Jesse Baird’s mother did not have to hear the gunshots that killed her son when an audio recording of the fatal moments was played to a jury on Tuesday.
Helen Baird also did not hear Beau Lamarre-Condon give his long-awaited account of how her son and his new partner were allegedly shot dead.
As a Crown witness, Ms Baird was barred from sitting in the public gallery of the NSW Supreme Court until she had completed her own emotional testimony.
Lamarre-Condon is accused of murdering television presenter Jesse Baird and Qantas flight attendant Luke Davies at Baird’s share house in Sydney’s eastern suburbs in February 2024.
The former police officer, who had previously been involved in a brief relationship with Baird, has pleaded not guilty to two murder charges and aggravated break and enter.
CCTV footage recorded outside Baird’s terrace captured three shots fired from Lamarre-Condon’s .40 Glock service pistol on the morning of February 19 at 60 Brown Street, Paddington.
The first shot was heard at 9.49am, with a second following four seconds later. A third gunshot was recorded 51 seconds after that.
Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC told jurors the first bullet struck Baird in the neck, while the second hit his temple. The third shot, he said, was fired into Davies’s head.
Lamarre-Condon (above) faces allegations that he killed television presenter Jesse Baird and Qantas flight attendant Luke Davies at Baird’s eastern Sydney share house in February 2024
Jesse Baird’s mother, Helen, was not required to listen to the recording of the gunshots that killed her son as it was played to the jury on Tuesday. Mother and son are pictured
The bodies of Baird and Davies were placed inside surfboard bags and discovered eight days later at Bungonia, approximately 185km south-west of Sydney.
Mr Hatfield previously told the court that Lamarre-Condon, who was 28 at the time, had become obsessed with 26-year-old Baird and deeply jealous after Baird ended their relationship and began seeing 29-year-old Davies.
The jury heard details of Lamarre-Condon’s defence for the first time after Mr Hatfield completed his opening address on Monday.
Defence barrister John Stratton said his client went to the Paddington terrace to collect personal belongings, including jewellery, believing the property would be empty.
He allegedly disguised himself as an Uber Eats delivery driver and wore a motorcycle helmet so he would not be recognised if Baird’s flatmates or another person answered the door.
Mr Stratton said Lamarre-Condon knocked before entering when no one responded. Baird did not recognise him because he was still wearing the helmet.
“The two men struggled,” Mr Stratton told the court. “The gun went off twice, wounding Jesse Baird fatally. The gun was flung into the loungeroom.
“The accused picked up a mobile phone and began ringing Triple Zero.
Lamarre-Condon allegedly entered Baird’s home using a copied or stolen key while armed with a .40 Glock 22, shooting Baird (right) before allegedly turning the weapon on Davies (left)
“The accused began walking towards the front door, and in the hallway he encountered a second man, who was later identified as Luke Davies.”
‘Mr Davies was now holding the gun.’
Mr Stratton said Lamarre-Condon grabbed Davies by the arm, pushing the pistol away from himself and towards Davies.
‘And in the struggle that followed,’ Mr Stratton told the jury, ‘Mr Davies pulled the trigger and fatally shot himself.’
Mr Stratton said of his client: ‘It’s his case that what he did was in self-defence.’
Mr Hatfield had said it was Davies who rang Triple Zero, at 9.50am, and could be heard saying, ‘Get out – f*** off,’ or something similar.
He also said the bullet which killed Davies was fired through a bedroom door, entered his left eye socket and exited the back of his head.
‘Of course, we have no direct witnesses,’ Mr Hatfield said.
As a Crown witness, Helen Baird (above) would not be allowed to sit in the public gallery of the NSW Supreme Court until after she had given her own tearful testimony
After hearing preliminary evidence was given from the officer in charge of the investigation, Detective Sergeant Sasha Pinazza, Helen Baird was called to the stand.
This was the first time the jury had heard from anyone who knew Jesse Baird or Luke Davies and the first time they would see someone weep for one of the dead men.
‘You are the mother of Jesse Baird?’ Ms Baird was asked. ‘That’s right,’ she said.
Ms Baird confirmed her son’s date of birth – September 4, 1997 – and that he was the third of her four children.
She said Jesse had been raised in Victoria and moved to Brisbane when he was 19, where he worked for Network Ten.
