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A Virginian resident, Brendan Banfield, who previously served as an IRS law enforcement officer, recounted to police that he witnessed Joseph Ryan assaulting his wife, Christine Banfield, with a knife on the morning of February 24, 2023.
In response, Banfield shot Ryan, followed by au pair Juliana Magalhães, who also fired at Ryan.
However, during the court proceedings, officials challenged the credibility of Banfield’s narrative, suggesting to the jury that he orchestrated a plan to eliminate his wife.
Subsequent investigations revealed that Brendan Banfield was engaged in an affair with Magalhães.
“This case captivated national interest due to its complex elements involving an affair, a fetish website, and a calculated plan,” stated Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano after the trial concluded.
“But beyond the spectacle, we are here today because of the tragic deaths of two of our community members, Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan.”
Prosecutors argued that Banfield and Magalhães impersonated Christine Banfield, a pediatric intensive care nurse, on a website for sexual fetishes.
Officials said they used the site to lure Ryan to the house for a sexual encounter involving a knife, left the front door open and staged the scene to look as though they had shot an intruder who was attacking the wife.
Defence attorney John Carroll argued that Magalhães’ testimony could not be trusted because she was cooperating with prosecutors to try to avoid a long prison sentence.
In his own testimony, Banfield said that the testimony was ” absolutely crazy”.
Carroll also introduced evidence showing that there was dissent within the police department over the theory that Magalhães and Brendan Banfield impersonated Christine Banfield on social media in a “catfishing” scheme.
An officer who concluded from digital evidence that Christine Banfield was behind the social media account was later transferred in what Carroll said was punishment for disagreeing with a theory favored by the department’s higher-ups.
But prosecutor Jenna Sands pushed back on the notion that Banfield was unfamiliar with social media platforms for people interested in fetishes and couldn’t be capable of such catfishing.
“You had multiple affairs, correct?” Sands asked the defendant, followed by, “And one of those affairs was with a woman named Danielle, who you met on a fetish site searching for ‘sugar babies.’ Is that correct?”
Banfield replied: “I would not call it a fetish site.”
When pressed as to how he would describe the website, Banfield testified that he had an arranged relationship with someone who knew he was married.
In closing arguments, Sands told the jury they did not have to rely solely on Magalhães’ testimony, pointing to what she called a “plethora of evidence”.
That included expert testimony that blood stains on Ryan’s hands suggested Christine Banfield’s blood had been dripped onto him from above.
Banfield was also convicted of child endangerment.
Banfield’s daughter, four years old at the time, was in the home’s basement on the day of the killings, though physically unharmed.
The jury deliberated for nearly nine hours across two days before reaching a verdict.
Banfield faces the possibility of life in prison at his sentencing hearing, which is scheduled for May 8.
Magalhães was scheduled to be sentenced after Banfield’s trial.
Attorneys have said she could be allowed to walk free if she is sentenced to time served and return to her home in Brazil.