WATCH LIVE: Jury reaches decision in \u2018au pair affair\u2019 murders trial<\/a><\/p>\nA Fairfax County jury on Monday found Brendan Banfield guilty of aggravated murder in the killings of his wife and another man in the family\u2019s Herndon, Virginia, home in February 2023.<\/p>\n
The panel of 12 jurors began deliberating midday Friday on whether Banfield, a former IRS law enforcement officer, conspired with his family\u2019s au pair, with whom he was having an affair, to kill his wife and pin it on a stranger.<\/p>\n
Banfield now faces life in prison with no chance of parole after his conviction on both counts of aggravated murder.<\/p>\n
He was also found guilty of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and child endangerment, as his 4-year-old child was home during the killings. Judge Penney Azcarate scheduled sentencing for May 8.<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s monstrous\u2019<\/p>\n
Prosecutor Jenna Sands told the jury Banfield was in love with his family\u2019s Brazilian au pair, Juliana Peres Magalh\u00e3es. Sands argued the two of them staged an elaborate scheme to lure Joseph Ryan to the home to get rid of Banfield\u2019s wife, Christine, and blame her killing on Ryan.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really challenging to try to put yourself in someone like Mr. Banfield\u2019s mind, and I don\u2019t know that I want to try that hard, to be completely honest. I think that he was obviously hoping for a life with Juliana, and he didn\u2019t see a way to accomplish that without executing his wife,\u201d Sands said during a news conference after Monday\u2019s verdict.<\/p>\n
According to the prosecution and Magalh\u00e3es, who testified against Banfield after taking a plea deal, Banfield and the au pair created an account on a fetish website impersonating Christine and lured Ryan to the home with promises of rough sex.<\/p>\n
During her testimony, which spanned two days, Magalh\u00e3es detailed her sexual relationship with Banfield, his desire to \u201cget rid of his wife\u201d and the elaborate scheme he came up with to do so.<\/p>\n
After creating the profile on the platform FetLife, Magalh\u00e3es testified she and Banfield would both post to the site from Christine\u2019s laptop, and they were careful to post only when Christine was home.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knew that we needed to have some alibis,\u201d she said on the stand.<\/p>\n
On the morning of the killings, Magalh\u00e3es left the home with the Banfields\u2019 child and waited in her car for Ryan to arrive. Brendan Banfield had left earlier and was waiting at a nearby McDonald\u2019s for her to call.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey got Joe Ryan into the house, and then they shot him,\u201d Sands said during closing arguments. \u201cBrendan stabbed Christine, let her bleed out on the floor, and then dripped, smeared and wiped her blood on Joseph Ryan\u2019s body to make it look like he had attacked Christine. Then they called the police.\u201d<\/p>\n
During trial, Magalh\u00e3es testified that Banfield shot Ryan in the head, and the au pair shot Ryan in the chest.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s monstrous. I mean, that\u2019s really what it is. It\u2019s monstrous,\u201d Fairfax County Commonwealth\u2019s Attorney Steve Descano said. \u201cI\u2019ve been doing this job for a while, and I can tell you that this defendant stood out to me highest above all the other murder cases that we\u2019ve done in my six years here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fate of the au pair<\/p>\n
Magalh\u00e3es was initially charged with murder in October 2023, eight months after the killings and nearly a year before Banfield himself was charged.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did not authorize charges against Brendan Banfield until after we got the blood analysis done, that is what we were waiting for. And it wasn\u2019t until two months after we got the blood and we indicted Brendan for these crimes, that Juliana decided to proffer and cooperate with us,\u201d Descano said, adding the prosecution was prepared to go to trial without Magalh\u00e3es\u2019 testimony.<\/p>\n
As part of her plea deal, Magalh\u00e3es\u2019 charges were downgraded to manslaughter. While she could be sentenced to as little as the time she has already served, she faces up to 10 years in prison.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the work of being a prosecutor. She still is taking accountability for homicides,\u201d Descano said. \u201cJuliana, by testifying, answered a lot of questions, not only for us, but for the jury. Let\u2019s not forget how important her testimony may have been to some of those jurors. So her still facing up to 10 years in prison is very, very significant and well worth the cost to make sure that Brendan Banfield was convicted for a crime where it is a mandatory life sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Defense attorney John Carroll questioned Magalh\u00e3es\u2019 motives for cooperating, saying she told prosecutors what they wanted to hear. Carroll argued Brendan Banfield\u2019s DNA was not discovered on the knife that was used to kill Christine Banfield, and that prosecutors failed to produce evidence that corroborated their \u201ccatfishing\u201d theory.<\/p>\n
The defense also referenced conversations Magalh\u00e3es had before the trial with a media company about selling her story for a documentary, further attempting to cast doubt on her testimony.<\/p>\n
Banfield\u2019s attempt to defend himself comes up short<\/p>\n
The other key witness in the case was Banfield himself, who took the stand in his own defense.<\/p>\n
Sands, who used to practice as a defense attorney, said she was surprised by that decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I would have counseled against him taking the stand. But, you know, Mr. Carroll didn\u2019t have a lot to work with,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Banfield told jurors he rushed home after receiving a call from his au pair, heard sounds coming from his bedroom, identified himself as police when he saw Ryan holding a knife to Christine, then shot Ryan when he saw him stab her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know that I\u2019ve ever been more panicked in my life,\u201d Banfield testified. \u201cI was hoping to de-escalate the situation. I did not want to shoot him. I wanted him to let her go.\u201d<\/p>\n
During cross examination, Sands pressed Banfield for details about his story and his feelings toward his au pair and his wife.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that everyone has commented on what was so obvious \u2014 that he was not truthful, that he was cold, that he behaved oddly in response to questions that should have elicited emotion, that he never spoke of himself as Christine\u2019s husband, that he didn\u2019t speak lovingly of his wife, that he showed absolutely no human emotion that we expected to see of someone in his position.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Monday\u2019s verdict was delivered, Banfield, dressed in a gray suit and navy blue tie, again expressed little emotion.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy hope with this is that he realizes he didn\u2019t get away with it,\u201d Descano said. \u201cYou can see a lot of things that he set up trying to get away with it, thinking that he was going to beat the system, trying to outsmart everybody. I hope he thinks that, and most of all, though, I hope he thinks about his wife and Joe, and about what a heinous thing he did, because that\u2019s something that he is rightfully going to have to live with for the rest of his life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n WTOP’s Nick Iannelli speaks with Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano after a jury delivered a guilty verdict in the trial of Brendan Banfield.<\/p>\n
The Associated Press and WTOP\u2019s Jessica Kronzer and Neal Augenstein contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
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