Au pair sentenced to 10 years in prison in Brendan Banfield double murder case

The Brazilian au pair found guilty of colluding with Brendan Banfield to murder his wife and a stranger was sentenced to 10 years in prison in a Virginia court Friday.

The Brazilian au pair found guilty of colluding with Brendan Banfield to murder his wife and a stranger was sentenced to 10 years in prison in a Virginia court Friday.

Juliana Peres Magalhaes, 25, was arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder eight months after the Feb. 24, 2023, killing of Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan. In 2024, she pleaded guilty to the downgraded manslaughter charge.

In court on Friday, Judge Penney Azcarate called the case the “most serious manslaughter scenario” the court had ever seen. Azcarate sentenced Magalhaes to 10 years in the penitentiary and two years suspended.

Brendan Banfield, a 40-year-old former IRS agent, was found guilty for the murders of Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan. A Virginia jury convicted him on two counts of aggravated murder, one count of using a firearm in committing a felony, and child endangerment earlier this month.

Banfield could spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Magalhaes’ upcoming sentencing is the latest chapter of a long trial full of salacious details of affairs and a fetish website.

Magalhaes testified that Banfield wanted to avoid a divorce with his wife. They used his wife’s laptop to set up a fake account on the BDSM website FetLife.com, according to the au pair’s testimony, and persuaded Ryan to come to the Banfield home for what he believed to be a fake-rape fantasy with Christine Banfield.

The plan was to tell police they shot Ryan after he stabbed Christine Banfield, Magalhaes said in court.

Magalhaes called 911 on the morning of Feb. 24, 2023 to report that a friend had been hurt. Banfield told a dispatcher that an “unknown male” had entered his home and attacked his wife.

“There’s somebody here. I shot them,” Banfield told the dispatcher in a 911 call that was played at the trial. “He stabbed her. There’s several marks on her neck. What do I do?”

Police found Christine Banfield fatally stabbed in an upstairs bedroom. Ryan, who had been fatally shot, was discovered nearby.

During the trial, Banfield admitted to cheating on his wife with Magalhaes and several other women, but dismissed questions that he was involved in her murder as "absurd."

“I think that it’s an absurd line of questioning for something that is not serious that a plan was made to get rid of my wife,” he said on the stand. “That is absolutely crazy.”