In a Sydney courtroom, a former police officer has spent days explaining to a jury what he did and did not intend on a February night in Paddington, when two men were shot dead in a home. Beau Lamarre-Condon insists he never planned murder, even as the prosecution pressed him on the borrowed cars, the disposable phone and the choices made in the hours that followed. It is a familiar human pattern: a person trying to shape the meaning of their own actions after the damage is done. The jury must now decide whether those actions amount to murder or the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Former officer Beau Lamarre-Condon tells court 'it was never a plan to murder anybody' in Jesse Baird case
Two men, Jesse Baird and Luke Davies, were allegedly shot dead in Baird's Paddington home in February 2024.
"No one's saying it was a good plan, that's why you're sitting here."
Mark
The defence here isn't "I didn't do it", is it? It's about what he intended.
Mimi
Right. He says he's guilty of manslaughter, not murder. So the fight is over planning, and the hire car and the sim card are the prosecution's evidence for it.
Mark
His argument about the hire car is that a planner wouldn't be so careless.
Mimi
He said he'd have used stolen vehicles and an untraceable gun. Hatfield's reply was that nobody calls it a good plan, which turns the carelessness argument around.
Luke
Worth noting that's an exchange of arguments, not proof either way. The jury hears both, and nothing in this reporting settles what the plan was or whether there was one.
Mark
What about the sim card under the name Bob Ballard?
Mimi
He says it was for gathering statements about bullying by a sergeant and going to the media. He agreed he used it to contact officers, but records show only one officer on that sim.
Luke
And his explanation for the gap is Signal, which by definition leaves nothing in those records. That's his account; the report doesn't say it's been verified.
Mark
The blackouts come up too.
Mimi
He says he can't accurately recall what he did on Baird's phone, though he agrees he sent the messages and activated it near the house on 20 February.
Luke
He also called that "common sense". The prosecution reads it as strategy. Same conduct, two readings, and the jury decides which.
Mark
And the friend at the Sushi Train?
Mimi
He says the friend suggested concrete. Hatfield pressed him on blaming a young man hoping to be a police officer, and he answered that he wasn't saying the friend put all the ideas in his head.
Le Pouls
- A former police officer insists he never planned to murder Jesse Baird, while the prosecutor presses him on every step that followed.
- A hire car, a sim card bought under a false name and a phone used after the shootings have become the sharpest points of dispute.
- Lamarre-Condon argues his conduct was clumsy and blacked out, not calculated, and concedes it was 'not OK'.
- The prosecutor calls the treatment of the two men's bodies extraordinary, and the jury must now weigh murder against manslaughter before Justice Natalie Adams.
In a Sydney courtroom, a former police officer has spent days explaining to a jury what he did and did not intend on a February night in Paddington, when two men were shot dead in a home. Beau Lamarre-Condon insists he never planned murder, even as the prosecution pressed him on the borrowed cars, the disposable phone and the choices made in the hours that followed. It is a familiar human pattern: a person trying to shape the meaning of their own actions after the damage is done. The jury must now decide whether those actions amount to murder or the lesser charge of manslaughter.
On his seventh day in the witness box at the New South Wales Supreme Court, Beau Lamarre-Condon told the jury he never set out to kill anyone. He is accused of shooting Jesse Baird and Baird's new partner, Luke Davies, with his police service weapon inside Baird's Paddington home in February 2024. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one of aggravated break and enter.
The prosecutor, Brett Hatfield SC, kept returning to the evening before the shootings, when Lamarre-Condon collected a hire car booked in his mother's name. Hatfield suggested this was part of a plan. Lamarre-Condon rejected it, saying that if he had planned a killing he would have used stolen vehicles and an untraceable gun, and that he knew how because of his work with youth gangs. Hatfield's reply was blunt: no one was saying it was a good plan, which is why he was in the dock.
The questioning ranged across a sim card bought under a false name, which Lamarre-Condon said he used to gather bullying complaints against a sergeant for the media. It also covered his phone activity, his blocking of Baird's family on social media, and the messages sent from Baird's phone in the days after. He admitted he could not recall much of it clearly, describing many blackouts.
