A Brazilian au pair who pleaded guilty to manslaughter for her role in a lurid double murder in Virginia was sentenced on Friday to 10 years in prison.
It is the maximum for manslaughter in the state and was far longer than what had been sought by prosecutors, who relied on testimony by the woman, Juliana Peres Magalhães, to convict her lover, Brendan Banfield, of murder. Prosecutors recommended that she been sentenced to the time she had already served behind bars since her arrest, which would have allowed her to go free almost immediately.
Ms. Magalhães, 25, was having an affair with Mr. Banfield while working for the family as an au pair, and at his trial, she testified that she helped Mr. Banfield murder his wife, Christine Banfield, and another man, Joseph Ryan.
Mr. Ryan had been lured to the Banfields’ home in Herndon, Va., through a sexual fetish website in which Mr. Banfield and Ms. Magalhães posed as Ms. Banfield.
Judge Penney Azcarate of the Circuit Court in Fairfax County went far beyond that sentencing recommendation.
She ran down a lengthy list of reasons for why she was giving Ms. Magalhães the maximum. Judge Azcarate said that until Friday’s sentencing hearing Ms. Magalhães had offered no remorse; that when Ms. Banfield had yelled to her to call 9-1-1, she did not; and when Mr. Ryan, who had been shot in the head by Mr. Banfield, began to move afterward, she shot him in the chest to make sure he was dead.
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