Defense calls au pair a 'pawn' of investigators as double murder trial heads to jury

FAIRFAX, Va.  — The Brazilian au pair whose testimony was central during a double murder trial was a pawn and under duress when she agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, defense attorney John F. Carroll said during final arguments Friday in the case against his client, Brendan Banfield.

Juliana Peres Magalhaes, 25, testified that she and Banfield, 40, with whom she was having an affair, had carried out a plan to kill Banfield’s wife, Christine, 37, in a convoluted plot that also ended the life of another man, Joseph Ryan, 39.

The police didn’t verify her story, Carroll charged. “Juliana made it up. She told the Commonwealth what they wanted to hear and without question, they just took it as their story.”

A jury is now considering whether to convict Banfield of aggravated murder for the Feb. 24, 2023, killings. A former IRS agent, Banfield also faces child endangerment charges, as his then-4-year-old daughter was at home during the incident.

In prosecutors’ version of events, Banfield lured Ryan to the house with the assistance of Peres Magalhaes through a fetish website. In order to accomplish this, they posed as Christine Banfield seeking someone interested in a rape fantasy. The goal was to set up Ryan as an intruder who would be confronted by Banfield — providing an alibi for the murders.

In return for her testimony, Magalhaes, who was first charged with second-degree murder, was allowed to plead guilty to manslaughter with a recommended sentence of time served. From the beginning, Carroll charged, “she was a pawn in trying to get to my client.”

On the witness stand, Banfield denied that he had any part in the plan. A digital forensics investigator analyzed computer records and testified that, at times, someone in the house was using Christine’s tech devices when Brendan Banfield wasn’t home, implying that someone else could have set up the rape fantasy. Banfield testified that his late wife was interested in bondage.

In closing arguments, Jenna Sands, the chief deputy attorney in Fairfax County, argued that defense explanations didn’t make sense. Why would Christine Banfield, who had a blood clotting disorder, search for someone willing to engage in knife play?

“There are so many more whys,” Sands said, adding that the answer is that Christine didn’t set up the account. “It was Brendan Banfield, with the help of Juliana (Peres Magalhaes).”

Beyond this case, there is no digital history of Christine Banfield using dating websites, fetish websites, pornography or talking to other men, she added. “If there was one scintilla of evidence that supported these claims of infidelity, of interest in sexual violence, don’t you think you might have heard about it?”

For her part, the au pair is also negotiatimg payment from media for taking part in a documentary of the case. At one point, she was going to get a $25,000 payment to send to her mother. “It’s a lot of money in Brazil,” Carroll said.

Magalhaes’s story has been “bought and paid for,” Carroll charged. “First with her freedom, and now, a little bit on the back end.”

Jury deliberations continue Monday.