Beau Lamarre-Condon, the former police officer accused of murdering Sydney couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies, allegedly reached out to a friend a month after his arrest to claim that “not everything in the news is true.”
Dayna Schagen, a fellow NSW police officer and friend of the accused, testified in court on Monday regarding a chilling phone call she received in late March 2024. Schagen told the jury she initially ignored the call because it came from an unknown number at 9:00 p.m., but she eventually answered after the caller tried a second time.
“Dayna, it’s Beau,” the 31-year-old allegedly said. According to Schagen’s police statement read to the court, Lamarre-Condon told her, “I just wanted to tell you that I love you and before you do anything, you need to know not everything in the news is true. It will all come out in court.”
Schagen testified that she immediately rebuked him, asking, “You killed two people, why would I ever want to speak to you again?” She subsequently reported the conversation to her superiors.
Lamarre-Condon, who has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one charge of aggravated break and enter, is accused of using his police-issued firearm to kill Baird and Davies at Baird’s Paddington home on February 19, 2024.
Throughout the trial, the prosecution has sought to establish a pattern of obsessive behavior regarding Baird. Schagen described the pair’s previous relationship, noting that Lamarre-Condon remained deeply invested in Baird even after they stopped seeing each other in April 2023. She recalled an incident where Lamarre-Condon admitted to “fucking up” by accessing Baird’s phone and blocking a new partner without Baird’s knowledge.
The court also heard evidence of a suspicious inquiry made by the accused just days before the alleged killings. On February 14, Lamarre-Condon allegedly asked Schagen a “hypothetical” question about police protocols, specifically how officers would respond if a report of gunshots were dismissed as “children letting fireworks off.” Schagen told the jury she informed him that police would likely disregard such a report due to the volume of work, a detail she said was on her mind when she later approached investigators.
The defense, led by John Stratton SC, maintains that the deaths occurred during two separate struggles in which the accused acted in “self-defence.” They argue that Lamarre-Condon attempted to hide the bodies because he “panicked considerably.”
On Monday, the jury was presented with CCTV footage from the day after the alleged murders, tracking the former officer as he purchased cleaning supplies, withdrew cash, and visited a sushi restaurant before returning to the Paddington crime scene.
The trial before Justice Natalie Adams continues.
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