09 Jesse & Luke | Jurors visit the Paddington house

Jurors have visited Jesse Baird’s Paddington home where the shootings occurred, inspecting the layout and areas where investigators found bloodstains. In this episode Jamie McKinnell recaps the site visit and evidence of the accused's movements after the alleged murders, including trips to Kmart, Bunnings and a Sushi train in Cronulla. The jury also heard evidence from a friend of the accused who bonded with him over a shared fascination with celebrities and COVID conspiracies. We are taping a live episode of The Case Of in Melbourne on Wednesday 11th November. Details and ticket information here. https://events.humanitix.com/the-case-of-live If you have any questions you’d like Jamie and Stocky to answer in future episodes, please email [email protected] mailto:[email protected]. Family and domestic violence support: If you need help, contact 1800 Respect https://1800respect.org.au/ national helpline on 1800 737 732.

• 0:00Speaker 05

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• 0:46Speaker 04

  The jury has been given a tour of the Paddington Terrace where Jessie and Luke died. And they've learnt who the accused murderer met up with and called once he left that house. I'm Stephen Stockwell, this is episode nine of the case of Jessie and Luke.

• 1:02Speaker 03

  He's accused of shooting Jessie Baird and Luke Davies with his service firearm.

• 1:07Speaker 06

  Police now allege Constable Beau Lamar Condon murdered the couple at a home in Paddington.

• 1:12Speaker 08

  This is just a terrible incident that's occurred here, the loss of these two young men.

• 1:19Speaker 00

  Now this is Mardi Gras time and yet it's a community in mourning.

• 1:22Speaker 07

  The pain is ongoing. We don't have a lot of answers that we would love to have, just to help bring closure, to bring peace.

• 1:31Speaker 04

  60 Brown Street is a terrace house in a trendy inner city suburb in Sydney. It's the location of this alleged double murder. And as the trial of Beau Lamar Condon has finished its fourth week, the jury has been given a tour. And as it has started its fifth, they've found out who the accused murderer met up with and spoke to following the alleged murders. There in court through all of this is the ABC's Legal Affairs reporter, Jamie McKinnell. And Jamie joins us now. Welcome, Jamie. Hello, Stocky. Something I've noticed in the last couple of days is that Beau Lamar Condon is really talking to a lot of people following the deaths of Jessie Baird and Luke Davies.

• 2:09Speaker 03

  Yeah, there were a lot of calls, a lot of messages that the jury has heard about. And also lots of movement of him going to shops or driving around different areas. There were lots of trips to buy supplies from places like Kmart or Bunnings. And we've also heard that there were some requests made of his former friends and former work colleagues.

• 2:28Speaker 04

  Hmm, very keen to unpack some of that in this episode. Do you think you can wrap up the last few days for us kind of quickly?

• 2:33Speaker 03

  Yeah, sure. So the 15 jurors have now walked through the former share house of Jessie Baird in Paddington. They've had areas of relevance inside that terrace property pointed out to them by a crime scene officer. And we've also heard from a former friend of Mr Lamar Condon, who described their shared fascination with celebrities. These two knew each other for years before February 2024. And Beau Lamar Condon asked this friend, according to her evidence, to dispose of a phone in her home state of WA. And we've also heard from another former colleague of the defendant, who was taken through their various communications. And the defendant's connection to Mr Baird at different points in the timeline

• 3:18Speaker 03

  was something that was regularly discussed with this colleague. And she has also claimed that Beau Lamar Condon spoke to her on a phone call more than a month after his arrest.

• 3:29Speaker 04

  Yeah, that really kind of confused my timeline a little bit, Jamie, that that call to a friend and former colleague, I suppose. I do want to start this episode with a conversation about this house in 60 Brown Street in Paddington, inner city Sydney. The jury has been there now, which gives us a bit more freedom to talk about what this area is like. Can you describe this street and this house for us?

