Jury to visit house where Jesse Baird and partner Luke Davies were killed
A jury will retrace the steps of a police officer accused of two murders when they visit the house at the centre of the bloody shooting.
The 15 jurors in the trial of former senior constable Beau Lamarre-Condon will be taken to a view of the Paddington terrace where Jesse Baird, 26, and Luke Davies, 29, were shot dead.
Beau Lamarre-Condon is accused of murdering Jesse Baird and Luke Davies. He has pleaded not guilty. Rocco Fazzari
Lamarre-Condon has pleaded not guilty to their murders, saying the men died from gunshot wounds during two separate violent struggles.
Justice Natalie Adams told the jury of the planned visit, likely on October 14, and that crime scene officer Bronwyn Lansley would highlight relevant areas of forensic evidence in the house.
“Markers will be placed around the premises … (and) pointed out by the crime scene officer currently giving evidence,” Adams said.
In evidence on Tuesday, Senior Sergeant Lansley explained how multiple bloodstains were found in and under the floorboards of the terrace when officers investigated in February 2024.
Blood was found on a kitchen bench seat and a bullet with Baird’s blood on it was also located, Lansley said.
How investigators began piecing together the sequence of events of February 19 dominated Tuesday's evidence.
A statement from Craig Scott, head greenkeeper at Club Cronulla in Sydney's south, was read to the jury.
Scott said he and his colleague finished their shift on February 20 – a day after Baird and Davies were killed – with their skip bin about three-quarters full, the statement said.
When he returned early the next morning, he was surprised to see the lids of the bin propped open with furniture including wooden drawers.
Jurors will be taken to a view of the Paddington terrace where Jesse Baird, 26, and Luke Davies, 29, were shot dead. Supplied
“There were AFL footy shorts still in the plastic packaging … (and) a group of white flags bunched together near the top of the bin,” Scott said in his statement.
“It had a lot of red on them.”
Baird umpired in 62 AFL games, including two finals, during his four-year career in league football.
Scott and his colleague noticed several black garbage bags and a silver watch and identification cards belonging to Davies.
“I only took a little bit from the bag; it had red stains on it … looked like dried blood to me,” Scott said.
Davies, left, and Baird were killed in February 2024. Instagram
“(My colleague) and I both thought something suspicious had gone on here.“The greenkeepers reported their find to police, who declared the bin a crime scene.
Prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC previously told the jury Lamarre-Condon saw the skip bin as an appropriate dumping site after driving past the day after the killings.
After the two men died in the terrace on February 19, Lamarre-Condon attempted to clean the scene and left their bodies in surfboard bags in the Paddington home’s courtyard through the afternoon and evening, prosecutors allege.
He moved them late that night, the NSW Supreme Court jury has heard.
A detective recalled how Baird’s housemates on February 21 spoke about their confusion at the sight of the two surfboard bags.
The housemates are known under pseudonyms in the proceedings.
“They’re not mine, and they’re not Belinda’s,” housemate Sarah King told Detective Senior Constable Alistair Wright.
“(Jesse’s) never had surfboards here, and he’s never spoken about surfing.“
The confusion grew once the two women noticed a pool of red liquid they initially thought to be rust leaking from the bags.
“I don’t know if I’m overreacting,” King told the detective before showing him a photograph of the liquid.
Lamarre-Condon allegedly dumped the two men’s bodies at a rural Greek monastery after unsuccessfully trying to sink them in a dam south of Sydney.
He later handed himself into police.
The trial continues.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
– AAP
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