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Beau Lamarre-Condon has told a Sydney court he did not “execute” Jesse Baird nor realise there was a “massive” gunshot wound to the 26-year-old’s face.
The former police officer is accused of fatally shooting Baird and his new partner, Luke Davies, with his police service weapon in Baird’s Paddington home in Sydney on 19 February 2024.
He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one charge of aggravated break and enter.
Giving evidence under cross-examination on Monday, Lamarre-Condon reiterated that Baird was holding a knife while the pair struggled in the house.
Lamarre-Condon said he told the other man to drop the knife before aiming his gun at Baird’s shoulder in an attempt to disarm him.
After this shot, Lamarre-Condon’s finger remained on the trigger as both men continued to struggle, he told the New South Wales supreme court jury.
Baird then tripped and the pair fell, which led the officer to pull the trigger again, Lamarre-Condon told the court.
“That was my fault, it was unintentional,” he said on Monday.
He said the shot could have happened either during the fall or as the men impacted the ground.
Lamarre-Condon said he thought the bullet grazed the side of Baird’s head and did not know it had gone through his right temple.
The crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC asked whether Lamarre-Condon had “executed” Baird. Lamarre-Condon told the jury: “I never executed Jesse Baird.”
He said he believed the first shot had gone through Baird’s right shoulder.
Lamarre-Condon told the court he laid Baird on his back in the recovery position and did not look towards the shoulder area, instead searching for signs of life in his face.
Hatfield asked in court: “Did you notice there was a massive gun shot wound through [Baird’s] mouth?”
The former officer responded it was “hard to know” due to the amount of blood.
Asked if it was obvious that Baird was dead, Lamarre-Condon said: “No, I knew he was unresponsive, I just didn’t know he was dead at that point.”
Lamarre-Condon told the court he then began dialling triple zero and tried to check Baird’s pulse and get him to squeeze his hand.
The officer had entered Baird’s home dressed as an UberEats driver in a motorcycle helmet and hi-vis jacket to try retrieve his belongings from the TV presenter without anyone in the home noticing him, Lamarre-Condon told the court last week.
Hatfield on Monday asked whether Lamarre-Condon was still wearing his helmet while attempting to help Baird.
Lamarre-Condon said he did not need to take the helmet off as he was not attempting to perform CPR.
Asked if he had ever spoken to someone on the phone while wearing a motorcycle helmet, Lamarre-Condon said he could put the device on speaker phone.
The former officer told the court he then saw Davies standing in front of Baird’s bedroom door holding the firearm. Lamarre-Condon told the jury Davies sai: “I’m going to fucking shoot you.”
Lamarre-Condon then got into a struggle with Davies, he told the court, grabbing his left wrist while holding the phone in his other hand as it dialled the emergency hotline.
He said on Monday that he had “trained for close to seven years” with the police to disarm people. He told the court they were taught to push the gun upwards.
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“I saw his left index finger pull down on the trigger towards himself,” Lamarre-Condon told the jury.
Hatfield suggested Lamarre-Condon shot Davies through the bedroom door after hearing noise from within the bedroom. The accused denied this and claimed his ears were ringing from the first two shots which meant he could not hear Davies.
“Look at the incident at Bondi,” he said, referring to the 14 December antisemitic terror attack in the eastern suburbs.
“Multiple police had to go to hospital because of the guns being discharged in their ears. It would have been impossible for someone to [hear] … especially with the door shut.”
Earlier, Lamarre-Condon reenacted firing the first shot at Baird to the court after explaining Baird’s knife was next to his throat, which led him to push the other man back with his right arm.
The crown prosecutor asked Lamarre-Condon to stand up and demonstrate, telling the accused: “Put your rosary beads down while you do that.”
The officer reenacted the struggle for the jury, with Hatfield describing his movements.
“[The accused] with his left arm out at shoulder height, demonstrated pushing Jesse Baird’s right hand with the knife away from him, so that the left arm was fully extended,” the prosecutor told the jury.
“[Lamarre-Condon] gestured pulling the pistol around the area around his belt … then held it up at around chest or shoulder height and demonstrated with a bent elbow firing a shot towards the right shoulder of Jesse Baird.”
Lamarre-Condon told the court he “discharged a shot” and said he was aiming towards Baird’s right shoulder.
“My arm did extend … I don’t know to what extent … there was constant movement in this struggle,” the accused told the court. “That’s as clear as I can be. This happened very, very quick.”
Hatfield said the officer last week said he was pinned by Baird during the struggle and asked if Lamarre-Condon was now suggesting “something different” by claiming he was constantly moving.
Lamarre-Condon said he was pinned directly before he pushed back and fired the shot, telling the court there was “constant movement” before that.
Asked what Baird and Davies were wearing, Lamarre-Condon said both men were only in their underwear and were not wearing shoes.
During his evidence-in-chief last week, Lamarre-Condon stood by his decision to fire the first shot but claimed a second bullet was “accidentally” fired.
On Monday, he re-iterated he did not intend to fire the second shot at Baird.
The trial before Justice Natalie Adams continues.