• 3:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, so Brown Street in Paddington is quite a narrow street. It's on a slight incline and all of these properties, these terrace properties are very close together. So it's a very condensed sort of street. It's very typical of an area like Paddington or any inner city suburb in Sydney, I guess. And the property itself, we know that the bedroom that Jessie Baird occupied was at the front of the property. So it had a window pretty much straight onto the street. It was one of the first doors that you got to once you entered the hallway through the front door. And then, once you go through the hallway, there was a lounge room or living area and a kitchen, and then a courtyard area out the back. His two housemates had bedrooms that were upstairs, according to the floor plan that the jury has seen.

• 4:37Speaker 03

  And on Friday, when they walked through this property, we saw from outside that police had closed part of the street to make sure that could happen in a sort of isolated and controlled way. And we weren't allowed, the media wasn't allowed to see into the property or really get close to it. So we couldn't see exactly what was happening inside. But we did see some yellow markers that were being placed on the ground at different points inside the property. There was one just inside the door that we saw. So they were there for the jury's visit and this was something that happened in a very sort of controlled way.

• 5:14Speaker 04

  Yeah, and if you're watching the video version of this episode, you'll actually see some of the layout of this house, you know, where Jessie Baird's bedroom was at the front of that house, right on the front, you've got the housemates upstairs as Jamie has described. And there are some photos as well that you would have seen if you're not watching the video episode. You can jump on YouTube and catch it there or on ABC Listen as well, which is probably the preferred place to catch these episodes. Jamie, who's on this trip with the jurors?

• 5:42Speaker 03

  There was a bunch of people. So there was the judge, Justice Natalie Adams. There were all of the lawyers, so the prosecution team and the defence team, the main Crown Prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC, and the Defence Counsel, John Stratton. There were some sheriffs and court staff and also a couple of bus drivers. So the jury was arriving there from the King Street Courthouse in the city. And they were driven there by a bus. So it's not a very long drive, but they met up at court first and then went to Paddington.

• 6:12Speaker 04

  Why did they meet at court before heading to the house? Why don't they all just kind of cruise to Paddington and gather there?

• 6:18Speaker 03

  Well, they had some sort of more formal things they needed to do in the courtroom first. So in the morning, the judge sort of swore in a couple of different people, including sheriffs and court staff who were helping with this jury view. Also, the crime scene officer, the witness that they've already heard from, was in the witness box, giving another sort of oath to make sure that she performs this role as what they call the shower, which is sort of an old fashioned word for someone who points things out on a jury view. But these people were taking pledges, basically, to make sure the jury doesn't communicate with anyone while they're on this visit. And the person who was pointing things out took an oath to only perform that role

• 7:01Speaker 03

  and not communicate with the jurors other than to perform that role. So there were some formalities that needed to be done in the courtroom first.

• 7:07Speaker 04

  Okay, great. Thank you, Jamie. I can't imagine the logistics that are involved in getting the 15 jurors and then all of the various parties and then all of these sort of assisting staff out to the very small, quite narrow, windy streets of Paddington. So I also feel for the bus driver who was involved as well. Jamie, we have had a lot of questions about the house. We'll get to some of them later in the episode, but I do want to get to one now. I mean, the question we're getting sent to the case of at abc.net today, more than any other question, is, is this property rented at the moment? I mean, do we know, was there anyone there on Friday?

• 7:44Speaker 03

  Well, the jury hasn't been told anything about that specific situation right now and how it stands, whether or not there's tenants in there. But we have heard actually this week from a handyman who did some repair work not long after the alleged murders. And he gave a statement, so this statement was read out to court. And in that statement, he said that there was a job there to essentially freshen up the property for new tenants.

• 8:09Speaker 04

  As well as all of this, Jamie, we've been back to the CCTV of Beau Lamar Condon's movements after the alleged murder as well. We've seen him coming back to the house very early in the morning of Tuesday, the 20th of February. His movements later that day as well, including a trip to Kmart, a trip to Bunnings, spent a lot of time watching him wander around Bunnings and buy a few things there. He visits his home police station as well. Then he gets lunch with someone at a sushi train in Cronulla. Do we know who this is?

• 8:38Speaker 03

  Yeah, so this was after all of those movements and apparent shopping trips. So part of this compilation, as they were playing it, the Crown was stopping it and asking the officer in charge questions about what it was showing. And there was a point where he was shown on different angles, just driving around. And the Crown said, you know, that does this show that he was driving towards the home of a particular friend. And this is the same friend that we've previously heard was in the CCTV footage of the surfboard bag purchase, the first time that purchase was made. And the OIC confirmed that. And then we saw these two people, the defendant and this friend, going to a sushi train in Cronulla.

