The jury in the double murder trial concerning television presenter Baird and flight attendant Luke Davies has heard evidence that accused man Beau Lamarre-Condon allegedly photographed Baird engaging in sexual activity with another man while watching through a bedroom window.
Baird and Lamarre-Condon were involved in an on-and-off casual relationship from late 2022 until November 2023. Prosecutors allege the former police officer became infatuated with Baird, stalked him and broke into his home, where he allegedly altered settings and content on his phone.
Lamarre-Condon, 31, is standing trial accused of shooting Baird and his partner, Davies, with a police-issued firearm at Baird’s Paddington home on 19 February 2024. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one count of aggravated break and enter.
A witness, identified in court under the pseudonym “Elizabeth Kennedy”, testified that Lamarre-Condon sent her images allegedly taken while stalking Baird after their initial breakup. She also told the court he had claimed to have broken into Baird’s home multiple times.
Kennedy said she first met Lamarre-Condon as a teenager and reconnected with him around 2019.
She told the court that he asked her to use the encrypted messaging app Signal because it was safer for him as a police officer. She said he nevertheless sent photographs of celebrities and suggested he knew them personally when, in her view, he was stalking them.
According to Kennedy, Lamarre-Condon began discussing Baird in early 2023.
“He started to tell me he’s the one, and he became infatuated with him,” Kennedy told the court.
Kennedy said that after the pair split up in 2023, Lamarre-Condon allegedly told her he entered Baird’s home after discovering where a spare key was kept and had a copy made so he could enter the property.
The witness further alleged that he said he took Baird’s phone while he slept, deleted contacts, alarms and photographs, enabled Snapchat location sharing and adjusted Instagram account settings.
Kennedy testified that once Lamarre-Condon could see Baird’s location, he would deliberately appear at the same places, making their encounters seem coincidental.
She also alleged that he told her about another incident in which he entered Baird’s bedroom while he was asleep and accidentally woke him after dropping a charger cable.
The court has previously heard evidence that Baird woke to find an intruder in August 2023 and chased the person from the property. Kennedy claimed Lamarre-Condon told her he took Baird’s wallet to make the incident appear to be a robbery.
Kennedy also alleged that Lamarre-Condon sent her photographs of Baird engaging in sexual activity with another man, allegedly taken from outside the property through a bedroom window.
“He would take photos through the window of Jesse having intercourse with another man. He didn’t go into the house, but he was outside the front window,” she said.
Kennedy further told the court that Lamarre-Condon created fake profiles on dating applications, including Grindr and Tinder. She alleged he once posed as Baird on Grindr, invited a man to Baird’s address and watched from outside as the man arrived.
Later in her testimony, she alleged that Lamarre-Condon asked whether she knew where to get a silencer for a gun “just to scare someone” and also recounted a claim that he had put water into Baird’s car fuel tank.
Kennedy was with Lamarre-Condon two days after the alleged murders when he asked her to accompany him on a trip to the Bungonia region in a white van. Jurors have previously been told that two surfboard bags containing the bodies of Baird and Davies were allegedly in the rear of the vehicle.
She described Lamarre-Condon as being “bubbly” during the trip but said he would not tell her where they were going despite repeated questions.
The pair stopped at a Bunnings store in Goulburn where Kennedy said she was asked to buy an angle grinder. The Crown alleges the angle grinder was later used to remove a lock at Cella Farm in Bungonia.
Prosecutors have previously said she was left at the gate while Lamarre-Condon allegedly attempted to conceal the bodies in a dam using weights and quick-dry cement. She is expected to continue giving evidence on Wednesday.
Ahead of her testimony, jurors were told that Kennedy contacted a lawyer upon her return to Sydney and later provided an induced statement to police. The arrangement protects her evidence from being used against her in court. Kennedy has not been charged with any offences.
Prosecutors allege Lamarre-Condon became infatuated with and stalked Baird before fatally shooting him at his home. They further allege he shot Davies because he witnessed the incident.
The defence argues that Lamarre-Condon acted in self-defence. Defence counsel claim Baird’s death occurred accidentally during a struggle and that Davies approached him with a knife. They further allege that during a second struggle, Davies attempted to take the firearm and accidentally shot himself.
The defence does not dispute that Lamarre-Condon was present when the two men died, cleaned the scene and later transported the bodies from Sydney to the Bungonia area following the shootings.
Earlier in the day, jurors were shown CCTV footage of Lamarre-Condon’s movements in the two days following the alleged murders. The footage included him driving his Tesla, a hired Mazda and a hired van.
According to receipts tendered in court, he allegedly purchased a heavy-duty tarpaulin, a hi-vis shirt, a shovel, coveralls, gloves and bin bags from Bunnings.
The court heard that during a separate visit to another Bunnings store, he allegedly bought a wheelbarrow, six bags of quick-set concrete and a chainsaw. Prosecutors also allege he purchased two stand-up paddleboard bags and two disc weights from a Decathlon store.
His movements included a visit to St Vincent’s Hospital for a minor procedure on 21 February. The surgery took place at 7.30am and he was discharged about two hours later.
The surgeon told the court he had treated Lamarre-Condon since March 2023. A second procedure was performed in December 2023 and the February operation had been intended as a final procedure.
“The procedure I performed was of a minor nature and would not lead to any physical restrictions,” the surgeon said in his statement.
The trial before Justice Natalie Adams continues.
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