A Virginia jury on Monday found Brendan Banfield guilty of aggravated murder in a convoluted plot hatched with his Brazilian au pair lover to kills his wife and pin it on a stranger lured from a fetish website.
Banfield was convicted on two counts of aggravated murder in the deaths of Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan, WTOP reported. He was also found guilty of use of a firearm in commission of a felony and child endangerment, because his 4-year-old daughter was home at the time of the murders.
The star witness against Banfield was his one-time lover, Juliana Peres Magalhães, who took a plea deal and testified against him.
Peres Magalhães initially denied any involvement in the scheme, telling investigators she had left the Banfields’ home at about 7:30 a.m. on February 24, 2023, to take her employers’ daughter to the National Zoo, as CrimeOnline previously reported. She said that she abruptly returned home to retrieve forgotten lunches and saw an unfamiliar vehicle and man at the home.
She contacted Banfield and hid in the basement with the child while Banfield, who had reportedly been heading to work, returned home.
The two then went to an upstairs suite, she said, where they found a stranger had attacked Christine, stabbing her multiple times. Banfield shot the stranger with his service weapon, but he was still alive, so he told Peres Magalhães to go get another gun from a gun safe in the bathroom so they could shoot him again. She did, and she shot the man, later identified as Ryan, in the chest.
But in 2024, she agreed to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter and testify against her former lover.
The former nanny testified about the plans she and her IRS officer lover made to kill Christine Banfield and pin the murder on Ryan, a stranger they catfished to the house. The au pair also answered questions about how she and Banfield created the FetLife account to lure Ryan to his death.
Peres Magalhães testified that the pair used Christine Banfield’s email address, created a profile on the fetish website FetLife and sought someone for a “stranger rape” fantasy, eventually settling on Ryan and spending more than a month conversing with him online to set up the fantasy. Banfield, she said, told Ryan to come into the house through an unlocked door, tie up Christine Banfield and rape her, not stopping “even if she looks terrified,” prosecutors said.
Banfield used his wife’s phone to unlock the door and then hid it in a drawer on the day of the murders. Instead of heading to work, he went to a nearby McDonald’s while Peres Magalhães waited down the street with the daughter. When the two saw Ryan arrive, they went back to the home and “found” him with Christine Banfield in the bedroom.
Banfield shot Ryan and then stabbed his wife over and over, manipulating her body to make it look like Ryan was killed while attacking her.
The defense countered that Peres Magalhães made up the story, but the jury, which began deliberating about mid-day on Friday, didn’t buy it.
Banfield will be sentenced on May 8, when he faces life without parole.
Peres Magalhães’ sentencing was delayed until after Banfield’s trial. She is expected to be sentenced to time served.
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[Featured image: Center: Christine Banfield/family handout. Left, Brendan Banfield and right, Juliana Peres Magalhaes/Fairfax County Police Department
