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  • Brazilian au pair sentenced to 10 years in prison for role in Fairfax County double murder – WTOP News

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    The Brazilian au pair who plotted with her lover to kill his wife and another man in Herndon, Virginia, in 2023 was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison.

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    Au pair sentenced for role in Fairfax Co. double murder

    The Brazilian au pair who plotted with her lover to kill his wife and another man in Herndon, Virginia, in 2023 was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison.

    Fairfax County Chief Circuit Court Judge Penney Azcarate sentenced Juliana Peres Magalhães to the maximum penalty allowed for manslaughter in Virginia, breaking from the recommendation made by the commonwealth and the au pair’s attorney.

    “Let’s get straight, you do not deserve anything other than incarceration and a life of reflection on what you have done to the victim and this family,” Azcarate said. “May it weigh heavily on your soul.”

    Magalhães pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of Joseph Ryan, who prosecutors say was lured to the Banfield home in February 2023 as part of a plot to frame him for murder.

    Under the terms of her plea deal, Magalhães’ attorney and prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence of time served in exchange for her cooperation and testimony. But Azcarate exercised her authority to reject that recommendation.

    During Banfield’s trial, Magalhães testified about their affair and the plan to kill his wife and pin her murder on Ryan.

    Before her sentence was passed down, Magalhães’ attorney argued that testimony was integral to convicting Banfield in the aggravated murders of his wife, Christine Banfield, and Ryan.

    “The Commonwealth had circumstantial evidence, forensic evidence, electronic forensic evidence, digital forensic evidence and others,” he said. “But it was Juliana who ultimately told the story firsthand of what occurred, because that decision was integral in the jury’s decision.”

    Why judge deviated from recommended sentence

    The au pair told the court she teamed up with Banfield to make an account on a fetish website impersonating Christine. They used the account to message Ryan and invite him to the home with promises of rough sex.

    She had initially been charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Ryan, but the au pair took the plea deal in October 2024.

    Azcarate called that deal a “bargain” for Magalhães as it downgraded the charge against her to manslaughter.

    “You could have been facing life, plus three years, and now the maximum I can sentence you to today is 10 years,” she said. “That’s clearly a trade for your cooperation with the commonwealth.”

    Azcarate said the au pair shot Ryan shot him “point blank in the heart” as he laid moaning and watched as Banfield stabbed his wife.

    “The facts of this case demonstrate an intentional and calculated level of violence that is the most serious manslaughter scenario that this court has ever seen,” she said.

    For a year and a half after the killings, the judge said Magalhães shared a fabricated story that depicted Ryan as a rapist and a murderer.

    “Until today, you have shown no empathy for the victim in this case,” Azcarate said.

    During the hearing, Azcarate listed off her ten reasons for sentencing Magalhães to additional time in prison.

    “Number 10, telling the child it was OK to call you mommy hours after the murder, your actions were deliberate self serving and demonstrated a profound disregard for human life,” Azcarate said.

    Banfield’s attorney has questioned Magalhães’ motives for cooperating with investigators, saying she told prosecutors what they wanted to hear.

    Magalhães has said that she confessed to share the truth — not as an attempt to be freed from jail.

    Banfield is scheduled to be sentenced May 8. He faces life in prison with no chance of parole.

    In addition to the murder charges, Banfield was also found guilty of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and child endangerment, as his 4-year-old child was home during the killings.

    WTOP’s Abigail Constantino and Thomas Robertson contributed to this report. 

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    © 2026 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    Jessica Kronzer

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  • Brendan Banfield found guilty of aggravated murder in ‘au pair affair’ killings trial – WTOP News

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    The jury in the aggravated murders trial of Brendan Banfield, accused of plotting with his family’s au pair to kill his wife and another man, returned a verdict.

    WATCH LIVE: Jury reaches decision in ‘au pair affair’ murders trial

    A Fairfax County jury on Monday found Brendan Banfield guilty of aggravated murder in the killings of his wife and another man in the family’s Herndon, Virginia, home in February 2023.

    The panel of 12 jurors began deliberating midday Friday on whether Banfield, a former IRS law enforcement officer, conspired with his family’s au pair, with whom he was having an affair, to kill his wife and pin it on a stranger.

    Banfield now faces life in prison with no chance of parole after his conviction on both counts of aggravated murder.

    He was also found guilty of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and child endangerment, as his 4-year-old child was home during the killings. Judge Penney Azcarate scheduled sentencing for May 8.

