A Herndon family’s au pair who engaged in an affair with her employer before aiding a plot to murder his wife and another man has received the maximum sentence for her role in the killings.
Juliana Peres Magalhaes was sentenced to 10 years in prison today (Friday) — the maximum sentence allowed for the charge of manslaughter under state law. The 25-year-old had previously pleaded guilty to the lesser charge in exchange for her testimony against co-conspirator Brendan Banfield.
A Herndon man faces life in prison after being convicted today (Monday) of murdering his wife and another man while having an affair with the family’s au pair.
After a trial that spanned more than two weeks, it took just one-and-a-half days for the 12-person jury to return a verdict against Brendan Banfield, finding the 40-year-old former IRS officer guilty for the February 2023 murders of Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan.
By OLIVIA DIAZ and TRAVIS LOLLER Associated Press
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — Jurors began deliberating Friday on whether a former IRS law enforcement officer in Virginia conspired with his family’s Brazilian au pair, with whom he was having an affair, to kill his wife and pin it on a stranger.
By OLIVIA DIAZ Associated Press/Report for America
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — In the cold formality of a northern Virginia courtroom, Brendan Banfield testified on Thursday that prosecutors got it wrong: He did not fatally stab his wife in 2023, but instead shot the man who did.
The Herndon man accused of killing his wife and another man while having an affair with their au pair denied planning to take his wife out of the picture in court yesterday (Wednesday).
Though Brendan Banfield was forthcoming about his months-long affair with co-defendant Juliana Peres Magalhaes, he firmly rejected the idea that he had planned the killing of his wife, Christine Banfield.
On the second day of Brendan Banfield’s trial for the February 2023 killings of his wife and another man at a Herndon-area home, the woman originally accused of fatally shooting the man testified against her alleged former lover in Fairfax County court.
Juliana Peres Magalhaes, who was employed by the Banfield family as an au pair, testified following opening arguments yesterday (Tuesday) in Fairfax County Circuit Court with Judge Penney Azcarate presiding. Brendan Banfield is facing seven felony charges — including four counts of aggravated murder — in relation to the killings of 37-year-old Christine Banfield and 39-year-old Joseph Ryan.
Jury selection began this morning (Monday) in the postponed trial against a Herndon man accused by prosecutors of concocting a scheme with his family’s au pair to frame a stranger in the fatal stabbing of his wife.
Brendan Banfield is charged with aggravated murder in the February 2023 killings of Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan at the Banfields’ home in northern Virginia. He has pleaded not guilty in the case.
