The au pair at the center of an alleged double murder cover-up plot in Northern Virginia testified that her former boss and affair partner plotted to “get rid of” his wife and frame a stranger lured from a fetish website with her murder to avoid divorce.
Juliana Peres Magalhães, 25, took the stand Tuesday for Brendan Banfield’s trial on aggravated murder and firearms charges in the deaths of his wife and a stranger.
Christine Banfield, a pediatric ICU nurse, was stabbed and Joseph Ryan was shot in a Herndon, Virginia, home on Feb. 24, 2023, medical experts and police testified Tuesday.
Prosecutors are trying to convince a jury that Brendan Banfield, 40, staged the killings to look like Ryan was an intruder who stabbed Christine before Brendan shot Ryan in defense.
“We’re here today because Brendan Banfield, the man seated behind me, killed his wife, Christine Banfield, and another man, named Joseph Ryan. Those two individuals had no reason to know each other but for the plotting and planning of Brendan Banfield,” lead prosecutor Jenna Sands said during the first day of testimony on Tuesday.
Brendan has denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty to all charges.
On the stand, Peres Magalhães said Brendan first “mentioned his plan to get rid” of his wife in October 2022, during a trip to New York with the Banfields’ young daughter, about two months after they started having an affair.
When asked by the prosecution whether Brendan ever talked about divorcing Christine, Peres Magalhães replied, “No, he basically said divorce was not an option.”
She said Brendan told her he didn’t want a divorce because “money was involved” and he didn’t want to share custody of their daughter with Christine.
Peres Magalhães said she at first thought Brendan was joking. But he spoke more of his plans when they returned from their trip, Peres Magalhães said.
She said Brendan then told her about the website FetLife, a BDSM fetish website.
Au pair Juliana Peres Magalhães was last to take the stand in the Banfield murder trial. This is the testimony from her first day on the stand.
She described Brendan creating a fake FetLife profile using Christine’s name and photos, which prosecutors allege Brendan used to lure Ryan to the house.
Brendan was careful to never post to the account except when Christine Banfield was home, out of concern for where her phone would ping during an investigation, Peres Magalhães said.
Brendan and Peres Magalhães messaged with several people on FetLife as they posed as Christine, but rejected them because the site users wanted to meet in person before any sexual encounter, the former au pair testified.
Brendan believed Joseph Ryan would come to the Banfields’ home and enact the violent fantasy the husband planned, Peres Magalhães said.
“He made Brendan feel confident enough that he would be the person to, to play the role, which means being aggressive and hold her down and come over to the house and bring stuff and all that,” she said.
Ryan was told not to stop “even if she was calling for help,” Sands, the lead prosecutor, referring to Christine in her opening statement Tuesday.
Peres Magalhães said she and Brendan made at least two visits to a shooting range before the FetLife account was created.
Brendan used a cellphone app on his wife’s phone to unlock the door to their home before Ryan’s arrival, the au pair testified. He then hid her cellphone in the kitchen.
Christine was asleep, on a day off as an ICU nurse, on the day of the alleged murder plot, prosecutors say.
The au pair also gave gruesome details of the alleged murders, saying she crouched by the bed and tried to cover her ears and eyes as Brendan repeatedly stabbed Christine in the bedroom of the couple’s home.
Peres Magalhães pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter for her role in the double-killing and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
Brendan’s attorney said Peres Magalhães claimed she was innocent for months before eventually taking the plea deal.
“The whole reason she was arrested was to flip her against my client,” Carroll argued.
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