A Virginia man is standing trial after being accused of joining forces with his young Brazilian lover to carry out an elaborate scheme to murder his wife and then stage a crime scene to make it look like another man killed her.
Brendan Banfield faces four counts of aggravated murder, among other charges, in connection with the killings of his wife, 37-year-old Christine Banfield, and 38-year-old Joseph Ryan in February 2023, in Herndon, Virginia.
His ex-lover, Juliana Peres Magalhaes, was also charged with murder but pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter. In her plea deal, prosecutors agreed to recommend that she be sentenced to time served in exchange for her testimony against Banfield.
Maghalhaes was an au pair from Brazil who worked as a live-in nanny for the Banfields.
She testified that she started working for the couple in October 2021 and that her affair with Banfield started in August 2022, when she was 22.
Not long after, Banfield allegedly expressed a desire to be with Magalhaes and started hatching a plan to get rid of his wife. He didn’t want a divorce because he didn’t want to share custody of the pair’s 4-year-old daughter, prosecutors said.
“He thought Christine was a terrible mother,” Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Jenna Sands said in her opening statements, per WUSA. “He wanted her out of the picture.”
Magalhaes told prosecutors that Banfield considered hiring a hitman, but took a different and more complex route — he used his wife’s email address to set up a profile on Fetlife, a sexual fetish website, then posted requests for people to fulfill a “stranger rape fantasy.”
Joseph Ryan answered the request.
Still posing as his wife, Banfield communicated with Ryan for a month before inviting him to his home for some violent sexual role play, according to prosecutors. They allegedly agreed that Ryan would come to the house while Christine was asleep, cut off her clothes, tie her up, and rape her. He was ordered to bring a knife and to leave his phone in the car.
“Most importantly, he was not to stop,” Sands said. “Even if she looked terrified, even if she was calling for help, he was to follow through.”
They set the date of the sexual encounter on Feb. 24, 2023 — Brendan Banfield’s birthday.
Prosecutors say Magalhaes and Banfield prepared for the killings. They allegedly scoured the neighborhood for doorbell cameras and even went to a shooting range to practice, purchased a gun, and installed soundproofed windows in their home, according to the New York Times.
On the day of the killings, prosecutors say they both left the home at the time Ryan was supposed to arrive. Banfield allegedly turned off Christine’s phone before leaving, then left the house to wait at a nearby McDonald’s. Magalhaes said she took the Banfields’ daughter and waited for Ryan in a car parked down the street.
When Ryan arrived, Magalhaes testified that she called Banfield.
Magalhaes said she and Banfield drove back to the home and entered through the basement, where they left the 4-year-old.
When Banfield went upstairs to his bedroom with his pistol drawn, his wife called out to him that Ryan, the supposed intruder, had a knife, Magalhaes testified. She recalled that Ryan looked “shocked” before Banfield shot him in the head.
Magalhaes said Christine asked her to call 911, but she ended the call after Banfield ordered her to.
Then Banfield allegedly stabbed Christine to death with the knife Ryan brought.
Magalhaes said she was crouched behind the bed, covering her head and ears so she wouldn’t hear.
She also said Banfield ordered her to shoot Ryan in the chest.
Afterward, Magalhaes called 911 again.
In a recording of the call, Magalhaes is heard tearfully saying her friend had been stabbed before Banfield takes over and tells the dispatcher, “I’m a federal agent. This is my house. There’s someone here. I shot him. He stabbed her.”
Banfield was an IRS agent at the time.
Magalhaes was arrested in October 2023, nearly a year before Banfield was arrested and charged. Defense attorneys argued that the prosecution pressured Magalhaes into a deal during the year she spent in prison.
“The whole reason she was arrested was to flip her against [Banfield],” Defense attorney John Carroll said.
Magalhaes said she chose to testify because she couldn’t withstand the guilt she felt.
“The world deserved to know what really happened and I just couldn’t hold it – I just couldn’t keep it to myself, the feeling of shame and guilt and sadness,” Magalhaes said in court, according to CNN.
Defense attorneys pointed to letters Magalhaes sent Banfield during the 11 months she was in prison, which they say reveal that she didn’t initially want to testify against Banfield, but eventually broke down.
She wrote to Banfield in December 2023, telling him, “I’m not going to cooperate with them. There’s nothing on you so I don’t know what they are going to use.”
In another letter from the spring of 2024, she wrote, “Sometimes I just think to myself like I can’t believe I’m facing life in prison for someone. Things weren’t supposed to be this way, right? But people are stupid including me and make mistakes … Act without thinking … That’s how I did.”
Carroll also disputed the prosecution’s arguments that Ryan had been “catfished,” claiming that Brendan Banfield would need access to his wife’s devices to pose as her, which he didn’t.
Along with aggravated murder, Banfield also faces one count of using a firearm to commit a felony, two counts of child abuse with disregard for life, and one count of child cruelty, since his child was home at the time of the killings.
He has pleaded not guilty. If he’s convicted, he could face life in prison.
Magalhaes will be sentenced when Banfield’s trial concludes.
