Beau Lamarre-Condon asked a friend he met through their shared interest in celebrity-chasing to dispose of a mobile phone after he allegedly murdered Sydney couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies, a court has heard.
uncertain
court → ask → Baird
Lamarre-Condon, 31, is standing trial in the NSW Supreme Court on two counts of murder over the shooting deaths of Baird, 26, a former TV presenter, and Davies, 29, a Qantas flight attendant, on February 19, 2024.
asserted
Condon → stand → February
The former NSW police officer has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
asserted
officer → plead → charges
A West Australian woman told the court she met Lamarre-Condon in Sydney in 2010 outside the then Sydney studio of Seven’s Sunrise program in Martin Place.
“We used to go to Sunrise and if there was a star on that day, we’d wait out the front, try to get a photo with them,” she said.
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she → tell → them
She and Lamarre-Condon “had a bit of a fascination” for celebrities and “used to try to get photos”.
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She → have → photos
She told the court the accused posted on social media after tracking down Kourtney Kardashian and her husband Travis Barker when they visited Sydney, and she messaged him about it on February 16, 2024.
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she → tell → February
“I always wondered how he got so close to them,” she said.
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she → wonder → them
“I commented on it the day it was posted.
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it → comment → it
“He was just walking with them in their circle.”
asserted
He → walk → circle
The woman said she and Lamarre-Condon also had similar views on COVID-19, and she was opposed to “the injections and whatnot”.
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she → say → injections
“I used to go to protests …
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I → use → protests
I just asked him how police officers can stand there and push back against people who are just fighting for our freedoms,” she said.
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she → ask → freedoms
‘I always wondered how he got so close to [Kourtney Kardashian] and [Travis Barker].’
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he → wonder → Kardashian
“He just told me it was the devil’s work.”
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it → tell → me
The court heard Lamarre-Condon messaged her on Instagram on February 12, 2024, and said they should switch to the encrypted messaging app, Signal.
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they → hear → app
The woman said he messaged her on February 20, the day after the alleged murders, saying: “Are you free for a quick call?”
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you → say → call
She said they subsequently spoke on the phone and he “asked me if I could do him a favour”.
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I → say → favour
“He told me that he’d stolen some police files from the commissioner to do with COVID and he wanted me to get rid of a phone.
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me → tell → phone
‘He wanted me to turn the phone on, turn it off, and then throw it into some body of water.’
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me → want → water
“I agreed to do it.
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I → agree → it
He told me that I had to be 30 to 40 kilometres away from my house, and then he wanted me to turn the phone on, turn it off, and then throw it into some body of water.
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me → tell → water
I agreed to do that.”
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I → agree → that
She said he asked for her address so that he could send the phone via express post and told her to delete the Signal message.
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he → say → message
She said she was going to dispose of the phone, “not knowing what it was”.
asserted
it → say → phone
Lamarre-Condon had asked her to turn on the phone for about 10 minutes “so it could ping, and then turn it back off”.
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it → ask → it
She said he did not explain what that meant.
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that → say → what
“He told me that it was to do with COVID and they [the files] were not to be released to the public,” she said.
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she → tell → public
They spoke again on the phone on February 22, the court heard.
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court → speak → February
“He told me that the detectives had been to his Mum’s place looking for him,” the woman said.
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woman → tell → him
“He said that he was going to be set up for two guys that had gone missing, and then he … [asked] me again what I had to do with the phone.”
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I → say → phone
She said her plan was to pitch the phone off the Dawesville Bridge and “he just wanted to hear me say what I had to do”.
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I → say → what
However, she said she became “very” concerned after reading a news article on February 23 “about two blokes being missing and Beau being wanted in questioning for it”.
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Beau → say → it
The article said that “Jesse’s phone had sent messages … saying that he was going on a road trip”, she said.
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she → say → trip
The woman said she went “straight to the police” after reading that detail.
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she → say → detail
She told the court that she did not receive a package from Lamarre-Condon and did not speak to him again after the February 22 call.
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she → tell → call
The Crown alleges Lamarre-Condon sent a series of text messages from Baird’s phone to the former Network Ten producer and presenter’s housemates’ group chat on February 20, the day after his death, to give the false impression he was still alive.
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he → allege → impression
The housemates, dubbed Belinda Smith and Sarah King in the proceedings, had asked Baird to move out so that a friend of theirs could move into the Paddington terrace, and he was slated to move out on February 20.
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he → dub → February
The prosecution alleges Lamarre-Condon murdered Baird with his police-issued pistol after developing an “obsessive and jealous infatuation” with him that escalated when Baird ended their casual relationship in November 2023.
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Baird → allege → November
Davies, Baird’s new boyfriend, was killed to eliminate a witness to the crime, the Crown alleges.
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Crown → kill → crime
The defence case is that Lamarre-Condon entered Baird’s share house disguised as a delivery rider to retrieve some of his belongings.
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Condon → enter → belongings
…and 4 more, not listed.
The Aporia
