Au pair continues testimony in Brendan Banfield’s trial for the killings of his wife and another man
Brendan Banfield appears in court for his trial in Fairfax County
(CNN) — The au pair who was having an extra-marital affair with Brendan Banfield when he allegedly killed his wife and another man in February 2023 resumed her pivotal testimony in Banfield’s double-murder trial Wednesday morning.
Juliana Peres Magalhães took the stand Tuesday, the first day of testimony, to describe the killings inside the Banfields’ Herndon, Virginia, home – and the elaborate scheme she said she and the defendant used to lure Joseph Ryan to the scene to frame him for the killing of Christine Banfield.
Prosecutors have said Banfield and Peres Magalhães reported the killings to police as if Ryan were an intruder who had stabbed Christine.
Peres Magalhães, who was initially charged with murder in the case in October 2023, has since pleaded guilty to a lesser count of involuntary manslaughter for fatally shooting Ryan. She agreed to cooperate with prosecutors against Banfield in exchange for a recommendation she be sentenced to time served, according to the plea agreement.
Banfield has pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated murder, as well as using a firearm during the commission of a felony. He faces up to life in prison if convicted on the murder charges.
On Wednesday, the prosecution continued questioning Peres Magalhães, asking her why she ultimately decided to plead guilty.
“The thought of being the right thing to do, I guess,” she testified. “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 and all those feelings.”
Peres Magalhães said she’s testifying against Banfield also because it opens the possibility of getting less prison time.
Later in the morning, Peres Magalhães began testifying under cross-examination.
On her first day of testimony, the Brazilian au pair said she started living with the Banfields in October 2021, and in August 2022, she and Brendan Banfield began their affair. Peres Magalhães testified Banfield began hatching his plan to kill his wife not long after.
He expressed a desire to be with Peres Magalhães instead, she testified, and he thought his wife to be a poor mother. He did not want to pay for a divorce, nor share custody of their young daughter, Peres Magalhães said.
Peres Magalhães said she and the defendant used Christine Banfield’s laptop to create a fake email address and an account on a fetish website. Banfield planned to find a man on the site who they could eventually frame for his wife’s murder, the au pair testified.
They specifically sought someone who would be willing to carry out a rape fantasy and they exchanged messages with multiple candidates for the alleged patsy, according to Peres Magalhães’ testimony and messages shown to jurors in court. Eventually, they found Ryan, who Banfield thought would “play the role that he needed a person to play,” Peres Magalhães said – meaning he would be “aggressive and hold her down and come over to the house and bring stuff.”
In her opening statements, prosecutor Jenna Sands said Banfield posed as his wife and gave Ryan specific instructions: “Christine will be asleep in bed. Come straight upstairs. Cut off the clothing. Tie her. Rape her. Simple and fun. That was how it was posed,” Sands said in court.
That morning, the au pair waited with Banfield’s daughter in her car near the family’s home, she said. When she saw Ryan arrive, she first called Christine -– whose phone had been turned off by her husband, Peres Magalhães said – and then called Banfield, ostensibly reporting the presence of a strange man in the home.
Banfield returned from a nearby McDonald’s where he was waiting, Peres Magalhães said. He and the au pair then entered the home through the basement, where they left the Banfields’ young daughter before heading upstairs.
In the bedroom, Christine Banfield yelled out to her husband that the purported intruder had a knife, the au pair testified. Ryan looked up at them, “shocked,” Peres Magalhães said – and then Banfield shot him.
Christine asked Peres Magalhães to call 911, but the au pair said she hung up the call at Brendan Banfield’s direction. She then watched Banfield repeatedly stab his wife, she said, covering her ears so she wouldn’t hear it.
“When I first saw that happening, I ran to the other side of the bed, and I was just crouching down … and covering my ears and covering my eyes,” Peres Magalhães said. “And a few times I looked and I was able to see him stabbing her.”
They then called 911 again. Peres Magalhães said her “friend” had been stabbed, and Banfield told the dispatcher he was a federal agent who had shot the man who stabbed his wife.
Banfield’s defense attorney refuted the prosecution’s theory in his opening statement, saying investigators initially concluded Christine Banfield had control over her devices – an effort to rebut the theory that Ryan had been “catfished.”
The attorney, John Carroll, also accused law enforcement of manipulating evidence to pin the blame on his client, and said Peres Magalhães had been arrested to flip on Banfield.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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