    ‘It’s monstrous’

    Prosecutor Jenna Sands told the jury Banfield was in love with his family’s Brazilian au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães. Sands argued the two of them staged an elaborate scheme to lure Joseph Ryan to the home to get rid of Banfield’s wife, Christine, and blame her killing on Ryan.

    “It’s really challenging to try to put yourself in someone like Mr. Banfield’s mind, and I don’t know that I want to try that hard, to be completely honest. I think that he was obviously hoping for a life with Juliana, and he didn’t see a way to accomplish that without executing his wife,” Sands said during a news conference after Monday’s verdict.

    According to the prosecution and Magalhães, who testified against Banfield after taking a plea deal, Banfield and the au pair created an account on a fetish website impersonating Christine and lured Ryan to the home with promises of rough sex.

    During her testimony, which spanned two days, Magalhães detailed her sexual relationship with Banfield, his desire to “get rid of his wife” and the elaborate scheme he came up with to do so.

    After creating the profile on the platform FetLife, Magalhães testified she and Banfield would both post to the site from Christine’s laptop, and they were careful to post only when Christine was home.

    “He knew that we needed to have some alibis,” she said on the stand.

    On the morning of the killings, Magalhães left the home with the Banfields’ child and waited in her car for Ryan to arrive. Brendan Banfield had left earlier and was waiting at a nearby McDonald’s for her to call.

    “They got Joe Ryan into the house, and then they shot him,” Sands said during closing arguments. “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. Then they called the police.”

    During trial, Magalhães testified that Banfield shot Ryan in the head, and the au pair shot Ryan in the chest.

    “It’s monstrous. I mean, that’s really what it is. It’s monstrous,” Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano said. “I’ve been doing this job for a while, and I can tell you that this defendant stood out to me highest above all the other murder cases that we’ve done in my six years here.”

    The fate of the au pair

    Magalhães was initially charged with murder in October 2023, eight months after the killings and nearly a year before Banfield himself was charged.

    “We did not authorize charges against Brendan Banfield until after we got the blood analysis done, that is what we were waiting for. And it wasn’t until two months after we got the blood and we indicted Brendan for these crimes, that Juliana decided to proffer and cooperate with us,” Descano said, adding the prosecution was prepared to go to trial without Magalhães’ testimony.

    As part of her plea deal, Magalhães’ charges were downgraded to manslaughter. While she could be sentenced to as little as the time she has already served, she faces up to 10 years in prison.

    “This is the work of being a prosecutor. She still is taking accountability for homicides,” Descano said. “Juliana, by testifying, answered a lot of questions, not only for us, but for the jury. Let’s not forget how important her testimony may have been to some of those jurors. So her still facing up to 10 years in prison is very, very significant and well worth the cost to make sure that Brendan Banfield was convicted for a crime where it is a mandatory life sentence.”

    Defense attorney John Carroll questioned Magalhães’ motives for cooperating, saying she told prosecutors what they wanted to hear. Carroll argued Brendan Banfield’s DNA was not discovered on the knife that was used to kill Christine Banfield, and that prosecutors failed to produce evidence that corroborated their “catfishing” theory.

    The defense also referenced conversations Magalhães had before the trial with a media company about selling her story for a documentary, further attempting to cast doubt on her testimony.

    Banfield’s attempt to defend himself comes up short

    The other key witness in the case was Banfield himself, who took the stand in his own defense.

    Sands, who used to practice as a defense attorney, said she was surprised by that decision.

    “I think I would have counseled against him taking the stand. But, you know, Mr. Carroll didn’t have a lot to work with,” she said.

    Banfield told jurors he rushed home after receiving a call from his au pair, heard sounds coming from his bedroom, identified himself as police when he saw Ryan holding a knife to Christine, then shot Ryan when he saw him stab her.

    “I don’t know that I’ve ever been more panicked in my life,” Banfield testified. “I was hoping to de-escalate the situation. I did not want to shoot him. I wanted him to let her go.”

    During cross examination, Sands pressed Banfield for details about his story and his feelings toward his au pair and his wife.

    “I think that everyone has commented on what was so obvious — that he was not truthful, that he was cold, that he behaved oddly in response to questions that should have elicited emotion, that he never spoke of himself as Christine’s husband, that he didn’t speak lovingly of his wife, that he showed absolutely no human emotion that we expected to see of someone in his position.”

