‘If I wanted to plan a murder’: Beau Lamarre-Condon tells court what he would have done

Beau Lamarre-Condon has told a Sydney court he never planned to murder anybody and if he did, he reiterated he would use stolen vehicles and a gun not linked to him.

But the prosecutor responded: “No one’s saying it was a good plan, that’s why you’re sitting here.”

The former police officer is accused of fatally shooting Jesse 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.

Sat in the witness box for the seventh day, Lamarre-Condon was asked about driving his mother to pick up a hire car under her name on the evening before the alleged murders.

As part of his cross-examination, crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC repeatedly suggested to Lamarre-Condon that he was planning to murder Baird.

But the accused told the New South Wales supreme court on Friday “it was never a plan to murder anybody”.

“You wouldn’t bring a vehicle linked to your mum for a murder,” Lamarre-Condon told the jury.

“If I wanted to a plan a murder I would have two stolen vehicles ready to go, I would have a gun that’s not linked to me. I know exactly how to do it, I work with youth gangs.”

Hatfield told Lamarre-Condon: “No one’s saying it was a good plan that’s why you’re sitting here, isn’t it?”

The former officer maintained he and his mother spoke in the car about his suicidal ideation and he had turned off his phone because he did not want to talk about work or personal things in the vicinity of the device.

Lamarre-Condon questioned on aftermath of alleged murders

On Friday afternoon, Hatfield began questioning Lamarre-Condon about disposing of the bodies and the clean up of the alleged scene of the crime.

He suggested to the accused that he began going through Baird’s phone on the afternoon of the shootings and using it to send messages.

“This is where there’s lots of times where there were blackouts,” Lamarre-Condon told the court.

He agreed the messages were sent by him but could not give an accurate recollection of what he did.

A day later, he met up with a friend at a Sushi Train restaurant, where they spoke about disposing the bodies, Lamarre-Condon told the court.

The other man was young and was hoping to become a police officer, the jury heard.

Lamarre-Condon claims the friend suggested sinking the bodies with concrete, which was questioned by Hatfield.

“You’re taking advice from this young, immature guy about what do to with the bodies… is that seriously your evidence?” the prosecutor asked.

“You won’t take responsibility for the decision of how you treated the bodies, you want to blame [your friends].”

Lamarre-Condon responded: “He gave me the suggestion, I’m not saying he put all the ideas in my head.”

The prosecutor said it was “quite an extreme thing to be taking two men’s bodies and treat them the way you did” and the former policeman agreed his conduct was “not OK”.

But Hatfield replied: “I didn’t ask whether it’s OK. It’s beyond argument it’s not right”.

“It’s extraordinary conduct that was inconsistent with manslaughter and inconsistent with any accidental killing,” he told the court.

Lamarre-Condon disagreed.

Lamarre-Condon admitted that on the night of 20 February 2024, he activated Baird’s phone near the Paddington home and began responding to the dead man’s notifications and sending messages.

The crown prosecutor suggested he was thinking about how the evidence from his phone would look and was “thinking strategically”.

Lamarre-Condon said it was “common sense”.

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”.

Lamarre-Condon’s sim card

Earlier on Friday, Lamarre-Condon was asked about purchasing a sim card under the name “Bob Ballard” on 15 January 2024, about a month before the shootings.

He told the jury in his double murder trial it had “nothing to do with Jesse Baird”.

He was attempting to compile statements about “bullying from a certain sergeant” but was worried about speaking publicly on the issue, Lamarre-Condon said.

“I was wanting to go and compile all these statements and go to the media,” he said.

“I didn’t want to communicate at all from my phone because you can become a target … there would be repercussions.”

Under cross-examination by Hatfield, Lamarre-Condon agreed he was using the new sim card to contact former and current officers.

But asked why his phone records showed he only contacted one police officer on this sim, Lamarre-Condon said it only revealed his normal phone calls, telling the court: “You can’t see what I did on Signal.”

The prosecutor said he could have used encrypted messaging app Signal on his normal phone, but Lamarre-Condon claimed police could make him unlock his own device and view his Signal records if he was investigated for talking to the media.

Hatfield also questioned why Lamarre-Condon had Davies’s contact details on his phone.

The former officer claimed Davies’s details were on his Instagram.

“I went and blocked numerous Instagram [accounts] from my own Instagram because of this incident,” he said, referring to the shootings.

“I even blocked Jesse’s family members from my account. I didn’t want any of that.”

He deactivated his social media accounts soon after.

The trial before Justice Natalie Adams continues.