• 9:21Speaker 03

  They stayed there for about half an hour and were eating and talking. And then there were different shots of them walking along the esplanade near the beach, walking through the sort of car park or back area of the mall in Cronulla. And when they were back in the car, there was a part of the CCTV that showed them stopping at the Cronulla Bowls Club, where police would later find those bloodied items and possessions the next day. And in this footage, you can see that the car pulls up right near the skip bin. And this friend gets out and has a look at the bin and sort of opens the lid at one point and then gets back in. And that's where we have ended this compilation of CCTV so far.

• 10:05Speaker 04

  Yeah, thank you, Jamie. And just to kind of clarify the timeline for everyone at home, this is the Tuesday. So the alleged murders happen Monday morning. And then we have all of Monday, we're now talking through Tuesday. So this is happening kind of Tuesday afternoon, evening through that. And then, Jamie, am I right in thinking the items were discovered in the skip bin Wednesday morning?

• 10:28Speaker 03

  Yeah, so that's the day that the groundskeeper of the Bowls Club came to work pretty early, noticed the bin was more full than it was the day before. And then, once he looked at some of the things that were in there, that's when he alerted police and the investigation has progressed and gained speed from there.

• 10:44Speaker 04

  Okay, thank you, Jamie. So that is Wednesday morning, when items are found in that skip bin. The CCTV we've been watching is Tuesday, the 20th of February. And we've also heard a bit more about what happens on Tuesday, the 20th of February as well. We hear that Bowler Markcondon has called someone he's known for about 15 years or so on that day. That's a woman called Stacey Lee Parker. And this is someone that he met while trying to bump into Pitbull, the rapper, at the Channel Seven studios for Sunrise in Martin Place in Sydney, actually not far from the court that this trial is unfolding in. Have I got that right?

• 11:25Speaker 03

  Yeah, so Stacey Lee Parker said that she thought this was around 2010. She was in Sydney for a concert. And she said that while she was here, she was also doing what she called celebrity hunting. And so she was hanging around outside the Sunrise studio, waiting to get a glimpse or maybe a photo or a meeting with Pitbull. And Bowler Markcondon was doing the same thing. So they sort of started chatting, they exchanged numbers. One decided to go around another entrance to sort of double their chances to running into Pitbull. And then they sort of became close friends after that because they had each other's numbers, they started communicating more. She said that they had this shared interest and fascination with celebrities.

• 12:09Speaker 03

  And that was one of the things they would talk about. Whenever she came back to Sydney, though, she said she would catch up with the defendant as well. And she also mentioned another shared interest was this issue around COVID. She said that she didn't agree with the vaccines for COVID. At one point, she raised a protest and she spoke to the defendant about this because she knew he was a police officer. And she sort of asked, how can police go to these protests and push people back when they are, in her words, fighting for their freedoms? And she said that after she asked Bowler Markcondon that, he described it as the devil's work. So there were a couple of common topics that seemed to come up in their communications.

• 12:52Speaker 04

  Yeah, that COVID reference kind of threw me for a bit, actually, Jamie. There's such tight restrictions around what evidence can be elicited in court, what questions can be asked. And it only needs to be relevant to where the trial's going. So I wasn't really sure why they were talking about that. But that did end up being quite relevant. Stacey told the court that Bowler Markcondon called her that Tuesday afternoon, 20th of February, the day after the alleged murders. What did she say he needed her help with?

