Defense attorney in double murder case pushes back against catfishing theory

FAIRFAX, Va. (CN) — A Fairfax County detective testified that he was asked to review his conclusion that Christine Banfield was in control of electronic devices used to create an account on a fetish website — a report that upends other investigators’ theories in the trial of Brendan Banfield, who is accused of murdering his wife and another person.

Prosecutors claim Brendan, 40, and the family au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhaes, 25, used wife Christine’s devices to create a fetish account and stage her murder on Feb. 24, 2023.

Brendan Miller, once a digital forensic examiner for the Fairfax County Police Department, was called to testify Wednesday in the trial of Brendan Banfield, a former IRS investigator who faces charges of aggravated murder and child abuse (stemming from the presence of his then 4-year-old daughter during the crime).

With the trial in its second week, Brendan Banfield’s attorney, John F. Carroll, on Wednesday raised questions about whether the detective faced pressure to change his conclusions to suit a theory implicating his client.

Miller said he didn’t change the executive summary of his report.

“Based on the digital evidence I had at the time, and the facts at the time, it indicated that the device owner (Christine Banfield) was responsible for the activity on the device,” Miller said. The detective said two accounts were established on Christine Banfield’s telephone — an email account and an account connected to the fetish website.

The question of whether Christine Banfield or her husband created the accounts plays a central role in the fate of Brendan Banfield, who could spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Prosecutors charge that Brendan Banfield established an account on a fetish website using Christine’s devices. Acting with the help of Magalhaes, they say he searched for someone to engage in a rape fantasy.

That person, they say, was Joseph Ryan, 39, also killed in the Banfield home.

In the months after the murders of Ryan and Christine Banfield, investigators developed a catfishing theory. They say Brendan Banfield and Magalhaes set up a false profile for Christine in order to lure an unsuspecting stranger — Ryan — to the home.

Brendan Banfield disputes that. He claims he found Ryan in his bedroom. Ryan stabbed Christine, and he shot Ryan.

But Magalhaes, who testified for the prosecution, said Banfield shot Ryan and then used Ryan’s knife to kill Christine. Magalhaes has said that she and Brendan Banfield used Christine Banfield’s devices to create the disputed accounts.

Despite his expertise, Miller recalled that he wasn’t asked to participate when investigators interrogated Magalhaes.

“I wasn’t able to provide them anything because I didn’t know it (the interview) was happening,” he said.

A year ago, he was transferred from his job and now works with child exploitation cases. And while he said he couldn’t speak to the motive behind the transfer, “it was related to my work in the Banfield case.”

But barring external corroboration, it is impossible to say who is behind a screen, pointed out Jenna Sands, chief deputy commonwealth’s attorney for Fairfax County. “So, in this case, the digital forensics may not lie, but they didn’t provide us with any conclusive evidence of who was operating Christine’s phone.”

Early in the day, Carroll showed the jury an officer’s body-cam recording from the day of the murders. Throughout, Brendan Banfield could be heard crying, asking officers about the condition of his wife and the location of his daughter. At one point he tells officers that he wants to be with his wife.

Magalhaes was originally charged with murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter.