Beau Lamarre-Condon may have had access to ammunition through his attendance at a police firearms training exercise.
Lamarre-Condon, 31, is standing trial accused of shooting Jesse Baird and his partner Luke Davies with his 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.
The trial, which is being heard in Sydney, has now entered its third week and is expected to run for about three months.
Prosecutors allege that Lamarre-Condon became infatuated with, and stalked Baird, with whom he had previously been involved in a casual relationship, before shooting him at his home. They further allege that Lamarre-Condon then shot Davies because he witnessed the incident.
Lamarre-Condon’s legal team argues that he acted in self-defence. The defence claims Baird’s death was accidental and occurred during a brief struggle. They also allege that Davies approached Lamarre-Condon with a knife and that, during a second struggle, Davies attempted to wrestle away the firearm and accidentally shot himself.
The defence does not dispute that Lamarre-Condon was at the house, disguised as an Uber Eats delivery driver, or that after the shootings he cleaned the scene and moved the bodies of the two men.
On Wednesday, the jury heard Lamarre-Condon allegedly asked a police colleague whether it would be possible to steal training ammunition without being detected.
Acting Sergeant Nicole Harvell told the court that in early 2024 Lamarre-Condon said he had seen a junior constable place ammunition from a training exercise into a vest during firearms practice.
According to Harvell, he asked whether she thought the officer would be caught. She replied that it was unlikely because training ammunition was not counted.
Harvell also alleged that Lamarre-Condon asked whether, as a police officer, she would respond to a triple-zero report of a shooting if she could see fireworks nearby. She told the court she had replied that she probably would not respond if she genuinely believed the sounds were fireworks.
She said that hours later Lamarre-Condon asked whether police could determine responsibility for individual shots in a multi-person shooting. Harvell said she explained that ballistic evidence could identify which firearm fired particular rounds. She described Lamarre-Condon as appearing surprised by the answer.
Earlier, the court heard that Lamarre-Condon attended mandatory police firearms training on 17 January 2024.
Senior Sergeant James Woodbury told the court officers are trusted to take only the ammunition required during training exercises.
He said training officers inspect each participant’s firearm at the end of a session to ensure no ammunition remains in weapons or magazines. Participants are also required to verbally confirm that they have no ammunition remaining.
Responding to questions from prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC, Woodbury confirmed that participants’ pockets were not checked at the conclusion of the training session.
During his opening address, Hatfield alleged Lamarre-Condon took ammunition during the training exercise and later travelled to a national park where he experimented with methods of concealing the sound of gunfire.
During her testimony, Harvell also recalled that in May 2023, when Lamarre-Condon and Baird had paused their relationship, Lamarre-Condon commented that Baird appeared depressed because his Spotify playlists contained what he considered depressing music.
“My recollection is that when they were driving in Beau’s car at some point, Jesse was logged into his Spotify account, so the accused was still actively monitoring that account and what had been played,” she said.
Harvell described Lamarre-Condon as being “quite fixated” on Baird.
She also told the court about an incident in which Lamarre-Condon allegedly posted an image on Instagram showing a bouquet of flowers that he had sourced from the internet and implied had been sent by Baird.
Harvell testified that after friends showed the image to Baird, he messaged Lamarre-Condon seeking an explanation.
According to Harvell, Lamarre-Condon later said he had obtained an identical bouquet from a florist and asked his mother to pose for photographs with the flowers. He also allegedly asked her to help write a note to make it appear the flowers had come from her husband.
The trial before Justice Natalie Adams continues.
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