• 13:20Speaker 03

  So she claimed that he told her he'd stolen some secret COVID files from the Police Commissioner and that he wanted her address in WA to post her this phone because he might be in trouble because of the COVID files. So she testified that during a call on Signal, he asked her to dispose of a phone by turning it on and turning it off again. And her instructions, according to her evidence, were to be 40 kilometres or so away from her home, turn the phone on and let it ping, and then turn it off and throw it into a body of water. And she told the court that she agreed to that request. She didn't really know what the situation was, but she was prepared to do this. Two days later, we heard there was another phone call also on Signal when she said he

• 14:05Speaker 03

  sounded different this time. The first conversation was quite calm, but she said he sounded different. She told the court that during this call, he told her that police had been to his mother's house looking for him and that there were two guys that had gone missing in Sydney and that he used to know one of them and that he claimed in this call that he was about to be set up. So Stacey Parker said she saw news articles not long after this about the disappearance of Jessie Baird and Luke Davies. And those articles, she remembers, mentioned Bowler Markcondon's name and also allegations that Jessie's phone had been used to send messages about a road trip to Perth. She said that's the point when she became concerned.

• 14:46Speaker 03

  And reading those news articles, she sort of understood maybe a bit more of the context of that request.

• 14:53Speaker 04

  Hmm, and so she's going to police at that point?

• 14:56Speaker 03

  Yeah, so that's when she went to police. But we actually heard that she didn't follow through with this request. She never received a package, even though she remembered that Bowler Markcondon was going to express post this phone to her. She said she never received it and she also never had more contact with him after that.

• 15:14Speaker 04

  Bit of an off the wall question, Jamie. Did they ever meet Pitbull?

• 15:17Speaker 03

  No, they didn't. But she said that Bowler Markcondon did. So not at the Sunrise Studios, but she said that he managed to bump into him somehow at the airport. And she said she was always curious about how he did this with celebrities, get photos with them. This wasn't the only celebrity mentioned. She also mentioned that much, much later, so February 16 in 2024, quite close to the alleged murders, she messaged him because she'd seen him post a photo online of Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker. And she was curious about how he got so close to them. He was walking right next to them, she said in this photo. And she was asking him, look, if you can get to those people, you can help me find a particular country artist that she was interested in and wanted to potentially meet.

• 16:02Speaker 04

  Yeah, okay. Thank you, Jamie. Speaking of the messages that were sent from Jessie Baird's phone, we've talked about the messages that were sent to Jessie Baird's housemates on Tuesday as well, I believe, talking about how he may be going to Perth. It turns out, though, they weren't the only ones who had a message from Jessie Baird's phone. There was also someone that Jessie used to work with. What did her message say?

• 16:26Speaker 03

  Yeah, so this is one of several people that seems to have got a message mentioning Perth. This witness's name was Gemma Barge. And her statement was read in court, so she wasn't in court. But we heard through that statement that Jessie Baird messaged her on the Sunday night of the week leading up to the alleged murders. And he was wishing her good luck because she was about to start a new job. And then on Monday, she said that she got a message from Mr Baird asking, how did it go? And on Tuesday, she got another message from him, you know, continuing that conversation and saying, I'm happy for you. And also mentioning that he potentially would be going to Perth, but he would let her know whether or not that happened.

• 17:07Speaker 04

  And Jamie, I think the thing that kind of stuck with me from Gemma's statement that was read in court was her confusion around why she was getting these messages. At the point where she makes this statement to police, she seems to have an understanding of the timeline of what's unfolded. And, you know, it's not matching with these messages that she thinks she's getting from Jessie, which is one of the reasons she's talking to them. As well as the contact that she's had, that other people have had, the calls that were made. We've also heard of calls in the months following this. You know, he was in contact with people for a while, including after his arrest. And Bowler Markcondon actually called another friend, somebody he worked with in the police. And that does not sound like a phone call that was particularly well received by that person.

• 17:51Speaker 03

  No, it wasn't because it happened late at night. So this witness Dana Shagan said this was about a month after Bo Lamarcondon's arrest and she got phone calls from a number she didn't recognise, but she was somebody that Bo Lamarcondon worked with and they became close and we heard a lot of text messages or online communication between these two, where the defendant was letting her know a lot about the situation with Jessie and using her for, you know, advice or feedback at different points. And she remembered this call that she got on March 28, when she picked up eventually late at night. The voice on the other end was Mr Lamarcondon and he said, it's Bo and she said, she replied immediately

• 18:35Speaker 03

  with, what the F, why are you calling me? And then we heard, according to her evidence and her memory, that Bo Lamarcondon said to her, I just wanted to tell you, I love you. And before you do anything, you need to know, not everything in the news is true. It will come out in court. And Ms Shagan said that, once he was saying those things, she cut him off and she ended up hanging up. But before she hung up, she said, you killed two people. Why would you think I would ever want to speak to you again? And then we heard after that contact, she went to police and made a second statement and sort of told them about this contact.

