Beau Lamarre-Condon has pleaded not guilty to murdering Luke Davies and Jesse Baird. Photograph: Rocco Fazzari/AAPView image in fullscreenBeau Lamarre-Condon has pleaded not guilty to murdering Luke Davies and Jesse Baird. Photograph: Rocco Fazzari/AAPBeau Lamarre-Condon admits throwing Jesse Baird’s phone off a bridge after alleged murders, trial hears Court hears former police officer agrees he was trying to destroy evidence that might incriminate him
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Beau Lamarre-Condon has admitted he threw Jesse Baird’s phone off a bridge to destroy evidence after allegedly murdering him, a court has heard.
The former police officer is accused of fatally shooting Baird and his new 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.
Sitting in the witness box for a sixth day, Lamarre-Condon was asked what he did with Baird’s phone after the alleged murders.
He told the court on Thursday it was thrown off Tom Uglys Bridge near the Sutherland Shire in Sydney’s south.
“I didn’t want to have any evidence of Jesse’s phone on me … I did throw it off the bridge,” Lamarre-Condon told the New South Wales supreme court.
As part of his cross-examination, crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC put to him: “You did [that to] destroy evidence on Jesse’s phone that might incriminate you.”
Lamarre-Condon responded: “Essentially, yes.”
The former officer did not deny he had contacted his friend Stacey Parker, who lived in Western Australia, and asked if he could send her the phone for her to throw into a body of water.
But he did not end up mailing her the device.
Lamarre-Condon was also asked by Hatfield if he deleted messages between himself and Baird, alongside photos of them together, after his arrest.
“You did that deliberately to remove evidence of your relationship with Jesse Baird,” Hatfield told the court.
Lamarre-Condon said he disagreed and did not believe he had deleted the messages.
Lamarre-Condon and Baird were seeing each other in 2022 and 2023, the jury heard.
Hatfield suggested the former police officer “lied to [Baird] and deceived him numerous times throughout your relationship”. Lamarre-Condon agreed, saying: “On a number of occasions.”
Lamarre-Condon told the court he posted a photo of a bouquet of flowers on a florist’s Instagram page in November to “give the insinuation Jesse did send it to me”.
During that period, Baird was in Melbourne and the photo was captioned: “When he’s in Melbourne but still sends you these.”
The former officer said he and Baird were not in an exclusive relationship and had seen other men.
But Lamarre-Condon had posted it to his close friends story on Instagram, with its settings adjusted so only the man who Baird was seeing could view the post.
“I wanted to see if [the man Baird was seeing] was going to message me saying if he was in a relationship with Jesse or not,” Lamarre-Condon told the court.
The accused then admitted to using Baird’s phone a few days later, blocking the man and deleting the messages they had sent each other.
“I was wrong and I shouldn’t have done that, but I did do it,” he said.
When Baird texted him about the flowers story, Lamarre-Condon replied in a message: “I’m confused why you’re asking me about that.”
Hatfield suggested: “That’s another form of gaslighting isn’t it? Painting yourself as the victim when you’re the person lying?”
Lamarre-Condon responded: “Well no … this is all just me denying it.”
In the messages, Lamarre-Condon then told Baird the flowers were sent from his stepfather to his mother, who had recently injured her ankle.
He ordered a bouquet from the florist that looked exactly the same as the phone he posted, telling the jury he was getting it for his mum.
He then sent a photo of his mother and the flowers to Baird.
The crown prosecutor read further texts between Lamarre-Condon and Baird and accused the former officer of making out that he was being unreasonable by asking questions, to which Lamarre-Condon agreed.
“Yes, all these messages are a lie,” Lamarre-Condon said.
Hatfield suggested to the accused that his problem was “[Baird] didn’t like you anywhere near as much as you liked him”.
“Your unrequited love turned into obsession, didn’t it?” the prosecutor said.
Lamarre-Condon said this wasn’t the case.
When Hatfield asked, “You wronged him in a number of ways, hadn’t you?”
Lamarre-Condon responded: “Yes, I agree, in certain aspects.”
The trial before Justice Natalie Adams continues.
Fox Style News Syndicate. Sourced from broadcast reporting: Read Full Source Coverage.