that he wanted to recover some of his belongings, including some jewellery which he had left in the house, without having to go through the embarrassment of having a further meeting with Jesse Baird when he turned up at the door. He disguised himself on our case because he in fact was expecting that there would be no one home. He waited until the other two flatmates were not home and he wore a helmet so he could masquerade as being a delivery person in case anyone unexpected opened the door. When there was no answer, he let himself into the house. He had a gun with him because he was a police officer, and his training was that he was not allowed to leave a gun unminded in a car where it might be stolen. Once in the house, he was surprised by Jesse Baird, who understandably did not recognise him because he was still wearing the motorbike helmet. The two men struggled. The gun went off twice, wounding Jesse Baird fatally. The gun was flung into the lounge room. The accused picked up a mobile phone and began ringing triple O. The accused started walking towards the front door and in the hallway encountered a second male who turned out to be Mr Davies. The accused, Bolimar Condon, grabbed Mr Davies by the arm and pushed the gun away from himself and towards Mr Davies. And in the struggle which followed, Mr Davies pulled the trigger and fatally shot himself.
00:02:39
Speaker 1: Stratton also said Luke Davies was holding a knife when he encountered Lamar Condon. Earlier on Tuesday, the Crown concluded its opening address to the jury, telling them a triple-O call from the phone of murder victim Luke Davies recorded the last seconds of his life before he was murdered. The Crown says Lamar Condon posed as an Uber Eats delivery man and entered Baird's home in Paddington in Sydney's inner east in February 2024, carrying his loaded police Glock pistol. Prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC told the jury Lamar Condon entered the house and shot Jesse Baird twice in the kitchen, first through the face and then quote execution style four seconds later as he lay on the floor. Hatfield said Luke Davies then called triple O from a bedroom and could be heard saying get out, fuck off in muffled audio of the call before a gunshot is heard. The Crown says that was Lamar Condon shooting Davies through the bedroom door as the men struggled for control of the door handle. Davies allegedly had a gunshot wound in his eye socket and an exit wound at the back of his skull. Triple O tried to return the call but it went straight to voicemail, Hatfield said. Hatfield told the jury a bullet hole in the bedroom door was initially missed in the first police search because it had been covered by putty, paint and a stick-on hook and felt pad. Lamar Condon listened to this evidence, calmly making notes on documents in the dock where he is sitting for the duration of this three-month trial. The Crown alleges Lamar Condon, driven by obsessive jealousy, spent the next five days trying to cover up his crime, cleaning the crime scene and then trying to dispose of the men's bodies in a dam. Hatfield said, quote, having killed the two men, the evidence will be that the accused immediately engaged in a deliberate and calculated series of actions to cover up their deaths and indeed to pretend they were still alive. On Monday, Hatfield told the jury Lamar Condon had tried to plead guilty to the manslaughter of Jesse Baird, but that plea was rejected by the Crown, which is pushing for a double murder conviction. Hatfield told the jury on Tuesday his actions demonstrate that this was a deliberate murder, not a panicked or accidental shooting. He said Lamar Condon appeared to have dragged Jesse Baird's body through the house to the front bedroom, where his blood dripped through to the cavity below the room and was later found by forensic officers searching for evidence in the house, which Lamar Condon had cleaned. Professional cleaners had also come through the house between the murders and the police search. hampering the hunt for clues. Hatfield told the jury that Lamar Condon later on the same day told a friend he had killed two people and said his police job had, quote, fucked me up. Lamar Condon allegedly told the friend he shot one person, then shot a second person through a door. He allegedly said, I didn't want to have to shoot the second person, but I couldn't take the risk and have witnesses. Hatfield showed the jury a photograph of Lamar Condon at a decathlon sports store in Miranda where he bought a second surfboard bag, allegedly to conceal the body of Luke Davies. He then went to Bunnings and bought equipment including cable ties, bleach, garbage bags, a mop and a bucket before returning to the house to clean the scene. Lamar Condon then allegedly moved Baird's possessions out of the house, used Baird's phone to tell his friends he was moving out and going on a road trip to Perth disposed of the men's bloody clothes in a skip and bought concrete and weights in order to sink the bodies in a dam. He allegedly collected a female friend and drove to a farm near Goulburn, where he tried unsuccessfully to sink the bodies. He then allegedly dumped the bodies, still in surfboard bags, at a nearby property. It was a chance discovery of the items in the skip that triggered a police investigation. Lamar Condon later handed himself in to police. but first called a police helpline to claim he had been psychologically injured and traumatised by his work as a police officer, including falsely claiming he was on medication for schizophrenia, according to The Crown. The Crown says there's no evidence that he was suffering mental illness and should not be considered to have reduced culpability for the murders. The Crown also says Lamar Condon told a false story to police that a female friend had suggested disposing of the body's comparing the situation to the Taylor Swift song, Nobody No Crime. We've got live coverage of that case right now at theaustralian.com.au. And come back to the front first thing in the morning for our look at data centres and whether our energy grid can actually cope with the huge amount of power they're going to suck out of the grid. That's right here, Wednesday morning.
Speaker 1: Today's biggest news from The Australian, I'm Claire Harvey with the front's afternoon headlines. Former police officer Beau Lamar Condon says he accidentally shot his former lover, Jessie Baird, and then struggled with Baird's boyfriend, Luke Davies, who fatally shot himself in the melee. Lamar Condon, 31, has pleaded not guilty to murdering his former boyfriend, Jessie Baird, and Baird's new partner, Luke Davies. For the first time, a jury in the NSW Supreme Court has heard Lamar Condon's version of what happened on 19 February 2024 when the two men died at Baird's home in Sydney's Paddington. A barrister for Lamar Condon, John Stratton SC, told the jury Lamar Condon is not guilty of the murder of Baird or his new partner, Luke Davies. Stratton told the jury Lamar Condon and Baird had a breakup, which left Lamar Condon very upset, but that Lamar Condon had never threatened to harm Jesse Baird. We've used a voice actor to bring you John Stratton's words.