• 19:15Speaker 04

  Yep. Thank you, Jamie. We've heard a little bit more about Luke Davies in the last week as well. There was a statement from a friend of his, someone he'd known from 11 years, met at a bootcamp on the Gold Coast. And it sounded like, from this evidence, that Luke's life was kind of going really well.

• 19:35Speaker 03

  Yeah. So this close friend of Luke, Jessica Voe, she remembered hanging out with him a couple of times a week. She knew things that he had shared about his relationships and his career goals. And she said he had just achieved one of his career goals, which was becoming an international flight attendant. He moved in around mid to late 2023, working for Qantas. And they also talked a lot about Jessie Baird and the relationship when it started. But we heard that they met when they both lived around the Gold Coast in Queensland and way before they moved interstate. She said she started socialising with him even outside that fitness bootcamp, because she just noticed he was a very caring and charismatic

• 20:16Speaker 03

  person to be around and made an effort to get to know everyone there. So they became pretty close over these 11 years. And at the point when he's living in Sydney, he's starting to see Jessie Baird in early 2024. Jessica Voe sees a photo of Jessie on Luke's Instagram and she's curious and she messages him and says, who's this? And we heard that Luke then replied in these DMs, saying, this is Jessie and I love that his name is your name. And they've sort of made some jokes about that. And then he told her that they weren't boyfriends at that point, but they had been seeing each other for a few weeks. And one of these messages Luke wrote back said, he's such a nice person, kills

• 20:59Speaker 03

  me, you want to squeeze him. And he added a crying laughing emoji. So it was kind of an insight into how excited he was about this relationship and how things were starting with Jessie Baird.

• 21:12Speaker 04

  Yeah, it was a really beautiful insight into into Luke's life as well, and also Jessie's as well. You can sort of see that and hear about that relationship starting to grow from from there. We are getting a lot of questions sent through to [email protected], our email address, where we welcome all thoughts, questions, feedback. If there's something that is stopping you from engaging in this case, or there's something that's nagging at the back of your mind, please get in touch. We would love to help plug that hole for you. There's one here from Mem Jamie, who is listening from the Solomon Islands. She's wondering about the view that the jury's taken to 60 Brown Street. Are they allowed to ask questions during that?

• 21:50Speaker 03

  Yeah, they were told before they went that they can ask questions in a similar way to how they do in court. So the judge told them to basically get together and write the question down on a piece of paper and hand it to a court officer. But the different thing about how that might have been handled if it did come up was that they wouldn't answer it on site in Paddington. They would wait until they were back in court and see how they could address it. So again, this was kind of controlled and the jurors understood before they went how things might happen. I don't know if they asked any questions there, but they were certainly given some pretty clear directions from Justice Adams about how they could ask questions if they needed to.

• 22:28Speaker 04

  Great. Thank you, Jamie. Thank you, Mem. Wonderful question. Appreciate you riding all the way from the Solomon Islands. It's a long way. I'm surprised you got to us so quickly, actually. So speaks to the efficiency of the case of inbox there. Jamie, another one here from Marcus. We're talking about the bedroom where Luke was allegedly murdered in. He's wondering if that's Jessie Baird's bedroom.

• 22:51Speaker 03

  Yeah, it is. So it's the first bedroom that you come to as soon as you walk in the front door. So on the floor plan, you can see it's sort of to the left immediately after the front door entrance. And if you go down the hallway, you get to the other areas. But it's Jessie Baird's bedroom is the ground floor bedroom, very close to the street. And that is the bedroom where it's alleged that Luke Davies was shot from the hallway through the door.

• 23:14Speaker 04

  Yep. Okay. Thank you, Jamie. Thank you, Marcus, for getting in touch with the case of. Appreciate your email. Jamie, another question here from Christie. She's asked about the the hook that was placed on the door that we've seen photos of that crime scene investigators noticed, following the the shooting of Jessie and Luke. And she's wondering if we know whether or not Bo Lamarcondon purchased that hook for the door in one of the visits to Bunnings that we've talked about in this episode.

