{"id":445554,"date":"2026-02-03T00:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T00:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/445554\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T00:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T00:20:11","slug":"brendan-banfield-convicted-of-double-murder-in-au-pair-affair-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/445554\/","title":{"rendered":"Brendan Banfield convicted of double murder in au pair affair trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n A Virginia jury found Brendan Banfield guilty of killing his wife and another man as part of an elaborate scheme with the family\u2019s au pair.\n <\/p>\n

\n Prosecutors argued Banfield plotted with the au pair \u2013 with whom he was having an extramarital affair \u2013 to lure another man, Joseph Ryan, into their home with a fetish website and frame him for the murder of his wife, Christine Banfield.\n <\/p>\n

\n Brendan Banfield was convicted of two counts of aggravated murder, a firearms offense and child endangerment. His daughter, who was 4 at the time, was in the home at the time of the killings, prosecutors said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Banfield appeared stoic as the Fairfax County jury\u2019s verdict was read aloud in court. The panel got the case midday Friday and deliberated much of Monday.\n <\/p>\n

\n He is expected to be sentenced to life in prison, the mandatory penalty for the highest murder charge in Virginia. Sentencing is scheduled for May 8.\n <\/p>\n

\n Steve Descano, commonwealth\u2019s attorney for Fairfax County, said Banfield\u2019s actions were \u201cmonstrous.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI hope he thinks about his wife in jail and about what a heinous thing he did,\u201d Descano told reporters after the verdict Monday. \u201cBecause that\u2019s something he\u2019s rightfully going to have to live with for the rest of his life.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Banfield was in love with the au pair, Juliana Peres Magalh\u00e3es, and plotted to get rid of his wife so they could be together, prosecutors said. Together they created fake accounts to pose as his wife on a fetish website to lure Ryan to the home under the guise of a consensual but violent sexual encounter with Christine, the au pair testified.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\n Prosecutors say Banfield fatally stabbed his wife and shot Ryan when he intervened in the 2023 encounter between Ryan and his wife and then staged the crime scene to make Ryan\u2019s killing appear to be an act of self-defense.\n <\/p>\n

\n The trial began January 12. Prosecutors called about 20 witnesses in the case over four days and another two witnesses in a short rebuttal.\n <\/p>\n

\n The defense called several law enforcement witnesses to bolster its claims of a flawed investigation that led prosecutors to manipulate evidence to make a case against Banfield. The defense also put on a digital forensics analyst who said data recovered from Christine Banfield\u2019s devices suggests there could not have been a catfishing scheme as prosecutors asserted.\n <\/p>\n

\"Christine<\/p>\n

The defendant took the stand<\/p>\n

\n Banfield, who\u2019s maintained his innocence, took the stand in his own defense<\/a>, acknowledging the affair with Peres Magalh\u00e3es started in August 2022 but denying any plans to kill his wife.\n <\/p>\n

\n He testified he loved his wife despite them both having affairs throughout their nearly 20-year relationship and said his latest dalliance with the nanny wasn\u2019t going to change his marriage.\n <\/p>\n

\n Banfield also said he and Peres Magalh\u00e3es had broken up at different times in their affair and were not actively in a relationship the day of the killings.\n <\/p>\n

\n Prosecutor Jenna Sands, who cross-examined Banfield, said he was dishonest and cold during his testimony.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHe showed absolutely no human emotion that we\u2019d expect to see of someone in that position,\u201d Sands said after the verdict on Monday.\n <\/p>\n

\n The prosecution\u2019s case relied heavily on the au pair\u2019s testimony detailing the scheme she says she helped Banfield execute to \u201cget rid\u201d of his wife. According to the au pair, she watched Banfield fatally stab his wife and stage the crime scene to frame Ryan before they called 911.\n <\/p>\n

\n Peres Magalh\u00e3es was arrested for Ryan\u2019s murder in October 2023 and a year later agreed to cooperate with prosecutors against Banfield in exchange for a recommendation she be sentenced to time served.\n <\/p>\n

\n Banfield was not arrested and charged with murder for his wife\u2019s and Ryan\u2019s deaths until September 2024.\n <\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n

\n Banfield testified on February 24, 2023, he\u2019d left for the day in anticipation of an important work meeting when Peres Magalh\u00e3es called him to say she saw a strange man enter the family\u2019s home. Banfield said he thought his wife might\u2019ve been having an affair and drove home from a nearby McDonald\u2019s to investigate.\n <\/p>\n

\n He said Peres Magalh\u00e3es followed him into the home and up the stairs, leaving his 4-year-old daughter alone in the basement. Banfield, an armed IRS special agent, said he entered his bedroom with his service weapon drawn, finding Ryan attacking his naked wife. Banfield testified he announced himself as police and shot Ryan after the man repeatedly stabbed Christine Banfield.\n <\/p>\n

\n Peres Magalh\u00e3es fired a second shot at Ryan with Banfield\u2019s personal firearm. He testified he never told her to get the gun from his safe or shoot Ryan, but the au pair said Banfield had taught her how to shoot before the incident and gave her the gun earlier that morning.\n <\/p>\n

\n When police officers arrived on the scene, they found Banfield kneeling over his wife\u2019s body with his hands on her neck. Banfield testified his wife, still conscious at the time, directed him to apply pressure to her wounds to slow the bleeding.\n <\/p>\n

\n Brendan Banfield\u2019s DNA was not found on the knife used to fatally stab Christine. Analysis only recovered DNA from Christine and Ryan, who prosecutors say brought the knife there at Brendan Banfield\u2019s direction, posing as his wife.\n <\/p>\n

\n The jury deciding whether to convict Banfield on Virginia\u2019s top homicide charge had to weigh Banfield\u2019s credibility over Peres Magalh\u00e3es. Prosecutors and Banfield\u2019s defense attorney agreed not to offer the jury less severe homicide charges to consider against Banfield.\n <\/p>\n

\n This is a developing story and will be updated.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Virginia jury found Brendan Banfield guilty of killing his wife and another man as part of an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-445554","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}