Jury convicts Virginia man in au pair double murder

FAIRFAX, Va. (CN) —  A Virginia jury convicted Brendan Banfield on Monday of aggravated murder in the gruesome Feb. 24, 2023, killings of his wife, Christine Banfield, 37, and Joseph Ryan, 39.

During the trial prosecutors charged that Banfield was having an affair with Juliana Peres Magalhães, 25, the family au pair, and did not want to share custody of his daughter. Instead of a divorce, he stabbed his wife to death and shot Ryan, who had been lured to the Banfield residence to serve as fall guy.

“There were obviously salacious details that caused [the trial] to get a lot of attention,” said Steve Descano, Commonwealth’s Attorney for Fairfax County in Northern Virginia, during a press conference after the trial. “But at the end of the day this case is about two people, two neighbors of ours that were murdered three years ago.”

Beyond the murder charges, the jury also convicted Banfield, a former criminal investigator for the IRS, with one count of using a firearm in the commission of a felony and one count of child endangerment, as his then-4-year-old daughter was at home during the incident.

Magalhães, an au pair from Brazil, previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter for her role in the killings. She cooperated with investigators and testified during trial that she joined Banfield’s scheme to kill his wife and blame it on Ryan.

John F. Carroll, Banfield’s attorney, has argued that investigators pressured Magalhães until she flipped and agreed to help the prosecution.  Descano indicated that the prosecution could have gone without her.

Magalhaes gave “flavor to what happened in that room,” Descano said. But a plethora of other evidence — specifically, blood splatters at the scene — bolstered her testimony.

Prosecutors accused Banfield of luring Ryan to the house to set him up as an intruder that he would then fatally confront, providing an alibi for the murders. They say Banfield did this with the assistance of Magalhães by posing online as his wife purportedly seeking someone interested in a rape fantasy. When sending messages, they used Christine Banfield’s cellphone or laptop.

According to Banfield, on the morning of the murders, he left for work but returned after being summoned by Magalhães, who saw a man entering the home.

He said he then found the au pair and the Banfields’ daughter sitting in one of the family cars near the house. Banfield testified that he told Magalhães to stay in the car with his daughter. Instead, she followed him inside the house, bringing the child along.

He said that he’d thought he had discovered his wife in an affair and didn’t think of calling 911.

Near the bedroom, Banfield said he heard moaning. The noise became more intense and he worried that his wife had been hurt. He said Ryan stabbed Christine Banfield and he then shot Ryan. He claimed Magalhães, who had followed him up the stairs, retrieved a gun and shot Ryan again because he was still moving.

Jenna Sands, who served as lead prosecutor in the case, said Banfield was not a truthful witness.

“He behaved oddly in response to questions that should have elicited emotion,” Sands said. “He never spoke of himself as Christine’s husband. He didn’t speak lovingly of his wife. He showed absolutely no human emotion that we expect to see of someone in his position.”

The jury of seven women and five men deliberated nearly nine hours over two days before deciding they did not believe Banfield. Judge Penney S. Azcarate, chief judge of the circuit court in Fairfax County, presided over the case and set sentencing in May.

Following a seven-month investigation, Fairfax County Police Department arrested Magalhães in October 2023 and charged her with shooting Ryan during the attack. In September 2024, police announced they were also charging Banfield with the double murder. The child endangerment charge was added three months later.