Jesse Baird’s housemate, identified in court as Belinda Smith, testified that she was unaware she was looking at bags that contained the dead bodies of Baird and his partner when she photographed the oozing surfboard covers on the night of their alleged murders.
Beau Lamarre‑Condon, 31, has been accused of fatally shooting Baird and Luke Davies with his police service weapon in Baird’s Paddington home on 19 February 2024. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one charge of aggravated break and enter.
Smith returned home from work the evening after the shootings and went to the courtyard to check her washing after a day of heavy rain. There she saw two surfboard bags covered with a blue tarp and a red liquid. Believing the liquid was crusted water from outdoor furniture, she took a photo and sent it to another housemate, known as Sarah King, which was later shown to the jury.
The housemates had asked Baird to move out, and he had agreed to leave on 20 February. However, he was shot on 19 February, so his belongings were not yet packed. When Smith left for work on the morning of 20 February, she saw that Baird’s items remained in his room and sent a message to King expressing concern. A message from Baird’s phone claimed he had hired someone to collect his things and might be traveling to Perth. After a brief exchange, some of Baird’s items were removed. By 22 February the surfboards and liquid were cleared, but the bodies were found five days later in two surfboard bags on a fence line near a rural monastery in Bungonia.
The defence argues the shots were fired in self‑defence, while the prosecution maintains that Lamarre‑Condon panicked and staged the scene. The trial before Justice Natalie Adams continues.