00:01:07
Speaker 2: The case for the accused is that he admits entering the house where Jesse Baird was living, that is 60 Brown Street, Paddington, on the 19th of February 2024. His reason was that he wanted to recover some of his belongings, including some jewellery which he had left in the house, without having to go through the embarrassment of having a further meeting with Jesse Baird when he turned up at the door. He disguised himself on our case because he in fact was expecting that there would be no one home. He waited until the other two flatmates were not home and he wore a helmet so he could masquerade as being a delivery person in case anyone unexpected opened the door. When there was no answer, he let himself into the house. He had a gun with him because he was a police officer, and his training was that he was not allowed to leave a gun unminded in a car where it might be stolen. Once in the house, he was surprised by Jesse Baird, who understandably did not recognise him because he was still wearing the motorbike helmet. The two men struggled. The gun went off twice, wounding Jesse Baird fatally. The gun was flung into the lounge room. The accused picked up a mobile phone and began ringing triple O. The accused started walking towards the front door and in the hallway encountered a second male who turned out to be Mr Davies. The accused, Bolimar Condon, grabbed Mr Davies by the arm and pushed the gun away from himself and towards Mr Davies. And in the struggle which followed, Mr Davies pulled the trigger and fatally shot himself.
00:02:39
Speaker 1: Stratton also said Luke Davies was holding a knife when he encountered Lamar Condon. Earlier on Tuesday, the Crown concluded its opening address to the jury, telling them a triple-O call from the phone of murder victim Luke Davies recorded the last seconds of his life before he was murdered. The Crown says Lamar Condon posed as an Uber Eats delivery man and entered Baird's home in Paddington in Sydney's inner east in February 2024, carrying his loaded police Glock pistol. Prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC told the jury Lamar Condon entered the house and shot Jesse Baird twice in the kitchen, first through the face and then quote execution style four seconds later as he lay on the floor. Hatfield said Luke Davies then called triple O from a bedroom and could be heard saying get out, fuck off in muffled audio of the call before a gunshot is heard. The Crown says that was Lamar Condon shooting Davies through the bedroom door as the men struggled for control of the door handle. Davies allegedly had a gunshot wound in his eye socket and an exit wound at the back of his skull. Triple O tried to return the call but it went straight to voicemail, Hatfield said. Hatfield told the jury a bullet hole in the bedroom door was initially missed in the first police search because it had been covered by putty, paint and a stick-on hook and felt pad. Lamar Condon listened to this evidence, calmly making notes on documents in the dock where he is sitting for the duration of this three-month trial. The Crown alleges Lamar Condon, driven by obsessive jealousy, spent the next five days trying to cover up his crime, cleaning the crime scene and then trying to dispose of the men's bodies in a dam. Hatfield said, quote, having killed the two men, the evidence will be that the accused immediately engaged in a deliberate and calculated series of actions to cover up their deaths and indeed to pretend they were still alive. On Monday, Hatfield told the jury Lamar Condon had tried to plead guilty to the manslaughter of Jesse Baird, but that plea was rejected by the Crown, which is pushing for a double murder conviction. Hatfield told the jury on Tuesday his actions demonstrate that this was a deliberate murder, not a panicked or accidental shooting. He said Lamar Condon appeared to have dragged Jesse Baird's body through the house to the front bedroom, where his blood dripped through to the cavity below the room and was later found by forensic officers searching for evidence in the house, which Lamar Condon had cleaned. Professional cleaners had also come through the house between the murders and the police search. hampering the hunt for clues. Hatfield told the jury that Lamar Condon later on the same day told a friend he had killed two people and said his police job had, quote, fucked me up. Lamar Condon allegedly told the friend he shot one person, then shot a second person through a door. He allegedly said, I didn't want to have to shoot the second person, but I couldn't take the risk and have witnesses. Hatfield showed the jury a photograph of Lamar Condon at a decathlon sports store in Miranda where he bought a second surfboard bag, allegedly to conceal the body of Luke Davies. He then went to Bunnings and bought equipment including cable ties, bleach, garbage bags, a mop and a bucket before returning to the house to clean the scene. Lamar Condon then allegedly moved Baird's possessions out of the house, used Baird's phone to tell his friends he was moving out and going on a road trip to Perth disposed of the men's bloody clothes in a skip and bought concrete and weights in order to sink the bodies in a dam. He allegedly collected a female friend and drove to a farm near Goulburn, where he tried unsuccessfully to sink the bodies. He then allegedly dumped the bodies, still in surfboard bags, at a nearby property. It was a chance discovery of the items in the skip that triggered a police investigation. Lamar Condon later handed himself in to police. but first called a police helpline to claim he had been psychologically injured and traumatised by his work as a police officer, including falsely claiming he was on medication for schizophrenia, according to The Crown. The Crown says there's no evidence that he was suffering mental illness and should not be considered to have reduced culpability for the murders. The Crown also says Lamar Condon told a false story to police that a female friend had suggested disposing of the body's comparing the situation to the Taylor Swift song, Nobody No Crime. We've got live coverage of that case right now at theaustralian.com.au. And come back to the front first thing in the morning for our look at data centres and whether our energy grid can actually cope with the huge amount of power they're going to suck out of the grid. That's right here, Wednesday morning.
