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‘Killer cop’ Beau Lamarre-Condon claims victim shot himself · The Front

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  Speaker 1: Today's biggest news from The Australian, I'm Claire Harvey with
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  Speaker 1: the front's afternoon headlines. Former police officer Beau Lamar Condon
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  Speaker 1: says he accidentally shot his former lover, Jessie Baird, and
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  Speaker 1: then struggled with Baird's boyfriend, Luke Davies, who fatally shot
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  Speaker 1: himself in the melee. Lamar Condon, 31, has pleaded not
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  Speaker 1: guilty to murdering his former boyfriend, Jessie Baird, and Baird's
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  Speaker 1: new partner, Luke Davies. For the first time, a jury
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  Speaker 1: in the NSW Supreme Court has heard Lamar Condon's version
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  Speaker 1: of what happened on 19 February 2024 when the two
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  Speaker 1: men died at Baird's home in Sydney's Paddington. A barrister
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  Speaker 1: for Lamar Condon, John Stratton SC, told the jury Lamar
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  Speaker 1: Condon is not guilty of the murder of Baird or
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  Speaker 1: his new partner, Luke Davies. Stratton told the jury Lamar
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  Speaker 1: Condon and Baird had a breakup, which left Lamar Condon
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  Speaker 1: very upset, but that Lamar Condon had never threatened to
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  Speaker 1: harm Jesse Baird. We've used a voice actor to bring
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  Speaker 1: you John Stratton's words.
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  Speaker 2: The case for the accused is that he admits entering
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  Speaker 2: the house where Jesse Baird was living, that is 60
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  Speaker 2: Brown Street, Paddington, on the 19th of February 2024. His
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  Speaker 2: reason was that he wanted to recover some of his belongings,
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  Speaker 2: including some jewellery which he had left in the house,
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  Speaker 2: without having to go through the embarrassment of having a
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  Speaker 2: further meeting with Jesse Baird when he turned up at
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  Speaker 2: the door. He disguised himself on our case because he
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  Speaker 2: in fact was expecting that there would be no one home.
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  Speaker 2: He waited until the other two flatmates were not home
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  Speaker 2: and he wore a helmet so he could masquerade as
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  Speaker 2: being a delivery person in case anyone unexpected opened the door.
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  Speaker 2: When there was no answer, he let himself into the house.
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  Speaker 2: He had a gun with him because he was a
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  Speaker 2: police officer, and his training was that he was not
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  Speaker 2: allowed to leave a gun unminded in a car where
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  Speaker 2: it might be stolen. Once in the house, he was
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  Speaker 2: surprised by Jesse Baird, who understandably did not recognise him
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  Speaker 2: because he was still wearing the motorbike helmet. The two
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  Speaker 2: men struggled. The gun went off twice, wounding Jesse Baird fatally.
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  Speaker 2: The gun was flung into the lounge room. The accused
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  Speaker 2: picked up a mobile phone and began ringing triple O.
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  Speaker 2: The accused started walking towards the front door and in
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  Speaker 2: the hallway encountered a second male who turned out to
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  Speaker 2: be Mr Davies. The accused, Bolimar Condon, grabbed Mr Davies
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  Speaker 2: by the arm and pushed the gun away from himself
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  Speaker 2: and towards Mr Davies. And in the struggle which followed,
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  Speaker 2: Mr Davies pulled the trigger and fatally shot himself.
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  Speaker 1: Stratton also said Luke Davies was holding a knife when
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  Speaker 1: he encountered Lamar Condon. Earlier on Tuesday, the Crown concluded
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  Speaker 1: its opening address to the jury, telling them a triple-O
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  Speaker 1: call from the phone of murder victim Luke Davies recorded
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  Speaker 1: the last seconds of his life before he was murdered.
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  Speaker 1: The Crown says Lamar Condon posed as an Uber Eats
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  Speaker 1: delivery man and entered Baird's home in Paddington in Sydney's
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  Speaker 1: inner east in February 2024, carrying his loaded police Glock pistol.
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  Speaker 1: Prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC told the jury Lamar Condon entered
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  Speaker 1: the house and shot Jesse Baird twice in the kitchen,
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  Speaker 1: first through the face and then quote execution style four
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  Speaker 1: seconds later as he lay on the floor. Hatfield said
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  Speaker 1: Luke Davies then called triple O from a bedroom and
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  Speaker 1: could be heard saying get out, fuck off in muffled
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  Speaker 1: audio of the call before a gunshot is heard. The
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  Speaker 1: Crown says that was Lamar Condon shooting Davies through the
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  Speaker 1: bedroom door as the men struggled for control of the
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  Speaker 1: door handle. Davies allegedly had a gunshot wound in his
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  Speaker 1: eye socket and an exit wound at the back of
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  Speaker 1: his skull. Triple O tried to return the call but
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  Speaker 1: it went straight to voicemail, Hatfield said. Hatfield told the
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  Speaker 1: jury a bullet hole in the bedroom door was initially
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  Speaker 1: missed in the first police search because it had been
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  Speaker 1: covered by putty, paint and a stick-on hook and felt pad.
