THE chilling motive of an ex-IRS agent accused of brutally murdering his wife and a stranger has been revealed in court.
Brendan Banfield and nanny Juliana Peres Magalhães impersonated Christine Banfield on a social media site for sexual fetishes, the Virginia love triangle murder trial heard.
Juliana Peres Magalhães, a Brazilian au pair, testified today during the double murder trial for Brendan Banfield in Fairfax County Circuit CourtCredit: AP
Christine Banfield and husband Brendan Banfield in an undated photoCredit: Christine Banfield/Instagram
Brazilian au pair Peres Magalhães has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the February 2023 killings.
Today she testified against her former boss and lover in the double homicide case.
Prosecutors said it was part of an elaborate scheme to get rid of Banfield’s wife.
Banfield, an IRS agent, and Peres Magalhães were in love and having an extra-marital affair, prosecutors told the trial at Fairfax County Circuit Court.
Christine Banfield, 37, and Joseph Ryan, 39, were killed inside the family home in Herndon, a wealthy suburb of Washington, D.C., reported Fox News .
Brendan Banfield and the au pair had staged it to look like they had shot an intruder who was attacking Christine with a knife, Peres Magalhães testified on Tuesday.
Banfield has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder, and could face life in prison if convicted.
The pair impersonated his wife on BDSM site and spent a month arranging an elaborate rape scenario with Ryan, who was a stranger, the court heard.
Ryan was allegedly lured to the family’s home, where he was fatally shot.
Christine Banfield was then stabbed to death in the bedroom.
The double murder was carried out to hide the affair, prosecutors said.
Peres Magalhães testified yesterday that she began working as an au pair in the home in October 2021, aged 21.
She and Brendan Banfield began a sexual relationship about 10 months later, prosecutors said in their opening statement.
Her lover told her he wanted to marry her and have children with her.
But he needed to get rid of his wife first, she testified.
Brendan Banfield looks on during the double murder trialCredit: AP
Juliana Peres Magalhães was cross-examined today in Fairfax County Circuit Court in Fairfax, VirginiaCredit: AP
Banfield didn’t want to divorce his wife as she would have more money than he would – and because he wanted custody of the couple’s daughter, then aged 4.
He suggested creating a fake profile for his wife on a sexual fetish site, Peres Magalhães alleged.
ALIBIS
They both posted to the sexual fetish site from Christine’s laptop – and only when she was home – as “we needed to have some alibis,” the au pair testified.
Chief Deputy Commonwealths Attorney Jenna Sands told jurors that the couple had spent a month arranging an elaborate scenario with Ryan, in which Ryan would act out an arranged rape fantasy.
This image provided by the Fairfax County Police Department and taken on October 13, 2023, shows a framed photo of Banfield and Juliana Peres Magalhães on his bedside table in HerndonCredit: AP
They agreed that Ryan would go to the home on the morning of February 24, 2023, while Christine Banfield was sleeping, and bring restraints and a knife, Sands said.
“Brendan created the narrative that Christine desperately wanted to be raped,” Sands alleged in her opening statement.
“Posing as Christine, he told Joe what to do: Come to the home in Reston. The door will be unlocked. Christine will be asleep in bed. Come straight upstairs… simple and fun.”
“He made Brendan feel confident enough that he would be the person to play the role, which means being aggressive,” Peres Magalhães told the court.
Juliana Peres Magalhães told the court that she felt blood on the carpetCredit: AP
HAD A KNIFE
The court was told that, on the day of the killings, Banfield and the au pair had put his child in the basement with her iPad.
Prosecutors added that Banfield had then shot Ryan with his service weapon and fatally stabbed his wife while Peres Magalhães held a firearm.
“When I got to the bedroom, Brendan yelled, ‘police officer,’ and Christine’s first reaction – it was the first time I heard her say anything at that point – and she yelled back at Brendan, saying, ‘Brendan, he has a knife,’ and that’s when Brendan first shot Joe,” Peres Magalhães alleged.
Banfield allegedly clambered on top of his wife and stabbed her in the neck, she added.
BLOOD
She recalled feeling “blood on the carpet.”
The au pair had initially also been charged with murder.
But she pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter in 2024 after cooperating with investigators.
She was questioned today about her plea agreement by John Carroll, Banfield’s attorney.
FLIPPED
“The whole reason she was arrested was to flip her against my client,” Carroll said in his opening statement.
Carroll asked the au pair to read portions from letters she had written from jail to Banfield and others.
She had alluded to depression and frustration with her situation.
“No strength. No courage. No hope,” she wrote at one point.
However, she denied the claim that she had flipped after Banfield was arrested, and after a health scare had resulted in her hospitalization.
Peres Magalhães told a prosecutor today that she had felt “shame.”
“The world deserved to know what really happened and I just couldn’t hold it – I just couldn’t keep it to myself, the feeling of shame and guilt and sadness and all those feelings,” she said, reported CNN .
Peres Magalhães will be sentenced at the conclusion of Banfield’s trial.
Banfield, whose daughter was at the house on the morning of the killings, is also charged with child abuse and felony child cruelty in connection with the case.
He will also face those charges during the aggravated murder trial.
The trial is expected to last four weeks.
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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