    After Monday’s verdict was delivered, Banfield, dressed in a gray suit and navy blue tie, again expressed little emotion.

    “My hope with this is that he realizes he didn’t get away with it,” Descano said. “You can see a lot of things that he set up trying to get away with it, thinking that he was going to beat the system, trying to outsmart everybody. I hope he thinks that, and most of all, though, I hope he thinks about his wife and Joe, and about what a heinous thing he did, because that’s something that he is rightfully going to have to live with for the rest of his life.”

    WTOP’s Nick Iannelli speaks with Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano after a jury delivered a guilty verdict in the trial of Brendan Banfield.

    The Associated Press and WTOP’s Jessica Kronzer and Neal Augenstein contributed to this report.

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    © 2026 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    Thomas Robertson

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  • Husband testifies he did not plot wife’s killing in double murder trial connected to au pair affair – WTOP News

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    A man testified on Wednesday that he loved his wife and did not want to end his marriage, despite having an affair with his family’s au pair in what would become a sprawling double homicide case centered around the two of them.

    WATCH LIVE: Brendan Banfield takes the stand in ‘au pair affair’ murders trial

    Brendan Banfield looks on during his double murder trial in Fairfax County Circuit Court, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Fairfax, Va. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner, Pool)(AP/Tom Brenner)

    RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A man testified on Wednesday that he loved his wife and did not want to end his marriage, despite having an affair with his family’s au pair in what would become a sprawling double homicide case centered around the two of them.

    Wearing a gray suit and a plaid tie, Brendan Banfield testified in a Fairfax, Virginia, court under oath about what happened the day he began cheating on his late wife, Christine Banfield, with Juliana Peres Magalhães in what he said was a casual affair. He described Magalhães scooting her chair closer to his while eating dinner one night, while his wife was out of town. He testified that she followed him into his room at bedtime, and he didn’t stop her.

    But Banfield testified he and Magalhães did not plot to kill his wife and another man in the months that followed, despite what prosecutors suggest.

    “I think that it’s an absurd line of questioning for something that is not serious, that a plan was made to get rid of my wife,” he testified. “That is absolutely crazy.”

    Banfield is charged with aggravated murder in the killings of his wife and Joe Ryan. His testimony will be a key piece of evidence that a northern Virginia jury will be tasked with weighing this month. Banfield, who has pleaded not guilty, could face life in prison if convicted by his peers.

    Prosecutors say Banfield and Magalhães lured Ryan to their house. According to officials, the two then shot him, and Banfield stabbed his wife, staging the scene to look as though Ryan had been a predator stabbing Christine Banfield.

    One of the witnesses who corroborates prosecutors’ theory is Magalhães herself.

    Earlier in January, Magalhães testified that she and Banfield had created an account in Christine Banfield’s name on a social media platform for people interested in sexual fetishes. There, Ryan connected with the account, and the users made plans to meet for a sexual encounter involving a knife.

    She testified to Banfield’s plan to kill his wife and live his life with Magalhães after they began their affair, plotting for months their ruse.

    Banfield testified that the au pair’s omission to officials was a lie, saying “there was no plan.” He also said that both he and his wife had affairs throughout the course of their 19-year relationship, but decided through couples therapy to continue their marriage.

    His testimony comes as John Carroll, Banfield’s attorney, spent much of the trial scrutinizing Magalhães’ motives in the case. The former au pair was initially charged with second-degree murder in Ryan’s killing, but has since pleaded guilty to a downgraded manslaughter charge.

    For instance, Magalhães didn’t remember who created the email address connected to the social media account and where she and Brendan Banfield were on the day it had been procured. She testified that she did not remember who wrote what messages to Ryan. And she admitted under oath to negotiating with a true-crime author and producers to share her story for money.

    On the stand, Banfield spoke of his relationship with his wife, describing them as inseparable despite the affair. “We were together the entire time. We didn’t break up at any point,” Banfield said.

    “Did you love your wife?” Carroll asked at one point.

    “Very much,” he said.

    “Did you want to continue your marriage with your wife?” his attorney said.

    “Yes.”

    ___

    Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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    © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.

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    WTOP Staff

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  • Defense tries to poke holes in au pair’s confession in double murder – WTOP News

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    On the first day of the defense’s case in Fairfax County Circuit Court, attorneys for Brendan Banfield asked the judge to dismiss the charges, arguing prosecutors knowingly presented false testimony.