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  Speaker 1: Lamar Condon listened to this evidence, calmly making notes on
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  Speaker 1: documents in the dock where he is sitting for the
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  Speaker 1: duration of this three-month trial. The Crown alleges Lamar Condon,
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  Speaker 1: driven by obsessive jealousy, spent the next five days trying
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  Speaker 1: to cover up his crime, cleaning the crime scene and
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  Speaker 1: then trying to dispose of the men's bodies in a dam.
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  Speaker 1: Hatfield said, quote, having killed the two men, the evidence
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  Speaker 1: will be that the accused immediately engaged in a deliberate
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  Speaker 1: and calculated series of actions to cover up their deaths
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  Speaker 1: and indeed to pretend they were still alive. On Monday,
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  Speaker 1: Hatfield told the jury Lamar Condon had tried to plead
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  Speaker 1: guilty to the manslaughter of Jesse Baird, but that plea
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  Speaker 1: was rejected by the Crown, which is pushing for a
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  Speaker 1: double murder conviction. Hatfield told the jury on Tuesday his
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  Speaker 1: actions demonstrate that this was a deliberate murder, not a
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  Speaker 1: panicked or accidental shooting. He said Lamar Condon appeared to
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  Speaker 1: have dragged Jesse Baird's body through the house to the
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  Speaker 1: front bedroom, where his blood dripped through to the cavity
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  Speaker 1: below the room and was later found by forensic officers
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  Speaker 1: searching for evidence in the house, which Lamar Condon had cleaned.
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  Speaker 1: Professional cleaners had also come through the house between the
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  Speaker 1: murders and the police search. hampering the hunt for clues.
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  Speaker 1: Hatfield told the jury that Lamar Condon later on the
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  Speaker 1: same day told a friend he had killed two people
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  Speaker 1: and said his police job had, quote, fucked me up.
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  Speaker 1: Lamar Condon allegedly told the friend he shot one person,
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  Speaker 1: then shot a second person through a door. He allegedly said,
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  Speaker 1: I didn't want to have to shoot the second person,
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  Speaker 1: but I couldn't take the risk and have witnesses. Hatfield
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  Speaker 1: showed the jury a photograph of Lamar Condon at a
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  Speaker 1: decathlon sports store in Miranda where he bought a second
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  Speaker 1: surfboard bag, allegedly to conceal the body of Luke Davies.
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  Speaker 1: He then went to Bunnings and bought equipment including cable ties, bleach,
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  Speaker 1: garbage bags, a mop and a bucket before returning to
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  Speaker 1: the house to clean the scene. Lamar Condon then allegedly
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  Speaker 1: moved Baird's possessions out of the house, used Baird's phone
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  Speaker 1: to tell his friends he was moving out and going
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  Speaker 1: on a road trip to Perth disposed of the men's
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  Speaker 1: bloody clothes in a skip and bought concrete and weights
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  Speaker 1: in order to sink the bodies in a dam. He
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  Speaker 1: allegedly collected a female friend and drove to a farm
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  Speaker 1: near Goulburn, where he tried unsuccessfully to sink the bodies.
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  Speaker 1: He then allegedly dumped the bodies, still in surfboard bags,
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  Speaker 1: at a nearby property. It was a chance discovery of
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  Speaker 1: the items in the skip that triggered a police investigation.
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  Speaker 1: Lamar Condon later handed himself in to police. but first
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  Speaker 1: called a police helpline to claim he had been psychologically
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  Speaker 1: injured and traumatised by his work as a police officer,
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  Speaker 1: including falsely claiming he was on medication for schizophrenia, according
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  Speaker 1: to The Crown. The Crown says there's no evidence that
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  Speaker 1: he was suffering mental illness and should not be considered
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  Speaker 1: to have reduced culpability for the murders. The Crown also
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  Speaker 1: says Lamar Condon told a false story to police that
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  Speaker 1: a female friend had suggested disposing of the body's comparing
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  Speaker 1: the situation to the Taylor Swift song, Nobody No Crime.
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  Speaker 1: We've got live coverage of that case right now at theaustralian.com.au.
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  Speaker 1: And come back to the front first thing in the
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: morning for our look at data centres and whether our
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: energy grid can actually cope with the huge amount of
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  Speaker 1: power they're going to suck out of the grid. That's
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  Speaker 1: right here, Wednesday morning.