A jury was seated Monday afternoon in the aggravated murder trial of a Fairfax County man charged with killing his wife and another man in the family’s Herndon, Virginia, home in 2023.
A jury pool of 80 county residents was winnowed down to 12 jurors and four alternates in the high-profile case.
Prosecutors have argued Brendan Banfield, 40, conspired with the family’s au pair, whom he had a relationship with, to plot the double murder and frame another man for his wife’s killing.
Banfield was indicted in 2024 on four counts of aggravated murder and one count of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. He was later indicted on one count of felony child abuse and neglect and one count of felony child cruelty, because his 4-year-old child was in the home when the killings occurred, according to prosecutors.
Monday, Banfield answered “not guilty” to each count read by the court clerk, as he sat at the defense table with his attorney, John Carroll.
Dressed in a gray suit, Banfield wore a tie Carroll had handed to a court deputy moments before being escorted into the courtroom.
Banfield is charged in connection with the Feb. 24, 2023, deaths of his wife, Christine Banfield, 37, and Joseph Ryan, 39, of Springfield. Opening statements in the case are expected to begin Tuesday morning.
In October 2023, the family’s au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhaes, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder. She later pleaded guilty to manslaughter in what prosecutors described as a scheme to frame Ryan, a Fairfax County native, in the stabbing of Christine Banfield, a pediatric intensive care nurse.
Peres Magalhaes is expected to testify against Banfield in his trial, which is likely to take several weeks.
The au pair, who authorities said had a romantic affair with Brendan Banfield, agreed to cooperate with officials in their case against him. Banfield was arrested nearly a year after Peres Magalhaes. In a proffer, the au pair backed prosecutors’ belief that the husband was behind the online account in a plot to kill his wife and stage it to look like he and the au pair shot a predator in defense.
As part of Peres Magalhaes’ plea agreement, Fairfax County prosecutors have said they will recommend a sentence of time served. The Brazilian native’s sentencing has been delayed until after Banfield’s trial, and Peres Magalhaes is expected to be deported after that hearing.
What led to the homicides
Prosecutors said Peres Magalhaes and Brendan Banfield began a romantic relationship in August 2022. She was later hired as the family’s au pair in late 2022.
According to prosecutors, in November 2022, Banfield told Peres Magalhaes he wanted to “get rid of his wife.”
In January 2023, he bought a gun. Banfield taught Peres Magalhaes how to use a firearm at a gun range in Ashburn, according to the plea agreement.
He created an account on an adult fetish website and messaged other users, including Ryan, prosecutors say.
A couple days before the killings, Banfield told Peres Magalhaes to talk with Ryan on a call using the Telegram app, according to prosecutors.
While on that call, Ryan agreed to come to the Banfields’ home with the expectation of meeting up with Christine Banfield for “violent sexual role play” that would include consensual use of restraints and cutting her clothing off, court documents said.
In a July pretrial hearing, Brendan Banfield’s attorneys challenged the “catfishing” theory that led to his indictment.
“It is a theory in search of facts rather than a series of facts supporting a theory,” John Carroll, Banfield’s attorney, said in court.
Carroll told the judge that two detectives who believed digital evidence suggested Christine was the one sending messages to Ryan were pressured and silenced by Fairfax County police supervisors. Both detectives were also transferred off the high-profile case.
Christine Banfield died of stab wounds, and Joseph Ryan died from gunshot wounds.
Brendan Banfield told police he believed Ryan was an intruder who had attacked his wife with a knife, prompting him to shoot in self-defense. Magalhaes then fired a second shot at Ryan that killed him, according to prosecutors.
High-profile case will be livestreamed
As part of jury selection, Fairfax County Circuit Court Chief Judge Penney Azcarate initially asked jurors if they had heard of the case. Approximately 20 potential jurors raised their hands.
With the rest of the jury pool out of the courtroom, Azcarate, prosecutors Kelly Sprissler and Jenna Sands, as well as defense attorney Carroll sought specifics from each person who had indicated they were familiar with the case.
Some, who had only heard vague details about what the judge described as “the au pair case,” remained in the selection process.
A few potential jurors declared they had already made up their minds, and would find it difficult to ignore what they had heard and render a verdict based only on evidence and testimony in Azcarate’s courtroom. They were dismissed.
In August, Azcarate approved the use of pool cameras for the high-profile trial. Court sessions will begin at 10 a.m. each day and run Monday through Thursday, according to court administrators.
WTOP will carry Court TV’s pool coverage of the trial.
In 2022, Azcarate oversaw actor Johnny Depp’s libel case against his ex-wife Amber Heard, in which he was awarded more than $10 million and vindicated his allegations that Heard lied about Depp abusing her before and during their brief marriage.
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