Virginia man gets life in prison for double murder scheme in affair with
au pair
[June 06, 2026]
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — A Virginia man who was having an affair with the
family’s au pair was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole
for the murder of his wife and a man who was lured to the couple's home
as a fall guy.
Brendan Banfield, a former IRS law enforcement officer, claimed he shot
Joseph Ryan after he came across Ryan attacking his wife on the morning
of Feb. 24, 2023. But prosecutors said Brendan Banfield and Brazilian au
pair Juliana Peres Magalhães set Ryan up in a scheme to get rid of
Christine Banfield, a pediatric intensive care nurse.
Judge Penney Azcarate called Banfield’s actions evil and calculated.
“The disregard of the life of your wife, someone you supposedly loved,
is almost unfathomable,” she said in handing down the sentence, which is
mandatory in Virginia for an aggravated murder conviction. The scheme
involved “luring a completely innocent man into your deadly trap;
continuing on after the murders without a care; and not once — not once
— thinking of the impact” on the Banfields' 4-year-old daughter. Brendan
Banfield “took everything from her,” Azcarate said.
In addition to murder, jurors in February convicted Banfield of child
endangerment because the couple’s daughter was home during the killings.
Azcarate sentenced Banfield to an additional five years on that charge
and three more years on a firearms charge.
Speaking at his sentencing, Banfield proclaimed his innocence. Banfield
said he loved his wife and, although he had affairs, he never intended
to leave her.
Azcarate was unmoved, citing his lack of remorse as a reason she felt no
hesitation in ordering him to remain behind bars for life.
During Friday's hearing, Christine Banfield’s older sister, Danielle
Hocker, described her sister as kind, caring, reliable and selfless. She
said they grew up chasing fireflies and sleeping next to each other on
the floor in sleeping bags.
“When she was born, 'I' became ‘we’,” Hocker said. “I haven’t stopped
saying ‘we’ when I speak about my childhood after her death, except now
when I do, it takes my breath away — a pause filled with love that has
nowhere to go.”
Ryan’s mother, Deidre Fisher, told the court that her son was an
“extremely caring” person who was a caretaker for his grandmother and
other loved ones.
“Joe was a guy who believed in fighting for the underdog, and even
actual neglected dogs,” Fisher said, with a small laugh. “He would walk
into an animal shelter and ask for the oldest, ugliest dogs, bring them
home and love them for years.”
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Brendan Banfield listens to a family impact statement ahead of the
sentencing in court on Friday, June 5, 2026 in Fairfax, Va. (AP
Photo/Pool)
Ryan's aunt, Sangeeta Ryan, said Banfield “didn’t just take Joe and
Christine from us. He tried to erase the truth of who they were.”
During Banfield's trial, Magalhães testified he had told her he
wanted to marry her and have children with her, but he needed to
“get rid of” his wife first. He didn’t want a divorce because “she
would have more money than he would” and because he wanted custody
of the couple’s daughter, said Magalhães, who was 21 when she
started working for the Banfields in 2021.
Magalhães also testified that she and Brendan Banfield staged the
scene at the home in Herndon, Virginia, to look as if they had shot
a violent intruder. The pair had pretended to be Christine Banfield
on a fetish website to lure Ryan to their house for a sexual
encounter involving a knife.
On the day of the killings, Magalhães waited in a car outside the
house with the daughter. When Ryan arrived, she called Brendan
Banfield, who was waiting at a nearby McDonald's. The pair took the
child to the basement and then went to the bedroom, where they
encountered Ryan. Brendan Banfield shot Ryan and then stabbed
Christine Banfield with the knife Ryan had brought. When Magalhães
saw Ryan moving, she fired a second shot that killed him.
On Friday, Banfield emphasized that there was dissent within the
police department over the theory that he had impersonated his wife,
saying it would have been impossible for him to send some of the
messages.
Some media have dubbed the case the “au pair affair.” Magalhães
pleaded guilty to manslaughter after agreeing to testify against
Banfield. Magalhães was sentenced to 10 years in prison after
Banfield's trial.
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