    On the first day of the defense’s arguments in Fairfax County Circuit Court on Wednesday, the attorneys of Brendan Banfield started by attempting to have the entire case thrown out, arguing the prosecution knowingly presented false testimony against his client.

    Banfield is charged with aggravated murder in the 2023 deaths of his wife Christine Banfield and another man, Joseph Ryan. Prosecutors say Brendan killed them both as part of an elaborate plot with the family’s au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães, to kill his wife and blame it on Ryan.

    Defense attorney John Carroll filed a motion to dismiss, saying at the end of the prosecution’s case, “It was at that point, when they rested, that this became incumbent upon me to make this motion.”

    Carroll cited a report from detective Brendan Miller, who testified at the behest of the defense Wednesday, which stated that an email account and an account with a website used for setting up sexual encounters was created by Christine Banfield.

    Peres Magalhães later told police she was the one behind those accounts — a confession that came after Miller wrote the report.

    Nonetheless, it was an issue Carroll honed in on when Miller took the stand.

    “I was able to determine that it was her phone used in the creation of that account based on a variety of returns,” Miller said.

    “And did you make any conclusions at that time that she had not given up her devices?” Carroll asked.

    “I had nothing indicating loss of dominion and control at that time,” Miller responded.

    Under further questioning, Miller acknowledged his findings did change upon Peres Magalhães admission.

    Prosecutor Jenna Sands asked Miller if he could “conclusively opine as to who was behind the screen” based on the activity of Christine Banfield’s phone. He said he could not.

    “When you wrote this report that Mr. Carroll has referenced, you used the phrasing ‘Christine did this. Christine did that.’ Is that correct?” Sands asked.

    “Yes,” Miller said.

    He also testified that he can’t determine who is behind a screen at all times without some form of corroboration.

    Judge Penney Azcarate rejected the defense’s argument that prosecutors knowingly allowed false statements to be used in court. From there, the defense rehashed police body camera video of the immediate aftermath of the killing, including the moments when Brendan Banfield learned his wife was dead.

    The defense also used its own blood spatter analyst to try to poke holes in the theory that Banfield was able to drip his wife’s blood over Joseph Ryan’s body to connect him to her death.

    Defense expert LeeAnn Singley disagreed with testimony from a prosecution witness the previous day, who said blood drops on Ryan’s arm appeared to have been dripped from above.

    “Once you’ve classified it as a certain mechanism, you’ve excluded everything else,” Singley said. “I didn’t feel there was enough information here for me to do that, and this target surface, it would be inappropriate, I believe, to do that, because the target surface was not ideal for being able to do that.”

    After the trial broke for lunch, Singley returned to the stand and was eventually cross examined by Sands about her decision not to make a solid determination of how the drops got there.

    Singley agreed that none of the options have been excluded.

    She also conceded it was at least possible the blood droplets on Ryan’s arm did get dripped onto him, even if she didn’t agree with the conclusion of the prosecution’s expert that that’s actually what happened.

    The case resumes at 9:30 a.m. Thursday. It’s also possible the trial continues Friday — normally a day off for the jury — because of the judge’s concern about the impending snowstorm this weekend. Azcarate said it would be her decision to decide whether the courthouse would be closed for inclement weather.

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    © 2026 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    John Domen

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  • Fairfax Co. au pair charged in fetish website killing visited gun range with victim’s husband, prosecutors say – WTOP News

    Fairfax Co. au pair charged in fetish website killing visited gun range with victim’s husband, prosecutors say – WTOP News

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    Prosecutors said that the au pair charged in the fatal shooting of a man inside a Fairfax County house visited a shooting range with the husband of the woman who was also stabbed to death inside the Virginia home.

    Prosecutors say that the au pair charged with fatally shooting a man inside a Fairfax County house where a woman was also stabbed to death last year visited a shooting range with the woman’s husband just a few months before the bizarre double slaying.

    District Court Judge Michael Lindner on Monday found that there is enough evidence and the case can go forward against Juliana Peres Magalhaes, who is accused of firing the shot that killed 39-year-old Joseph Ryan in February 2023. She is facing charges of second-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

    In making his decision Monday, the judge said he didn’t have to consider motive because based on the evidence, prosecutors demonstrated probable cause.

    Ryan and Christine Banfield, 37, were killed inside the home on Stable Brook Way in the Hattontown neighborhood of Herndon on Feb. 24, 2023. Nobody has been charged in Christine Banfield’s death.

