Why Jurors Saw Video of a Surfboard Bag in a Murder Trial
Jurors in the Sydney double-murder trial were shown shop security video on Thursday, 24 September 2026. The video was from 17 February 2024, two days before the alleged killings.
The footage was taken at Miranda Westfield in Sydney's south. It shows Beau Lamarre-Condon's grey Tesla driving past the centre. It then shows him and a friend walking into a Decathlon store.
Lamarre-Condon, 31, is a former Sydney police officer. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one charge of aggravated break and enter, which means entering a home without permission in serious circumstances. The charges relate to the deaths of Jesse Baird, 26, and Luke Davies, 29.
Prosecutors allege Lamarre-Condon shot both men with his police service weapon at Baird's home in Paddington on 19 February 2024, according to proceedings reported by The Guardian. Davies was Baird's partner, as reported by BBC. He will argue he acted in self-defence, meaning he says he was protecting himself, ABC reported. The case is set for a three-month trial in the NSW Supreme Court.
Inside the store, Lamarre-Condon went to the surfboard bag section. He picked up several bags. He chose one and held it up against his friend to check the size.
Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC, the lawyer acting for the state, alleged Lamarre-Condon asked his friend if he would fit inside the bag. Receipts shown to the court indicated Lamarre-Condon paid $90 in cash for the item.
The Crown alleges the purchase was preparation. It alleges Baird was placed in the surfboard bag bought two days earlier. It alleges Lamarre-Condon went back to the same store after the shooting to buy a second surfboard bag to hide Davies' body. The Sydney Morning Herald described the purchase as one of the steps the Crown says formed part of planning for Baird's murder.
Detective in charge Sasha Pinazza told the court the investigation collected more than 14,000 hours of security video from 200 places. Jurors have now been shown several clips put together as a timeline around the alleged murders. Think of the clips like pieces of a puzzle the jury must fit together.
Other videos showed Lamarre-Condon collecting the alleged murder weapon from a police gun locker the day before the shootings. Separate footage showed his mother picking up a rental car allegedly later used to drive to Baird's house. Security video from a neighbouring house captured the sound of three gunshots on the morning of the alleged crime.
The Crown also pointed to earlier conduct to support premeditation, meaning planning ahead. The trial heard Lamarre-Condon asked a friend over a video call months earlier to help get something and then made a gun shape with his hand. The jury was told separately that Lamarre-Condon asked a friend for a gun, Nine reported. Hatfield alleged security footage of Baird with another man at the Royal Hotel in Paddington in May 2023 was found on Lamarre-Condon's personal devices.
The court was previously told Lamarre-Condon had developed an "obsessive and jealous infatuation" with Baird, ABC reported. Friends of Baird have given evidence in the trial, ABC reported.
The broader context here is that the jury must choose between two stories. The Crown presents a chain of buying, watching and hiding, with the surfboard bags, service pistol, rental car and sound of gunfire presented as linked elements. The defence does not dispute that deaths occurred but contends the legal character of the acts was self-defence.
In my view, that puts heavy weight on the video from before the shootings. If jurors accept the bags, weapon collection and car hire as a planned course, the self-defence claim becomes harder to sustain. If they harbour doubt about intent behind those acts, the Crown's structure loosens.
