Jury to continue deliberations in au pair affair double-murder trial next week

By Lauren del Valle, CNN

(CNN) — A jury in Virginia will continue deliberating next week in the double-murder trial of Brendan Banfield, accused of plotting to kill his wife and another man nearly three years ago.

Banfield faces life in prison if convicted of aggravated murder for what prosecutors say was an elaborate scheme Banfield concocted with his family’s Brazilian au pair to kill his wife, Christine Banfield, and another man, Joseph Ryan, in their family home on February 24, 2023.

The panel of 12 got the case midday Friday and did not reach a unanimous verdict before leaving the weekend. They’re expected to continue deliberations Monday morning.

In closing arguments Friday, a prosecutor said Banfield was in love with the au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães, and plotted to get rid of his wife so they could be together. 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.

Prosecutors say Banfield fatally stabbed his wife and shot Ryan when he intervened in the encounter between Ryan and his wife and then staged the crime scene to make Ryan’s killing appear to be an act of self-defense.

“They created accounts. They chatted up potential victims. They got Joe Ryan into the house, and then they shot him. Brendan stabbed Christine, let her bleed out on the floor, and then dripped, smeared and wiped her blood on Joseph Ryan’s body to make it look like he had attacked Christine,” prosecutor Jenna Sands told the jury Friday in closing arguments. “Then they called the police, Brendan let Juliana take the fall, and it took a little bit of doing, but here we are, and it’s his turn to be held accountable.”

Banfield has maintained his innocence and his lawyer has accused investigators of manipulating evidence to pin the crimes on his client. Banfield took the stand in his own defense, acknowledging the affair with Peres Magalhães that started in August 2022 but denied any plans to kill his wife.

He testified that he loved his wife despite them both having affairs throughout their nearly 20-year relationship and said his latest dalliance with the nanny wasn’t going to change his marriage.

Banfield also said he and Peres Magalhães had broken up at different times in their affair and were not actively in a relationship the day of the killings.

Defense says au pair ‘made it up’

Peres Magalhães was arrested for Ryan’s murder in October 2023, and a year later agreed to cooperate with prosecutors against Banfield in exchange for a recommendation that she be sentenced to time served.

The prosecution’s case relies heavily on her testimony detailing the scheme she says she helped Banfield execute to “get rid” of his wife. According to Peres Magalhães, she watched Banfield fatally stab his wife and stage the crime scene to frame Ryan before they called 911.

But the defense says Peres Magalhães “made it up.”

“Juliana made it up. She told the Commonwealth what they wanted to hear, and without question they just took it as their story. She told this lie to secure herself a deal that benefited her,” defense attorney John Carroll told the jury Friday in closing arguments.

Banfield was not arrested and charged with murder for his wife’s and Ryan’s deaths until September 2024.

Carroll has repeatedly questioned the integrity of the investigation that led to Banfield’s arrest, accusing investigators of offering the au pair a deal for her fake testimony and ignoring digital evidence that he says disproves the theory that Banfield “catfished” Ryan.

During closing arguments, Sands acknowledged that no one can definitively say who was operating the fetish site and messaging accounts but said the evidence suggests that “Brendan Banfield and Peres Magalhães are more likely to be the ones to have set up Joe Ryan to come into the house to fake rape Christine on February 24.”

On Thursday, Banfield testified that his wife pursued sexually violent extramarital encounters on at least two occasions years earlier in their marriage, but said he didn’t know she was looking into it again before her death.

“I was aware that she was interested … in this type of thing, but I was unaware of the messages or that she was pursuing this again, as it’d been many years since she had expressed those feelings,” Banfield testified.

Banfield’s DNA not found on knife

On Friday, Sands argued to the jury that there’s no corroborative evidence to support Banfield’s claim that his wife ever pursued extramarital sexually violent encounters.

“There is no digital history, none, of Christine Banfield using dating sites, fetish sites, searching for pornography, talking to other men prior to the January inception of this scheme,” Sands said. “Brendan told you that more than 10 years ago, there were incidents of affairs involving rough sex, but you have zero evidence to corroborate that self-serving statement.”

Banfield testified that he’d left for the day in anticipation of an important work meeting when Peres Magalhães called him to say she saw a strange man enter the family’s home. Banfield said he thought his wife might’ve been having an affair and drove home from a nearby McDonald’s to investigate.

He said Peres Magalhães 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.

Peres Magalhães fired a second shot at Ryan with Banfield’s personal firearm. He testified that 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.

When police officers arrived on the scene, they found Banfield kneeling over his wife’s body with his hands on her neck. Banfield said his wife, still conscious at the time, directed him to apply pressure to her wounds to slow the bleeding.

Brendan Banfield’s DNA was not found on the knife used to fatally stab Christine. Analysis only recovered DNA from Christine and Joseph Ryan, who prosecutors say brought the knife there at Brendan Banfield’s direction, posing as his wife.

“In pursuing this case, the Commonwealth has presented absolutely no forensics evidence that supports that Brendan Banfield had anything to do with this, yet the story continues,” Banfield’s defense attorney said Friday. “This isn’t how justice works, and you can’t just come up with a theory and make it fit. They’re trying to sell you a story without any facts, and we have the facts.”

The jury deciding whether to convict Banfield on Virginia’s top homicide charge will have to weigh Banfield’s credibility over Peres Magalhães. Prosecutors and Banfield’s defense attorney agreed not to offer the jury less severe homicide charges to consider against Banfield.

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