Juliana Peres Magalhaes suggested Brendan Banfield planned the entire murder plot on the stand, indicating she followed his instructions.
FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. — Au pair Juliana Peres Magalhaes testified that she crouched behind the bed and covered her eyes and ears while Brendan Banfield repeatedly stabbed his wife, Christine Banfield.
While on the stand Tuesday afternoon, she detailed the brutal killings of Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan, and the elaborate planning Brendan Banfield allegedly did all on his own to bring the two of them together through a sexual fetish website.
Prosecutors alleged Brendan Banfield killed his wife because divorce and shared custody of their child “was not an option.”
The Brazilian nanny was paid just $200 a week by the Banfield family when she was hired in October 2021. Peres Magalhaes described having a professional relationship in the beginning, saying she rarely interacted with Brendan Banfield. But in August 2022, their relationship became sexual.
At first, she didn’t think the affair was that serious. The relationship blossomed into something more, as indicated in the videos and photos that Peres Magalhaes posted on social media. During a trip to New York in October 2022, she claimed Brendan Banfield wanted to concoct a plan to “get rid” of his wife.
Peres Magalhaes explained the painstaking details Brendan Banfield went into to set up the murders of his wife and Ryan. The au pair testified that using Christine Banfield’s laptop, Brendan Banfield created an email address for his wife and created an account on the sexual fetish website Fetlife. Under the screen name Annastasia9, he allegedly posted an ad asking for someone to come to the house to play out a stranger rape fantasy.
Over the next few months, both Brendan Banfield and Peres Magalhaes chatted with potential takers, per her testimony. The pair would only do it while Christine was in the house, and only on her laptop. She said that Brendan told her that way, when the murder investigation happened, it would look like Christine set it up.
He also allegedly went out of his way to set up alibis for the two of them. From time to time, when one of them was talking to a person on Fetlife, the other would leave the home so that their cell phone would ping on a tower away from the house.
On several occasions, people would push back against the proposed fantasy.
“The concept is very hot, yeah, but the way you explain it does not look great on my side if anything were to go wrong,” one Fetlife user wrote to Annastasia9.
Any time a person asked to meet in public ahead of time, the two of them would shut the conversation down, Peres Magalhaes said.
“Well, it was not Christine talking, so there was no way going out on a date to first meet the person,” Peres Magalhaes said.
Brendan Banfield finally became confident that the plan could work when he started talking to Ryan. Ryan, under the screen name TacoSupreme7000, after speaking with them for a month, agreed to all the stipulations that Brendan Banfield had laid out.
When it got closer to the day Ryan was supposed to come to the house to execute the made-up fantasy, they began speaking on Telegram. They used Christine’s laptop, Peres Magalhaes said, and her phone once to get a code to get into the app.
One night, they called Ryan, with Peres Magalhaes pretending to be Christine, she said during her testimony. Ryan was surprised by Peres Magalhaes’ voice and noted her accent, she recalled.
Over Telegram, he sent them a photo of the supplies he would bring to the home. Pictured was a chain and lock, a rope, and a kitchen knife.
On Feb. 24, 2023, Brendan Banfield apparently took Christine’s phone and used a smart home app to make sure the door would stay unlocked, then placed her phone inside a drawer in the kitchen. He then left the home and waited at a nearby McDonald’s.
Peres Magalhaes, told Christine that she was taking the Banfield’s child on an au pair trip to the zoo early that morning. The au pair and the child got into the car, and waiting for Ryan to show up. She put a show on an iPad for the child while they sat in the car.
When he arrived, she called Christine, who didn’t have her phone to pick up. Then, she called Brendan, who returned to the house. The trio went back into the house through the back door.
Leaving the Banfield’s child in the basement, they waited at the door of the bedroom, listening for slapping sounds, Peres Magalhaes said. When they opened the door, Peres Magalhaes said she could see Ryan on top of Christine. Brendan Banfield yelled “police,” and Christine yelled, “Brendan, he has a knife,” Peres Magalhaes told the court on Tuesday.
Then, Brendan shot Ryan in the head, she said.
Christine asked, “What did you do?” Peres Magalhaes said, and told the au pair to call 911. She did, but Brendan Banfield gestured to hang up, so she did.
He told Peres Magalhaes to grab a towel, and when she went to get it, she said, he started stabbing Christine with the knife. Peres Magalhaes said she ran to the other side of the bed.
“I was just crouching down on myself and covering my ears and covering my eyes,” Peres Magalhaes said. “And a few times I looked and I was able to to see him stabbing her.”
After that, she went over to the safe, and she noticed Ryan was still moving. She said she told Brendan, but he didn’t respond. Then, using a gun Brendan gave her, she said she shot him in the chest.
Court ended with Peres Magalhaes still on the stand. Tuesday was the first day of what is believed to be a lengthy trial. She is expected to take the stand again on Wednesday morning.
In his opening statement, defense attorney John Carroll sought to discredit Peres Magalhaes’ entire testimony, alleging that prosecutors pressured her into flipping on Brendan Banfield in exchange for time served and a lesser charge.