FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — A Brazilian au pair who has pleaded guilty to manslaughter testified against her former employer and lover on Wednesday in a double homicide case that prosecutors say was part of an elaborate scheme to get rid of the man’s wife.
Brendan Banfield is charged with aggravated murder in the 2023 killings of Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan at the Banfields’ home in northern Virginia. He has pleaded not guilty and could face life in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors have said that Banfield, an IRS agent, and Juliana Peres Magalhães, the family’s au pair, were in love. In order to get rid of Christine Banfield, the pair impersonated her on a social media site for sexual fetishes and spent a month arranging an elaborate rape scenario with Ryan, a stranger. They killed Ryan and Christine Banfield after staging it to look like they had shot an intruder who was attacking Christine Banfield with a knife, Magalhães testified on Tuesday.
Magalhães, who was raised in the outskirts of São Paulo, was originally charged with murder but pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter in 2024 after cooperating with investigators. She will be sentenced at the conclusion of Banfield’s trial. Depending on her cooperation with authorities, attorneys have said she could be sentenced to the time she’s already served.
Banfield’s attorney, John Carroll, said in opening statements on Tuesday that Magalhães had maintained her innocence for a year but eventually changed her story after she lost faith in her attorney.
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On Wednesday, Carroll asked Magalhães to read portions from letters she had written from jail to Brendan Banfield and others. They expressed depression and frustration with her situation. “No strength. No courage. No hope,” she wrote at one point.
Carroll challenged Magalhães on why she had finally decided to accept a plea deal after previously rejecting them. He pointed out that it only happened after Banfield was arrested and after a health scare that landed Magalhães in the hospital. When Magalhães said she wanted to tell the truth, Carroll asked, “From Oct. 13, 2023, to Oct. 28, 2024, you were not concerned with telling the truth?” referencing the time between her arrest and her confession.
“I withheld the truth for a long time, just to myself,” she said. “It was a lot for me to deal with. There is only so much your brain can take before your body starts responding to the stress as well.”
Banfield, whose 4-year-old 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 face those charges during the aggravated murder trial.
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Associated Press writer Travis Loller in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed.
