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.
The man accused of shooting and killing a nonprofit CEO as he slept in his Fairfax City home will likely not face trial due to mental health reasons.
Joshua Danehower, now 36, is instead expected to be committed indefinitely to a state behavioral health facility under an apparent decision between his attorney and prosecutors that will allow him to plead not guilty for reasons of insanity.
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.
The federal government is now leveling its own criminal charge against the man accused of a recent murder in Reston.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia has charged 23-year-old Marvin Fernando Morales Ortez with possessing a firearm as someone who is “illegally” present in the U.S.
A Reston man was released from the custody of the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday (Dec. 17) less than 24 hours before allegedly killing another man, police said.
After a nearly two-hour manhunt, 23-year-old Marvin Fernando Morales-Ortez was arrested Wednesday afternoon and charged with one count of second degree murder — a felony that carries a maximum of 40 years in prison.
A man was fatally shot in south Reston this morning (Wednesday), prompting an extensive police search for another man believed to be the suspect.
Fairfax County police officers were dispatched to the 12300 block of Fan Shell Court in the Cocquina Cluster around 11:49 a.m. after a 911 caller reported that his mother had arrived at the house and found it to be “a mess,” suggesting a possible break-in, according to scanner traffic.
A Vienna man was convicted today (Monday) of murdering his girlfriend while camping in Burke Lake Park in 2023.
Rami El-Sayed, 36, was convicted on one count each of first-degree murder and concealment of a dead body, the Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney’s Office announced.
A 31-year-old Herndon woman has been arrested and charged with the stabbing death of her 79-year-old mother, the Fairfax County Police Department announced today.
Helena Little was taken into custody at 3 p.m. yesterday (Thursday), two days after her mother — Norma Little — was found unresponsive inside her apartment in the 2300 block of Dulles Station Blvd.
