DNA and Bullet Wounds Take Center Stage in Sydney Double-Murder Trial

Forensic evidence has become the central fight in the Sydney double-murder trial of Beau Lamarre-Condon, 31, a former police officer.

Lamarre-Condon is accused of shooting Jesse Baird and Luke Davies in Baird's Paddington home on 19 February 2024. Baird was his former partner. Davies was Baird's new partner. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one charge of aggravated break and enter The Guardian.

The prosecution alleges he entered dressed as an UberEats rider. It alleges Baird was shot twice, at the base of the neck and in the right temple, and Davies was shot through the bedroom door. The alleged weapon was Lamarre-Condon's police service gun.

The defence alleges the men died in two separate incidents in self-defence. It alleges the gun was flung across the room in a struggle with Baird, picked up by Davies, who then shot himself in a struggle with Lamarre-Condon.

That clash was tested with crime scene officer Greg Moon. Defence lawyer John Stratton SC questioned him on DNA recovery and the bedroom door. A swab from the barrel of the alleged gun gave a partial DNA profile, meaning only some markers lined up, that partly matched Davies. The hole in the bedroom door tested negative for blood. Stratton put to Moon that movement of biological material from a wound through the door hole into the barrel was close to zero likelihood. Moon disagreed, saying he believed such transfer was still possible.

Pathologist Dr Kendall Bailey, who did the postmortem examinations after death, addressed whether that account was physically possible. Her diagram showed a bullet entered Baird at the base of the neck and exited just below the lip. She said it missed major neck vessels, the spine and the windpipe, passing through the jaw and base of the tongue. A person with that injury could not make meaningful speech. Bailey said the temple shot passed through the brain and would incapacitate, or shut down conscious control. A person with that injury might move involuntarily but could not deliberately throw a gun across a room.

CT scans of Baird and Davies' skulls showing bullet damage were shown to the jury. Forensic radiologist Dr James Raleigh, an X-ray specialist, said there was a hole on the right side of Baird's head at the temple, with small bone fragments in a line inside the skull marking the bullet's path.

Other exhibits trace the alleged aftermath. Crime scene photos included a hole in a door and a bent bullet The Guardian. The prosecution alleges Lamarre-Condon used putty and paint to cover the bullet hole in the bedroom door. The jury heard DNA on parts of the gun, including the trigger, came from three people. CCTV footage and police photos from key locations were also shown ABC.

The broader context here is the collision between self-defence claims and wound ballistics, the study of how bullets travel and wound. Prosecutors will use the incapacitation evidence and door-hole findings to argue for deliberate firing from a distance. The defence will lean on the barrel DNA and possible secondary transfer to support a close struggle and accidental discharge. A partial match, mixed DNA from three contributors and a blood-negative result are different categories with different limits.

Looking at what this means for the trial, the forensic witnesses are now decisive. Moon, Bailey and Raleigh have narrowed the physically possible sequences. The jury must decide whether room remains for two separate struggles, or whether rapid incapacitation closes it.