The double-murder trial of Brendan Banfield in Virginia comes down to two grim narratives. Prosecutors say Mr. Banfield, who had an affair with his family’s au pair, stabbed his wife to death and shot another man after luring him to their home in an intricate plot involving a fetish website.
This week, in highly anticipated testimony, Mr. Banfield took the stand and presented his side: that those claims were “absolutely crazy,” that his wife, Christine Banfield, had engaged in affairs of her own and that it was actually Joseph Ryan, the man he is accused of shooting, who fatally stabbed Ms. Banfield despite his attempts to save her.
Mr. Banfield, a 40-year-old former agent for the criminal division of the Internal Revenue Service, has been charged with aggravated murder in the killings of Ms. Banfield, 37, and Mr. Ryan, 38. He faces a possible sentence of life in prison if convicted.
In earlier testimony, the au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães, said that she had helped Mr. Banfield pose as his wife on a fetish website to lure Mr. Ryan to the couple’s home in Herndon, Va., and take part in a violent sexual role-play scenario.
Police officers found Ms. Banfield, a pediatric nurse, stabbed in the upper body. She died of her injuries soon after.
The case has been scrutinized by true crime aficionados across the United States and in Brazil, where Ms. Magalhães is from.
Ms. Magalhães, who is also accused of shooting Mr. Ryan that morning on Feb. 24, 2023, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in exchange for testifying against Mr. Banfield.
She said that the plan to kill Ms. Banfield and Mr. Ryan involved weeks of preparation, with Mr. Banfield scouring the neighborhood for doorbell cameras and soundproofing windows in the family home. The two then arranged Mr. Ryan’s visit while Ms. Banfield was alone, Ms. Magalhães said, following him into the house and engineering a confrontation.
Mr. Banfield testified that he loved his wife and that he had shot Mr. Ryan when it appeared that he was stabbing his wife.
Mr. Banfield said that he did not learn about the fetish website account until after Ms. Magalhães had been arrested.
On the morning of the killings, he said on Thursday, he heard sounds coming from his bedroom. He opened the door to the room and saw Ms. Banfield and Ms. Ryan next to the bed — he was clothed and she was nude, Mr. Banfield said. Then Mr. Banfield raised his gun from its holster and identified himself as “police.”
Mr. Banfield added that Mr. Ryan appeared to be holding a knife, and they told each other to drop the weapon.
According to Mr. Banfield’s testimony, Mr. Ryan told him that Ms. Banfield “gave herself to me,” and then he appeared to stab her. The action was partly obscured, Mr. Banfield said, by Ms. Banfield’s long, curly hair.
Mr. Banfield said that he fired his gun at Mr. Ryan, apparently hitting him but not killing him, before helping his wife apply pressure to a bloody wound on her neck.
Then, he said, Ms. Magalhães entered the room, retrieved a gun that belonged to Mr. Banfield, and fired a shot at Mr. Ryan, just as Mr. Ryan was striking Mr. Banfield’s shoulder.
Ms. Magalhães was initially charged with second-degree murder in October 2023, before her agreement with prosecutors. She will be sentenced after Mr. Banfield’s trial is over, and prosecutors have said they would recommend that she is sentenced to time served.
Mr. Banfield’s lawyer, John Carroll, has questioned Ms. Magalhães’s credibility and said that jurors should consider the circumstances surrounding her plea deal.
In his testimony, Mr. Banfield added that he and his wife had both had extramarital affairs in the past, and that they had discussed those affairs in counseling. Still, he said, “for the most part, we were pretty inseparable.”
He said that his wife had not known about his affair with Ms. Magalhães, which began in August 2022. Mr. Banfield added that he and Ms. Magalhães were broken up on the morning of the killings, and that they got together again later.
In cross-examination, the lawyer for the prosecution, Jenna Sands, asked Mr. Banfield about his relationship with Ms. Magalhães, which he had described as “not serious.”
Ms. Sands pointed to letters and Discord messages in which Mr. Banfield had told the au pair that he loved her, discussed baby names and shared memories of time they had spent together, before and after Ms. Banfield’s death.
Mr. Banfield said that his affection for Ms. Magalhães stemmed in part from her actions on the morning of the killing.
“In my view, she saved my life that day,” he said. “I think it’s easier to fall in love with somebody that saved you.”
Jacey Fortin covers a wide range of subjects for The Times, including extreme weather, court cases and state politics across the country.
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