• 23:43Speaker 03

  Yeah. So that was one of the items that appeared on a Kmart receipt that's before the jury. But we have heard that, as we're watching this compilation of CCTV that covers the day after the alleged murders, there was one point where the Crown pointed out that there was no CCTV recovered from the Kmart trip. So it's not every shopping trip that is shown in the compilation. Sometimes we've heard that the CCTV wasn't available by the time police went back to try and get it.

• 24:11Speaker 04

  Hmm. But we do have the receipt from that trip, don't we, Jamie?

• 24:13Speaker 03

  Yeah, there is a receipt before the jury showing that.

• 24:16Speaker 04

  One here from Shane from Melbourne, Jamie. He's wondering, and a number of other people actually wondering this as well. Has there been any discussion about whether Bo Lamarcondon knew Jessie Baird was supposed to move out of the Brown Street terrace on Monday, the 19th of February?

• 24:32Speaker 03

  No, there hasn't been any evidence or any mention of that. So that is not something the jury has heard.

• 24:37Speaker 04

  Yeah. Thank you, Jamie. Thank you, Shane. Sorry, we can't give you more than that, but we can only give you what the jury has been told at this point. With any luck, that question will be answered in the next couple of days, like happened the other week, Jamie, when there was a question we couldn't answer, in a very fulsome manner. But we had some evidence that then meant we could come back to it. So Shane, I'll pop a tag on your question there and the question that's being asked by many other people. And if that one comes up, we'll circle back. One here from Mick, JB. He's kind of listening intently and he's noticed that we mentioned in our last episode that there was only one bullet recovered from the Brown Street terrace. This is one that was under the floor in the kitchen. He's asking, wasn't another one also found on top of the cabinets?

• 25:21Speaker 03

  That was a cartridge case, so a fired cartridge from a gun that was on top of the kitchen cabinet. So that's the part that ejects from a firearm when the bullet is fired. So that's what they found above the cabinet. And we heard from that ballistics expert that he did some testing about how that might have ended up there. And he was testing, you know, if a cartridge is ejected from a certain area, would it get high enough to reach that point?

• 25:46Speaker 04

  Thank you, Jamie. Thank you, Mick, as well. Gives us an opportunity to tell you about all the things we learnt from our ballistics expert the other day, all the different parts of a bullet and a cartridge and the propellant and all of that. So thank you for getting in touch with [email protected]. Really do appreciate hearing from all of you. If there's anything you're wondering about, if there's a gap that we can fill and just helping you, you know, kind of follow along with this trial in a more fulsome way. Please get in touch. Send us an email, [email protected] is where you can reach us. Jamie, we're back in everyone's feed on Thursday. Do we know where we're heading next?

• 26:22Speaker 03

  Yeah. So the jurors have been told there's still about 20 minutes to go in this current compilation of CCTV. And then after that, they're expecting to hear from the witness who is known by the pseudonym Elizabeth Kennedy. So we've previously heard that she is the witness who was with Bo Lamarcondon in the van on the drive towards Goldwyn or Bungonia. And then there's also some more CCTV. So we've mentioned, Socky, we're only up to the Tuesday, the 20th, and the jury's been told there's more to come, including from the Wednesday, the 21st of February.

• 26:55Speaker 04

  Yep. Thank you, Jamie. Yeah. As I mentioned, we'll be back in your feed on Thursday this week. Make sure you get yourself around ABC Listen. It's the best place to listen to the case of. Also, watch the case off as well with our video episodes going up there. You can also watch us on YouTube if you so desire, if that is a platform of choosing. Other platforms as well, many podcast apps that you may use and all ours. If you're using one of those ones, leave us a little rating or a review because it makes it much easier for other people to find us. And I'll be talking to you very soon.

• 27:28Speaker 04

  The case of Jessie and Luke is produced by ABC Audio Studios and ABC News. This episode was reported by Jamie McKinnell and presented by me, Stephen Stockwell. Our supervising producer is Greg Muller and our executive producer is Claire Rollinson. This episode was produced on the land of the Gadigal and we're on Dri people.