The bullet hole and the cartridge case: Images of alleged Lamarre-Condon crime scene revealed
Police examining the Paddington home where Beau Lamarre-Condon is accused of murdering a Sydney couple found a puttied-over bullet hole years after the alleged crime, a court has heard.
Lamarre-Condon, 31, is standing trial in the NSW Supreme Court on two counts of murder over the shooting deaths of Sydney couple Jesse Baird, 26, and Luke Davies, 29, on February 19, 2024. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Lamarre-Condon has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder.Nathan Perri, Supplied, NSW Supreme CourtNSW Police Senior Sergeant Bronwyn Lansley was the lead forensic investigator at the property and started giving evidence on Tuesday.
The court heard police discovered a bullet hole in Baird’s bedroom door in July this year, more than two years after the alleged murders.
Davies was allegedly shot through the door as he tried to call Triple Zero for help. The Crown alleges that a “very muffled” gunshot can be heard in the call.
Prosecutors say the hole in the door was not visible in 2024 because Lamarre-Condon covered it with a stick-on hook.
Ballistics officers concluded the recently discovered defect in the door was “consistent with the passage of a fired bullet discharged … from outside to the inside” of the bedroom, the court heard.
Lansley said she observed this year that “repairs had been made both to external and internal sides of the door”, where she believed the hook and a felt pad were previously stuck on either side.
After removing a layer of paint and putty from around the site, she found grey discolouration consistent with “burnt and unburnt propellant particles, which come out of the firearm when it’s discharged”.
During Lansley’s testimony, the 15-person jury was shown marked-up floor plans of Baird’s share house, indicating items of forensic significance found at the property.
Photographs and sketches with measurements were used by police to create the computer-aided design (CAD) plan of the terrace, she said.
Lansley said she “located a fired cartridge case … above the kitchen cupboards” when searching the kitchen with a ladder.
The prosecution case is that Lamarre-Condon shot Baird twice in the kitchen, including an “execution-style shot” through his temple, Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC, said in his opening address to the jury. He said the bullet went through the floor.
Luke Davies and Jesse Baird.NSW Supreme CourtA CAD-generated floor plan of the kitchen, indicating where the damaged bullet was found, was tendered in court, along with a series of photographs from the scene. Lansley said the bullet was located “on the subfloor beneath the kitchen”.
Police also identified impact damage to a kitchen wall, the court heard. Lansley told the court there was a trapdoor in Baird’s ground-floor bedroom leading to a subfloor, and a blood-stained tarpaulin was found under this room.
The prosecution alleges Lamarre-Condon, then a NSW Police officer, murdered Baird after developing an “obsessive and jealous infatuation” with him that escalated when the former Network Ten producer and presenter ended their casual relationship in November 2023.
Davies, Baird’s new boyfriend, was killed to eliminate a witness to the crime, the Crown alleges.
There is no dispute that Lamarre-Condon was at the terrace when Baird and Davies died, that they died of gunshot wounds from his police-issued pistol, and that he was disguised as a delivery rider.
However, the defence case is that Lamarre-Condon was there to pick up some of his belongings and did not expect anybody to be home. A struggle ensued in which his gun accidentally went off twice, killing Baird, and Davies accidentally shot himself in a second struggle after grabbing the gun, the defence says.
Lamarre-Condon’s barrister, John Stratton, SC, said in his opening address to the jury that the accused picked up a mobile phone and began ringing Triple Zero before he encountered Davies in the hallway. Davies was holding a knife, Stratton said.
According to the defence, Lamarre-Condon panicked and dumped the men’s bodies in Bungonia, near Goulburn, because he “knew the gravity of the situation that he was in and how it might be perceived”.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) or the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491.
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