Brendan Banfield expected to testify in his own defense in au pair affair double-murder trial

By Lauren del Valle, CNN

(CNN) — A Virginia man on trial for double-homicide will testify in his own defense, his lawyer says.

Prosecutors say Brendan Banfield concocted an elaborate scheme to kill his wife, Christine Banfield, and another man, Joseph Ryan, in their family home in February 2023. He faces life in prison if convicted on aggravated murder charges he faces.

Banfield has maintained his innocence, and his lawyer has accused prosecutors and investigators of manipulating evidence to suit their theory against Banfield.

Prosecutors put on a case over four days of testimony, telling the jury Banfield plotted with his family’s au pair to pose as his wife on a fetish website and lure Ryan to their home under the guise of having a consensual violent sexual encounter. Banfield was having an extramarital affair with the au pair at the time, prosecutors say.

The plan, according to prosecutors, was to frame Ryan for Christine Banfield’s death and make Ryan’s killing appear to be an act of self-defense.

Should Banfield take the stand, the jury will hear his version of events. Such a move comes with risk, as it subjects the defendant to cross-examination.

When the incident first unfolded February 24, 2023, the au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães, and Banfield called 911 to report the incident from the scene.

They told investigators Peres Magalhães saw Ryan enter the house early that morning and called Brendan Banfield, who rushed home to investigate. Banfield, who was an armed IRS investigator at the time, said he shot Ryan once in the head when he saw Ryan stabbing his wife in their bedroom. Peres Magalhães used Banfield’s personal firearm to shoot Ryan a second time.

During a hearing Friday morning about the instructions that will be given to the jury before it deliberates, Banfield’s attorney told the judge his client intends to take the stand. Banfield’s testimony would likely lead the judge to allow the panel to consider less severe homicide charges against Banfield, Judge Penney Azcarate acknowledged during the hearing.

Au pair testified defendant wanted to ‘get rid’ of his wife

Peres Magalhães was arrested for Ryan’s murder in October 2023, and a year later agreed to cooperate with prosecutors against Banfield in exchange for a recommendation that she be sentenced to time served. She testified at trial that the crime scene was actually staged by Banfield, who concocted the scheme to “get rid” of his wife.

Peres Magalhães on the stand acknowledged that she wants to get out of prison but also said the guilt and shame of hiding the truth weighed on her.

Banfield’s defense attorney has accused prosecutors of offering Peres Magalhães a way out of prison in exchange for a false story to pin the murders on Banfield.

Banfield was not arrested and charged with murder for his wife and Ryan’s deaths until September 2024.

Defense attorney John Carroll has called several law enforcement witnesses to the stand to question the police investigation of the case. Multiple investigators who testified in the defense case were transferred to other units or left the police department altogether.

Carroll has accused Fairfax County police of ignoring digital data recovered from Christine Banfield’s devices that he says disproves the theory that Banfield “catfished” Ryan posing as his wife.

An initial digital forensics analysis conducted by investigators found that Christine Banfield had control over her devices before her death, and those findings were upheld in a peer review of the report.

Det. Brendan Miller, who penned the report, testified for the defense Wednesday that he was asked to review his findings after Peres Magalhães changed her story to “ensure (he) could explain what (he) had put in that executive summary” though the raw evidence remained the same.

Miller also said he was transferred to a different unit within the Fairfax County Police Department over his work on the Banfield case.

On cross-examination, the detective acknowledged no evidence contradicts the testimony from Peres Magalhães and said it’s often impossible to place someone behind a device with certainty.

One of Miller’s former supervisors testified Thursday that he pushed for Miller’s transfer to a different department in part because the findings in the report were inaccurate.

Peres Magalhães testified Christine Banfield was home when the au pair and the defendant used Christine’s laptop to secretly access a fetish website to find a man whom they could eventually frame for his wife’s murder.

The jury will weigh dueling experts over crime scene blood evidence

During opening statements, prosecutor Jenna Sands promised the jury they wouldn’t have to rely solely on testimony from Peres Magalhães because blood evidence would prove Banfield killed his wife.

When police officers arrived on the scene they found Banfield knelt over his wife’s body with his hands on her neck. He said he was applying pressure to her wounds to slow the bleeding, according to body-worn camera footage played in court.

During his defense case, jurors watched body-worn camera footage from an officer who escorted Banfield to the hospital after the shootings. They heard Banfield audibly weep when he learned his wife had died. As footage of Banfield washing blood off his hands was played, the officer testified he wasn’t directed to examine Banfield’s hands or preserve the evidence at the time.

The prosecution and the defense called dueling bloodstain pattern analysts with differing conclusions about the crime scene.

The defense highlighted the absence of Brendan Banfield’s DNA on the knife used to fatally stab Christine. Analysis only recovered DNA from Christine and Joseph Ryan, who prosecutors say brought the knife there at Brendan Banfield’s direction posing as his wife.

The defense expert LeeAnn Singley said Ryan had wounds on his hand that could be consistent with having stabbed someone repeatedly. The prosecution’s expert Iris Dalley Graff acknowledged bruising on Ryan’s thumb but said she couldn’t conclusively say how Ryan sustained the injury.

Dalley Graff testified that finger-shaped transfer bloodstains bearing Christine’s DNA were recovered on Ryan’s jeans. She also said blood drips on Ryan’s forearm appeared to fall from his wrist to elbow. These findings could be consistent with testimony from Peres Magalhães that Banfield manipulated the crime scene after stabbing his wife.

Prosecutors have alleged Banfield moved Joseph Ryan’s body before police arrived and, according to Peres Magalhães, she saw Banfield take handfuls of his wife’s blood and drip it on Ryan in an effort to frame him.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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