Beau Lamarre-Condon trial hears evidence on bedroom-door hole and pistol barrel DNA

Beau Lamarre-Condon’s double murder trial in Sydney heard evidence reported on 13 October about a bullet hole in a bedroom door, DNA in a pistol barrel and whether Jesse Baird could have moved after being shot. The testimony bears on competing accounts of how Baird and Luke Davies died at Baird’s Paddington home on 19 February 2024; the jury has not reached a verdict.

Lamarre-Condon, 31, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and aggravated break and enter. The prosecution alleges he entered the home disguised as a food-delivery rider, shot Baird twice and shot Davies through a bedroom door to eliminate a witness. The defence says the deaths occurred during separate struggles and that Lamarre-Condon acted in self-defence.

What the pathologist said about Jesse Baird’s wounds

Forensic pathologist Kendall Bailey told the court that a shot passing through a significant portion of Baird’s brain and central nervous system would be instantly incapacitating. She said she did not think someone with that injury could make conscious movements, although involuntary movements might occur. In particular, she did not believe the person could consciously throw a gun after the shot.

That testimony bears on the defence account that the firearm was thrown across the room during a struggle with Baird. The defence also says Davies picked up the gun and accidentally shot himself during a second struggle. Bailey’s assessment of the injury is expert testimony for the jury to consider, not a finding about which account is true.

Bailey also agreed that two wounds on Davies’ thigh were consistent with a single-bladed weapon and likely occurred at or after death. On another forensic detail, crime-scene officer Greg Moon said the only wound he saw with stippling was the gunshot wound to Baird’s right temple. Bailey said she did not observe stippling on the gunshot wounds and noted that decomposition had affected the bodies.

Why the bedroom-door hole and pistol barrel matter

The jury was told that a hole said to have been made by the shot that killed Davies was found in July 2026, more than two years after the deaths. It measured less than one centimetre across. Defence barrister John Stratton challenged how biological material could pass through a hole of that size and enter the barrel of the firearm.

Stratton put to Moon that the likelihood of this happening approached zero. Moon disagreed, saying he believed material could pass from a wound through the hole and into the barrel. Their exchange concerns a disputed explanation for the material, rather than an established conclusion about the shot’s path.

The Guardian reported that a DNA profile from a barrel swab partially matched Davies. AAP described a testing limitation, saying the DNA in the barrel could not be tested. The reports do not explain how those descriptions fit together. Moon also testified, according to AAP, that biological material would not be found in the barrel if the gun were fired again because the heat would kill DNA. The underlying laboratory findings are not set out in either report.

What the jury has yet to decide

AAP reported that both sides agree Baird was killed first by two gunshot wounds and Davies by a third shot. The dispute is over the circumstances of those shots and the defence claim of self-defence. The pathologist’s evidence about Baird’s ability to move and the questions about the door and pistol barrel go directly to that dispute, but the testimony does not itself resolve it.

The trial before Justice Natalie Adams was continuing when the reports were published. Neither report recorded a verdict. The jury has yet to determine whether the prosecution has proved its account of the shootings in light of the evidence and the defence case.