RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — In the stark atmosphere of a northern Virginia courtroom, Brendan Banfield took the stand on Thursday with a bold assertion: prosecutors were mistaken. He claimed he wasn’t responsible for his wife’s fatal stabbing in 2023. Instead, he shot the man who he says committed the crime.

Banfield, once an IRS law enforcement officer, now finds himself defending against charges of aggravated murder. He detailed the events of the tragic day when both his wife, Christine Banfield, and Joseph Ryan lost their lives. Banfield described the fear that gripped him as he witnessed Ryan, his wife, a knife, and blood all in his bedroom.

“I can’t recall a time when I was more terrified,” Banfield recounted. “My intention was to calm the situation. Shooting him was the last thing I wanted; I just wanted him to release her.”

Banfield admitted to firing a single shot at Ryan, claiming Ryan was armed with a knife and threatening his wife. Additionally, he testified that Juliana Peres Magalhães, the family’s au pair and his romantic partner, also fired at Ryan shortly after.

His account contrasts sharply with the narrative presented by Fairfax County prosecutors, who allege that Banfield orchestrated a plot to murder his wife, framing Ryan for the crime. They claim Banfield and Magalhães created a social media account in Christine’s name, targeting a community interested in sexual fetishes.

There, Ryan linked up with the account and planned to meet for a sexual encounter involving a knife on the day of the killings.

John Carroll, Banfield’s attorney, spent hours scrutinizing Magalhães’ motives in testifying against Banfield, identifying notes she had written in jail about negotiating payment with a true-crime author and producers after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the case.

Officials also heavily questioned Banfield’s statements on Thursday, particularly in light of his romantic affair with Magalhães that began in the months before his wife’s death and continued afterward. On Wednesday, Banfield described the relationship as casual while his wife was alive.

Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Jenna Sands presented letters and messages Banfield sent to Magalhães before and after the killings, where they discussed baby names for their future children and love for each other.

“You are contending, again, these feelings — these very strong feelings, these ‘let’s be together for the rest of our lives’ feelings — did not exist when your wife was alive, correct?” Sands asked. “And they certainly did not motivate you to kill your wife?”

“Juliana and I weren’t even together when Christine died,” he said, acknowledging their volatile affair.

“You had broken up, is that correct?” Sands followed, then asking: “Did you need to kill your wife to get her back?”

“Definitely not,” he replied.

Banfield’s at-times tense testimony comes after his attorney scrutinized the county’s investigation into the defendant, arguing that officials, almost since the beginning, forced a theory that the husband had catfished and killed his wife, and ignored evidence that undermined that conclusion.

“We had a briefing within the first week of the incident where we were discussing everything everybody had done and the information that was collected,” Leah Smith, a homicide detective, testified in the defense’s case. “Our supervisor at the time told us that there were two theories in the case and we needed to get behind the right one.”

Carroll, Banfield’s attorney, presented witness after witness, revealing tensions in the county’s police department regarding whether Ryan was catfished. One of those witnesses included Brendan Miller, a digital forensics examiner at the department who concluded that there was no indication that Christine Banfield lost control of her devices before the slayings.

His attorney also submitted a video of Banfield learning of his wife’s death, crying at times into his bloodied hands while a doctor patted his back.

Banfield took the stand after the jurors watched the video, and described in detail his actions earlier that morning: waking up, taking a shower, saying goodbye to his wife before leaving his house extra early for an important work meeting with other agents and his manager.

“This was a particularly important meeting for me, as it had been indicated that success in this case may lead to me getting a promotion to a senior special agent,” Banfield said.

His boss at the time said otherwise, testifying afterward that there was no such meeting on the calendar.