The most troubling exchanges concerned what came after. A friend's suggestion to sink the bodies with concrete was raised, and Hatfield challenged the idea that he had taken such advice. Lamarre-Condon conceded his conduct was 'not OK' but disputed that it was consistent with a deliberate murder. The trial continues before Justice Adams, and the jury will decide between murder and manslaughter.
On his seventh day in the witness box at the New South Wales Supreme Court in Sydney, Beau Lamarre-Condon told the jury that he never planned to murder anybody. The former police officer is accused of shooting Jesse Baird and Baird's new partner, Luke Davies, with his police service weapon inside 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 exchange on Friday centred on the evening before the shootings, when Lamarre-Condon drove his mother to collect a hire car booked in her name. Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC repeatedly put it to him that this was part of a plan to kill Baird. Lamarre-Condon rejected that. You would not use a vehicle linked to your mother for a murder, he told the jury. If he had wanted to plan one, he said, he would have had two stolen vehicles ready and a gun that could not be traced to him. He said he knew exactly how to do it because he works with youth gangs. Hatfield answered: "No one's saying it was a good plan, that's why you're sitting here, isn't it?"
Lamarre-Condon said he and his mother talked in the car about his suicidal ideation, and that he switched off his phone because he did not want to discuss work or personal matters near it.
Earlier in the day he was questioned about a sim card bought under the name "Bob Ballard" on 15 January 2024, about a month before the shootings. He said it had nothing to do with Jesse Baird. By his account, he was trying to gather statements about bullying by a certain sergeant and wanted to take them to the media, but feared repercussions and did not want to communicate from his own phone. He agreed under cross-examination that he used the card to contact former and current officers. Asked why records showed only one police officer contacted on that sim, he said the records would not show what he did on Signal. Hatfield pointed out that he could have used the encrypted app on his regular phone. Lamarre-Condon replied that police could compel him to unlock his own device and view his Signal records if he were investigated for speaking to the media.
Hatfield also asked why he had Davies's contact details on his phone. Lamarre-Condon said they were on his Instagram, and that after the shootings he blocked numerous accounts, including members of Baird's family, because he wanted nothing to do with any of it. He deactivated his social media accounts soon afterwards.
On Friday afternoon the questioning turned to the aftermath. Hatfield suggested Lamarre-Condon began going through Baird's phone on the afternoon of the shootings and used it to send messages. Lamarre-Condon said there were many blackouts. He agreed he sent the messages but could not accurately recall what he did. He also admitted that on the night of 20 February 2024 he activated Baird's phone near the Paddington home and began replying to notifications. Hatfield said he was thinking strategically about how the evidence from his own phone would look. "Common sense," Lamarre-Condon said. Hatfield asked: "Common sense when you're carrying out a murder, is that right?" The accused responded: "I didn't carry out murder; I'm guilty of manslaughter."
The jury also heard that a day later he met a friend at a Sushi Train restaurant and they discussed disposing of the bodies. The friend was young and hoped to become a police officer. Lamarre-Condon said the friend suggested sinking the bodies with concrete. Hatfield challenged that, asking whether it was seriously his evidence that he took advice from a young, immature man, and accusing him of refusing to take responsibility for how the bodies were treated. Lamarre-Condon said the friend made the suggestion but he was not saying the friend put all the ideas in his head.
Hatfield called it extreme to treat two men's bodies the way he did. Lamarre-Condon agreed his conduct was "not OK". The prosecutor said that was not the question, and that the conduct was extraordinary and inconsistent with manslaughter or any accidental killing. Lamarre-Condon disagreed.
The trial before Justice Natalie Adams continues, with the jury to decide whether the evidence supports murder or manslaughter.
Citations marquantes
It was never a plan to murder anybody.— Beau Lamarre-Condon, to the NSW Supreme Court
I didn't carry out murder; I'm guilty of manslaughter.— Beau Lamarre-Condon, under cross-examination
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