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WATCH: Closing arguments in Banfield’s Fairfax County murder trial

January 30, 2026, 2:21 PM

Closing arguments have finished in a Fairfax County murder trial and jurors are deliberating the case of a husband accused of killing his wife and another man, amid an affair with the family’s Brazilian au pair.

Attorneys from the prosecution and defense made their final arguments Friday morning.

Brendan Banfield is accused of conspiring with the family’s au pair to kill his wife, Christine Banfield, and Joseph Ryan, in February 2023.

Prosecutors cross-examined Banfield, aiming to poke holes in his testimony that “there was no plan” with Juliana Peres Magalhães to kill his wife.

After Banfield testified Wednesday that both him and Christine had affairs throughout the course of their 19-year relationship, prosecutors also pressed him about details of his other affairs.

“One of those affairs was with a woman named Danielle, who you met on a fetish site searching for sugar babies, is that right?” Brendan Banfield was asked.

Banfield responded that he would not call it a fetish website, and that “it was a relationship where they would already know that I was married. That was what I was looking for.”

On Wednesday, he testified he loved his wife “very much” and wanted to continue their marriage.

Earlier in the trial, the au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães, testified as part of a plea deal about Banfield’s alleged plot to frame Ryan in his wife’s murder.

WTOP is airing the court proceedings.

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