FAIRFAX, Va. — A Brazilian au pair who has pleaded responsible to manslaughter testified towards her former employer and lover on Wednesday in a double murder case that prosecutors say was a part of an elaborate scheme to eliminate the person’s spouse.
Brendan Banfield is charged with aggravated murder within the 2023 killings of Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan on the Banfields’ house in northern Virginia. He has pleaded not responsible and will face life in jail if convicted.
Prosecutors have mentioned that Banfield, an IRS agent, and Juliana Peres Magalhães, the household’s au pair, had been in love. In an effort to eliminate Christine Banfield, the pair impersonated her on a social media website for sexual fetishes and spent a month arranging an elaborate rape situation with Ryan, a stranger. They killed Ryan and Christine Banfield after staging it to seem like that they had shot an intruder who was attacking Christine Banfield with a knife, Magalhães testified on Tuesday.
Magalhães, who was raised within the outskirts of São Paulo, was initially charged with homicide however pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter in 2024 after cooperating with investigators. She shall be sentenced on the conclusion of Banfield’s trial. Relying on her cooperation with authorities, attorneys have mentioned she may very well be sentenced to the time she’s already served.
Banfield’s legal professional, John Carroll, mentioned in opening statements on Tuesday that Magalhães had maintained her innocence for a 12 months however ultimately modified her story after she misplaced religion in her legal professional.
“The entire cause she was arrested was to flip her towards my shopper,” Carroll mentioned.
On Wednesday, Carroll requested Magalhães to learn parts from letters she had written from jail to Brendan Banfield and others. They expressed melancholy and frustration along with her scenario. “No energy. No braveness. No hope,” she wrote at one level.
Banfield, whose 4-year-old daughter was on the home on the morning of the killings, can be charged with child abuse and felony child cruelty in reference to the case. He’ll face these expenses through the aggravated homicide trial.
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Related Press author Travis Loller in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed.
