Au pair pleads guilty in double homicide in US, agrees to cooperate

Juliana Peres Magalhães and Brendan Banfield in a photograph in the Banfield’s main bedroom on Oct. 13, 2023. Photo / Fairfax County Circuit Court clerk's office

An au pair who prosecutors say fell in love with the man who hired her, then conspired with him in a plot that left his wife and another man dead, has agreed to co-operate with authorities investigating her former paramour, Fairfax County prosecutors revealed during an explosive hearing on Tuesday morning.

Juliana Peres Magalhães, 24, who had been charged with second-degree murder in the case, which drew international attention, pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge. In exchange for her co-operation, prosecutors agreed to recommend that she be released on time served after the trial of her employer, which is scheduled for February.

Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Eric Clingan said on Tuesday that Magalhães began co-operating with Fairfax police last week, laying out details of the plot allegedly launched by the au pair’s employer, Brendan Banfield, 39, of Herndon, Virginia, to kill his wife, Christine Banfield, 37, in February 2023.

Magalhães was arrested in November and charged with murder, and she has been in jail ever since. Brendan Banfield was arrested last month, and both he and Magalhães were charged in the slaying of Joseph Ryan, 39, who prosecutors say had been lured to the house for sex. Brendan Banfield and Magalhães told police they interrupted Ryan in the course of stabbing Christine Banfield, a story police and prosecutors long doubted.

Juliana Peres Magalhães, who was arrested in November and charged with murder, pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge. Photo / Family photo

Now they have acquired a crucial witness. Prosecutors alleged in court Tuesday that Magalhães, who moved to Herndon from Brazil to work as a live-in nanny for the Banfields’ young daughter, posed as Brendan Banfield’s wife in a phone call to Ryan, and that Brendan Banfield then fatally stabbed his wife.

Brendan Banfield was also charged in Christine’s death. His lawyer, John Carroll, was present in the courtroom for Magalhães’ plea, but left before it concluded and did not return a message seeking comment on Tuesday morning.

Relatives of the two victims were also present but declined to comment after the hearing. Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano said the plea and co-operation were “a significant step forward in this case, and it is an important development in our pursuit of justice for the victims and their families”.

Police have said previously that Christine Banfield was stabbed to death on February 24, 2023, and that Ryan was fatally shot, both inside the main bedroom of the Banfields’ home on Stable Brook Way in Herndon. Brendan Banfield and Magalhaes told police the same story: Magalhães had seen Ryan enter the house, she called Brendan Banfield, they both entered the house, and Brendan Banfield, an IRS investigative agent at the time, had shot Ryan as Ryan stabbed Christine Banfield. Magalhães then fired a second shot when Ryan appeared to be moving, court records show.

Brendan Banfield was arrested last month and is scheduled for trial in February. Photo / Fairfax County Virginia Police

Clingan told a new, more detailed version to Chief Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Penney S. Azcarate after Magalhães quietly pleaded guilty to the reduced charge. Clingan said that after Magalhães and Brendan Banfield entered into a relationship, “Brendan Banfield told Peres Magalhães he desired to be rid of his wife” and “began planning to kill his wife and Joseph Ryan”.

Clingan said Banfield opened an account on FetLife, a website for devotees of sexual fetishes, began communicating with others on the site and “settled on Joseph Ryan, and lured him to the Banfield home” on the morning of the double homicide.

After chatting with Ryan online, Brendan Banfield “directed Peres Magalhães to participate in a call with Joseph Ryan using the Telegram app” a few days before the shootings, to persuade Ryan to come to the house, Clingan said. He said that Banfield had bought a pistol and given it to Magalhães and that she would later use it to shoot Ryan.

Brendan Banfield’s plan for the slaying, Clingan said, was for Magalhães to call him when she saw Ryan enter the house. Then both Magalhães and Brendan Banfield were to call Christine Banfield, supposedly to alert her, the prosecutor said. But Brendan Banfield had turned his wife’s phone off and placed it in a kitchen drawer, Clingan said. So when Magalhães called Brendan Banfield, and he called his wife, that purported alert went unanswered, too, “as he knew it would”, the prosecutor said.

Brendan Banfield and Magalhães entered the house with his young daughter and placed the child in the basement, the prosecutor said. Clingan said both Banfield and Magalhães held guns; Magalhães had not retrieved one later, as she told police.

Evidence photograph of Brendan Banfield’s home. Photo / Fairfax County Circuit Court Clerk's Office

“Brendan Banfield called out ‘Police officer!’” Clingan said, “and shot Joseph Ryan in the head.” Magalhães called 911, and Ryan can be heard moaning in the background, Clingan said.

Then “Brendan Banfield stabbed Christine Banfield,” Clingan said. Soon after, Magalhães saw Ryan moving in the bedroom “and shot him”, Clingan said. “Joseph Ryan died in the Banfields’ bedroom.”

Clingan said in a hearing last month that police believed the victims had been moved and positioned after they were fatally wounded, to make it appear as though Brendan Banfield had interrupted an attack by Ryan.

Christine Banfield was taken to a hospital, with her husband by her side, and died there.

Clingan said Magalhães met with police on Friday and “provided a detailed account of events that took place” at the Banfield house that morning, which “corroborated evidence gathered by Fairfax County police detectives”.

Other than to answer the judge’s questions that she understood the proceedings and didn’t need an interpreter, Magalhães did not speak during the brief hearing. Brendan Banfield’s trial for the slaying of Ryan is scheduled for February 3, and Azcarate set a tentative sentencing date for Magalhães for March 21.