Brendan Banfield, a former IRS officer, is set to be sentenced this Friday in Fairfax, Virginia, for the murders of his wife, pediatric ICU nurse Christine Banfield, and intruder Joseph Ryan. Banfield and Brazilian au‑pair Juliana Peres Magalhães plotted to eliminate Ryan and Christine as part of a scheme to secure custody of their 4‑year‑old daughter.
Magalhães, who was 21 when she began working for the Banfield family in 2021, testified that the couple impersonated the wife on a fetish website to lure Ryan to the Banfield home in Herndon. The plan involved a staged shoot‑and‑stab scene where Ryan was killed by Banfield’s firearm and a knife he had brought, and then Banfield’s wife was stabbed to death.
During the trial, Magalhães claimed she had told Banfield she wanted to marry him and start a family, but also that he feared divorce would grant his spouse more money and deny him full custody of their daughter. She testified that on the day of the killings, the child was kept in a car outside the house while Banfield and she waited for Ryan, who arrived to a sexual encounter involving a knife. After Banfield shot Ryan, she fired a second shot killing him.
Magalhães plead guilty to manslaughter in exchange for cooperating with the prosecution and was sentenced to ten years in prison after the trial. Banfield, meanwhile, is facing a life‑in‑prison sentence, with an additional child‑endangerment conviction for leaving the couple’s child alone during the murders.
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