Ex-cop accused of double murder allegedly dressed as Uber Eats rider, court hears

A former NSW police officer accused of murdering Sydney couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies allegedly disguised himself as an Uber Eats rider before shooting both men at Baird’s eastern suburbs home, his criminal trial has heard.

Beau Lamarre-Condon, a senior constable at the time of the killings on February 19, 2024, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder. His criminal trial in the NSW Supreme Court opened in Sydney’s historic King Street court complex on Monday.

In his opening address to the jury, Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC, alleged Lamarre-Condon had “formed an obsessive and jealous infatuation” with Jesse Baird after a brief relationship starting in late 2022 and ending in 2023.

The relationship, which Hatfield alleged was “somewhat casual” from Baird’s perspective, was “firmly and irretrievably ended” by Baird in November 2023 after an earlier break-up in April.

Hatfield alleged the murder of 26-year-old Baird, a former Network Ten presenter, was premeditated, while Davies, a 29-year-old Qantas flight attendant, was killed by Lamarre-Condon to “eliminate him as a witness”.

The Crown foreshadowed the jury would hear evidence that Lamarre-Condon set his alarm for 4.30am on February 19, 2024, and messaged a friend at 4.49am: “I’ll try to call you tonight and update you X. Don’t worry about me though X. There’s no sign I’m doing it.”

The prosecution alleges Lamarre-Condon left his home in Balmain in Sydney’s inner west shortly after 5am in his Tesla, but switched to a rented Mazda at a “staging point” in Kensington.

He switched off his own mobile phone, the Crown alleges, and activated a burner phone he had recently bought under the name “Bob Ballard”.

He arrived at Baird’s Paddington home shortly after 6am and “waited there for over three hours”, observing the terrace as Baird’s housemates left, Hatfield said in his opening address.

“He can be seen walking [on Baird’s street] at around 9.10am, at that point disguised as an Uber Eats delivery driver,” Hatfield said.

“He was wearing a motorcycle helmet, high-visibility clothing, and carrying an Uber Eats paper bag with something in it. He was carrying somewhere his NSW police service ... semi-automatic pistol.”

The Crown alleges he had replaced at least some of his police-issued bullets with another make.

Hatfield said the prosecution case is that Lamarre-Condon should not have had his firearm with him because he was not on duty that day, nor the next day.

Lamarre-Condon is accused of using a key he had stolen from Baird or previously copied to enter the home.