    Prosecutors introduced business records that showed husband Brendan Banfield and Peres Magalhaes visited the Silver Eagle shooting range in Ashburn, Virginia, in the weeks before Christine Banfield and Ryan were killed.

    Range records showed that Brendan Banfield and Peres Magalhaes were at the range two months before the shooting. He then returned on Jan. 28, 2023, and bought a Glock. Prosecutors said the serial number from the receipt matched the serial number of a gun recovered at the scene.

    Subpoenaed to testify in court on Monday, Brendan Banfield took the Fifth when asked whether he returned to the shop and purchased a Glock, which prosecutors said was the weapon that Peres Magalhaes retrieved from a bathroom gun safe and used to shoot Ryan.

    Eric Clingan, with the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, said the gun was used to “eliminate the only living witness.”

    During the preliminary hearing on Monday, Brendan Banfield refused to answer questions from prosecutors that alluded to an affair with Peres Magalhaes.

    Peres Magalhaes’ defense attorney Ryan Campbell repeatedly objected to the relevance of the alleged relationship between his client and the husband.

    “The purchase of the weapon before the incident is the relevance,” the judge said, who later described the court proceedings as, “The government may be playing two potential defendants against each other.”

    Fetish website

    Last December during a bond hearing, prosecutors revealed new evidence that could explain how Ryan found himself at the Banfield home on the day of the killings.

    Prosecutors said that someone had used Christine Banfield’s laptop to create an account on an adult fetish website. Ryan responded to the user’s profile, and he arrived at the home with the intention of having “rough sex” with Christine Banfield.

    Prosecutors have not said who created the account.

    At the December hearing, Campbell, Peres Magalhaes’ lawyer, said the defense theory “seems like the easiest to accept — that Joe Ryan communicated with Christine Banfield through a BDSM website.”

    Speaking during that December hearing, Campbell said it was difficult for him to accept that somebody other than Christine Banfield would be going on her computer to lure Ryan for months.

    At that earlier hearing, Campbell argued that the evidence showed that Christine Banfield established the adult website account, and also purchased tickets for Peres Magalhaes to take the couple’s 4-year-old daughter to the National Zoo in D.C. during her alleged assignation with Ryan.

    Ryan and Christine Banfield’s relationship was not discussed in the hearing on Monday, but prosecutors have alleged that Brendan Banfield and Peres Magalhaes were having an affair.

    “The defendant and her armed, law enforcement lover did not stand by and patiently wait to shoot Joe until after he was finished stabbing Christine several times. That’s just not believable. This is a story was made up to cover a murder,” prosecutors said during the December bond hearing.

    Brendan Banfield has not been charged in either killing.

    What happened inside the Banfields’ Herndon house

    A Fairfax County detective who interviewed Peres Magalhaes said that she told him she observed Ryan with a knife to the throat of Christine Banfield, who was nude.

    According to police and prosecutors, Brendan Banfield shot Ryan near his right eyebrow with his IRS-issued service weapon. Brendan Banfield is a criminal investigative division agent for the IRS.

    After Brendan Banfield wounded Ryan, Peres Magalhaes said he told her to get a gun from a safe in the bathroom of the master bedroom. She then fired a shot at Ryan, which struck him in the chest, and devastated his heart, according to the medical examiner who testified during Monday’s hearing.

    Immediately after the shootings, Peres Magalhaes denied having a romantic relationship with Brendan Banfield.

    However, in the months between the shootings and her arrest, prosecutors said photo and text evidence showed the two had been engaging in an affair.

    Campbell objected to Fairfax County senior assistant commonwealth’s attorney Eric Clingan’s attempts to probe Brendan Banfield about his relationship with Peres Magalhaes.

    Before Brandon Banfield took the stand on Monday, his defense attorney David Hall told the judge that his client intended to plead the Fifth to avoid self-incrimination.

    However, Judge Lindner said prosecutors were entitled to ask questions, and he would determine whether each specific question put Brendan Banfield at risk of self-incrimination.

    Banfield declined to answer any questions about his relationship with Peres Magalhaes. At one point, he refused to say whether he was married to Christine Banfield on the day she was killed.

    Peres Magalhaes is due in Fairfax County Circuit Court on Tuesday morning, to appeal an earlier District Court judge ruling that denied her bond before trial.

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    © 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    Neal Augenstein

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