‘He got a job on Totally Wild, as a TV presenter,’ she said.
Jesse had also been an AFL goal umpire and at the end of the 2022 football season moved to Sydney to work on the now-defunct Studio 10.
Two minutes after taking the oath, Ms Baird broke down when she was asked if she had been close to Jesse. ‘Yes, very close,’ she said, choking back tears.
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Two minutes after taking the oath, Ms Baird broke down when she was asked if she had been close to Jesse. ‘Yes, very close,’ she said, choking back tears. Mother and son are pictured
The pair had spoken ‘all the time, every week’, with Jesse often talking about his relationships and always having been open about his sexuality.
Before moving to Sydney, Jesse had split with his partner of five or six years but the two men had remained ‘very good friends’.
‘He just wanted to make new friends and have fun,’ Ms Baird told the jury.
Having come out of a long-term relationship, ‘he definitely didn’t want anything serious’.
Ms Baird said her son told her about meeting Lamarre-Condon and how they would go out for lunch and take trips hiking and four-wheel driving, while insisting ‘he definitely didn’t want anything serious’.
Jesse had later told his mother about Lamarre-Condon’s ‘concerning behaviour’, including removing contacts from his phone and deleting messages.
Asked whether her son believed Lamarre-Condon was becoming ‘obsessive,’ Ms Baird said: ‘Yes.’
Late in 2023, Baird told his mother he had decided he no longer wished to see Lamarre-Condon, she said.
Kourtnee Baird (above) said her brother had blocked Lamarre-Condon but he would receive messages from him such as ‘you looked really good in the gym tonight’
He had also informed her a female friend of Lamarre-Condon’s had contacted him to say his spurned sometime lover had cancer. The court has previously heard Lamarre-Condon had no such disease.
Jesse had spent Christmas 2023 with his mother in Victoria and brought down his new boyfriend. Ms Baird was happy her son had found Davies.
‘It was early days but they were both smitten with each other and they were great together,’ she said.
Jesse’s last visit with his mother had not started well, however.
‘He drove down from Sydney and when he got to my place there was something wrong with the vehicle,’ Ms Baird said.
‘It turned out that there’d been water poured into the fuel tank.’
The court has previously heard there would be evidence presented that Lamarre-Condon had tampered with Jesse’s new ute.
Ms Baird said her son and Davies grew even closer after the Christmas break.
Lamarre-Condon (above), who had previously been in a short-lived relationship with Baird, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder, as well as aggravated break and enter
‘Jesse messaged me and he sent me a photo of him and Luke at the Pink concert, and he’d said underneath, ‘Luke is my boyfriend’,’ she said.
‘And I sent a big love heart and said, ‘I’m just so happy for both of you’.’
Ms Baird became emotional once more, and was not required for cross-examination. She then sat in the public gallery and watched her daughter give evidence.
Kourtnee Baird had been living in her brother’s Brisbane house in 2023 after he moved to Sydney and she had ‘very much so’ stayed in touch with him.
The two were close, communicating mostly through social media, and the last time she saw her brother was Christmas Day, 2023.
Over the dinner table, Jesse told Kourtnee about Lamarre-Condon, who she had never spoken to or met.
‘Jesse said that he was fearful, that he was a NSW police officer, he had access to a weapon, to a gun,’ she said. ‘He said that he would go on his phone and block contacts from Jesse’s male friends.’
Asked how she knew that, Kourtnee answered: ‘He caught him doing it.’
‘Jesse told me that he would often post things on Instagram to make it out like Jesse and him were together,’ she said.
Kourtnee said her brother had blocked Lamarre-Condon but he would receive messages from him such as ‘you looked really good in the gym tonight’.
‘He was fearful, scared, shaken up a little bit,’ she said.
‘He couldn’t comprehend that someone could do these things.’
Kourtnee’s last contact with Jesse was on February 18, 2024 – the day before he was shot -– via Instagram.
Asked if she had ever met Luke Davies, she told the jury: ‘I did not. I wish I did.’
The recording of those three gunshots heard coming from inside 60 Brown Street, Paddington will be played again later in the hearing.
The trial, which is expected to last three months, continues before Justice Natalie Adams on Wednesday.
