Beau Lamarre-Condon says he was frustrated but not angry his love interest was dating another man months before fatally shooting him.
The 31-year-old has pleaded not guilty to murdering Jesse Baird and Luke Davies with his police-issue pistol at their inner-city Sydney terrace in February 2024.
On his sixth day of evidence at the NSW Supreme Court, the former senior constable was asked about seeing Instagram messages on Mr Baird's phone in November 2023.
These showed Mr Baird was dating another man Damon Wilson.
Lamarre-Condon said he deleted the messages while Mr Baird was in the shower as what he saw contradicted his belief the TV presenter was not dating Mr Wilson.
“Were you angry about this?” crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC wrote.
“Angry, no. Was I a bit kind of frustrated? … Yes,” Lamarre-Condon replied.
The 31-year-old admitted what he did was wrong.
But he told jurors he checked the messages and blocked Mr Wilson because he did not want to help Mr Baird cheat if he was in an exclusive relationship with someone else.
“It was based on your own sexual jealousy in relation to Mr Baird, wasnt it?” Mr Hatfield asked.
"No," the former police officer said.
Lamarre-Condon said he did not come out directly and ask Mr Baird about the other man to avoid an argument.
“That would then be starting a fight. I didn't want to fight with Jesse," he said.
Lamarre-Condon admitted posting an image of flowers on Instagram six days earlier in a story only Mr Wilson could see to falsely represent he was in a relationship with Mr Baird.
He also posted a separate video of Mr Baird on his bed playing with his dog to Mr Wilson and other close friends.
The posts were to weed out whether Mr Wilson and Mr Baird were in an exclusive relationship, the jury heard.
Mr Wilson did not respond to the messages.
Lamarre-Condon dated Mr Baird from December 2022 until they broke up in April the following year.
He insists they were romantically involved again between September and November 2023, when they broke up a second time.
Mr Baird and Mr Davies were fatally shot in their Paddington home on February 19, 2024.
Prosecutors alleged Lamarre-Condon was obsessed with Mr Baird despite the couple breaking up, staking out the other man's house for hours before entering the home to assassinate him.
The 31-year-old claims he disguised himself as an Uber Eats driver to retrieve belongings from Mr Baird's home and has argued self-defence for the killings.
He says he accidentally shot Mr Baird during a tussle in the kitchen and Mr Davies shot himself during a separate altercation as he tried to leave the home to flag down an ambulance.
He led police to where their bodies were stuffed in surfboard bags and buried behind a rural monastery when he handed himself in days after the incident.
