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The Virginia trial of Brendan Banfield, a former IRS special agent accused of being the mastermind behind a grisly double murder to cover up an affair with his family’s au pair, kicked off Tuesday with his mistress taking the stand to provide an explosive firsthand account of the alleged killings.
Banfield is charged with aggravated murder in the February 2023 killings of his wife, Christine Banfield, and Joseph Ryan inside their home in Herndon, Virginia, an affluent suburb of Washington, D.C.
Prosecutors allege Banfield spent a month impersonating his wife on a fetish website to lure Ryan to the family’s home and carry out the double murder to hide an ongoing affair with the family’s Brazilian au pair, then-22-year-old Juliana Peres Magalhães.
“Those two individuals had no reason to know each other but for the plotting and planning of Brendan Banfield,” prosecutor Jenna Sands said in opening statements, referring to Ryan and Christine Banfield.
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However, at the time of the alleged murders, Magalhães told investigators she and Banfield discovered Ryan stabbing Christine inside the home and both opened fire to stop the intruder.
Defense attorney John Carroll insisted in his opening statement that Magalhães was arrested in October 2023 in an effort to pit her against Banfield during his trial.
“The whole reason she was arrested was to flip her against my client,” Carroll said.
Magalhães pleaded guilty to manslaughter in October 2024 and will be sentenced after Banfield’s trial.
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In explosive testimony, Magalhães took the stand to detail how her relationship with Banfield went from professional to sexual.
“We barely spoke,” Magalhães said. “My relationship was mostly with Christine and [the couple’s child].”
Magalhães testified that the pair became intimate in August 2022, and how she first became aware of Banfield’s alleged plan to kill his wife while the pair were on a trip to New York with Banfield’s young child just two months later, with Banfield declining to file for divorce instead.
“He mentioned his plan to get rid of [Christine],” Magalhães told the prosecution. “Initially, he didn’t know what he would do. He just mentioned that he would think about it [and] let me know when he thought about it.”
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Magalhães explained on the stand that Banfield used his wife’s email and photograph to create an account on a fetish website under a fake name, while also conspiring to create an alibi in the event of a murder investigation.
“He knew that we needed to have some alibis,” Magalhães testified. “He knew that he needed to change his routine a few weeks prior. So it wouldn’t be odd that he wasn’t, you know, just at McDonald’s on that day, specifically.”
Prosecutors allege that Banfield and Magalhães propositioned men on the fetish website to enter the family’s home under the guise of a consensual sexual encounter, ultimately deciding on Ryan as their victim.
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“He made Brendan feel confident enough that he would be the person to play the role, which means being aggressive and holding her down and coming over to the house and bringing stuff and all that,” Magalhães said.
“Brendan created the narrative that Christine desperately wanted to be raped,” Sands explained in her opening statement. “Posing as Christine, he told Joe what to do: Come to the home in Reston. The door will be unlocked. Christine will be asleep in bed. Come straight upstairs, cut off her clothing, tie her, rape her. Simple and fun.”
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Before Ryan arrived at the home, Banfield went to a nearby McDonald’s and awaited Magalhães’ call regarding an intruder at the home, the au pair testified.
“After calling Christine, I called Brendan, and then he picked up the phone and I was telling him, ‘Stay away, there’s somebody strange and come to the house, I’m scared,'” Magalhães said. “He told me to stay there. He will be coming home, and he will try to call Christine.”
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As the encounter unfolded, Banfield and the au pair put his young child in the basement with her iPad before entering the Banfields’ bedroom, where Banfield shot Ryan with his service weapon and stabbed his wife while Magalhães held a firearm he had purchased a month before the alleged killing, according to prosecutors.
“When I got to the bedroom, Brendan yelled, ‘Police officer,’ and Christine’s first reaction – it was the first time I heard her say anything at that point – and she yelled back at Brendan, saying, ‘Brendan, he has a knife,’ and that’s when Brendan first shot Joe,” Magalhães said.
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Magalhães then testified, in graphic detail, how Banfield climbed on top of his wife and stabbed her in the neck while she covered her eyes and ears on the other side of the bed.
“I had put my hands on the carpet and as soon as I felt blood, I just removed my hands from the carpet,” Magalhães said, adding that blood also soaked into her shoes and socks.
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Banfield then allegedly staged the crime scene to appear as though it was a home invasion, with Magalhães then calling 911 to tell authorities Ryan was an intruder who had stabbed Christine, Sands added.
Banfield’s attorney did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
If convicted, Banfield would face the possibility of life in prison. The trial is expected to last four weeks. Court sessions will begin at 10 a.m. each day and run Monday through Thursday, according to court administrators.
Fox News Digital’s Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.
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