Brendan Banfield sentencing: Man will get life in jail for double homicide scheme in affair with Brazilian au pair Juliana Magalhães

FAIRFAX, Va. — A Virginia man who was having an affair with the household’s Brazilian au pair was sentenced Friday to life in jail with out parole for the homicide of his spouse and a person who was lured to the couple’s residence as a fall man.

Brendan Banfield, a former IRS legislation enforcement officer, claimed he shot Joseph Ryan after he got here throughout Ryan attacking his spouse on the morning of Feb. 24, 2023. However prosecutors mentioned Brendan Banfield and au pair Juliana Peres Magalhães set Ryan up in a scheme to eliminate Christine Banfield, a pediatric intensive care nurse.

Choose Penney Azcarate known as Banfield’s actions evil and calculated.

“The disregard of the lifetime of your spouse, somebody you supposedly liked, is sort of unfathomable,” she mentioned in handing down the sentence, which is necessary in Virginia for an aggravated homicide conviction. The scheme concerned “luring a very harmless man into your lethal lure; persevering with on after the murders with out a care; and never as soon as – not as soon as – considering of the influence” on the Banfields’ 4-year-old daughter. Brendan Banfield “took every little thing from her,” Azcarate mentioned.

Along with homicide, jurors in February convicted Banfield of kid endangerment as a result of the couple’s daughter was residence in the course of the killings. Azcarate sentenced Banfield to a further 5 years on that cost and three extra years on a firearms cost.

Talking at his sentencing, Banfield proclaimed his innocence. Banfield mentioned he liked his spouse and, though he had affairs, he by no means supposed to depart her.

Azcarate was unmoved, citing his lack of regret as a cause she felt no hesitation in ordering him to stay behind bars for all times.

Throughout Friday’s listening to, Christine Banfield’s older sister, Danielle Hocker, described her sister as sort, caring, dependable and selfless. She mentioned they grew up chasing fireflies and sleeping subsequent to one another on the ground in sleeping luggage.

“When she was born, ‘I’ turned ‘we’,” Hocker mentioned. “I have not stopped saying ‘we’ after I talk about my childhood after her demise, besides now after I do, it takes my breath away – a pause crammed with love that has nowhere to go.”

Ryan’s mom, Deidre Fisher, advised the courtroom that her son was an “extraordinarily caring” one that was a caretaker for his grandmother and different family members.

“Joe was a man who believed in preventing for the underdog, and even precise uncared for canines,” Fisher mentioned, with a small chuckle. “He would stroll into an animal shelter and ask for the oldest, ugliest canines, convey them residence and love them for years.”

Ryan’s aunt, Sangeeta Ryan, mentioned Banfield “did not simply take Joe and Christine from us. He tried to erase the reality of who they have been.”

Throughout Banfield’s trial, Magalhães testified he had advised her he needed to marry her and have youngsters together with her, however he wanted to “eliminate” his spouse first. He did not need a divorce as a result of “she would have more cash than he would” and since he needed custody of the couple’s daughter, mentioned Magalhães, who was 21 when she began working for the Banfields in 2021.

Magalhães additionally testified that she and Brendan Banfield staged the scene on the residence in Herndon, Virginia, to look as if that they had shot a violent intruder. The pair had pretended to be Christine Banfield on a fetish web site to lure Ryan to their home for a sexual encounter involving a knife.

On the day of the killings, Magalhães waited in a automobile exterior the home with the daughter. When Ryan arrived, she known as Brendan Banfield, who was ready at a close-by McDonald’s. The pair took the kid to the basement after which went to the bed room, the place they encountered Ryan. Brendan Banfield shot Ryan after which stabbed Christine Banfield with the knife Ryan had introduced. When Magalhães noticed Ryan shifting, she fired a second shot that killed him.

On Friday, Banfield emphasised that there was dissent throughout the police division over the speculation that he had impersonated his spouse, saying it might have been unimaginable for him to ship a number of the messages.

Some media have dubbed the case the “au pair affair.” Magalhães pleaded responsible to manslaughter after agreeing to testify in opposition to Banfield. Magalhães was sentenced to 10 years in jail after Banfield’s trial.

The video within the participant above is from an earlier report.