Opening statements expected in double murder trial of Virginia man having affair with au pair

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FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — Opening statements are expected to begin Tuesday in the trial of a Virginia man accused of murdering his wife and another man while carrying on a romantic relationship with a Brazilian au pair.

Brendan Banfield is charged with aggravated murder in the February 2023 killings of Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan at the Banfields’ home in northern Virginia. He has pleaded not guilty and faces life imprisonment.

Brendan Banfield and Juliana Peres Magalhães, the family’s au pair, initially told investigators they shot Ryan after they found the stranger stabbing Christine Banfield in the bedroom. Prosecutors say Banfield and Magalhães lured Ryan to the house and staged it to look like they had shot an intruder. The two had begun a romantic relationship about a year earlier.

Both were initially arrested and charged with murder. In 2024, Magalhães pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter after cooperating with investigators.

Magalhães told them she and Brendan Banfield created an account in his wife’s name on a social media platform for people interested in sexual fetishes. Ryan connected with the account, planning to meet on the morning of Feb. 24, 2023, for a sexual encounter involving a knife.

Not all officials investigating the case have believed that Banfield and Magalhães lured Ryan to the home.

Brendan Miller, a former digital forensic examiner with the Fairfax County Police Department, testified last year that he analyzed dozens of devices and concluded Christine Banfield had connected with Ryan herself. An evidence analysis team at the University of Alabama peer-reviewed and affirmed Miller’s digital forensic findings, according to evidence submitted to the court.

Miller was transferred out of the department’s digital forensics unit in late 2024, though a former Fairfax County commander testified the reassignment was not punitive.

John Carroll, Banfield’s attorney, has argued that Miller’s transfer is directly related to his work on the case. Carroll also noted in court that Fairfax County police reassigned the case’s lead detective after that man pushed back on the catfishing theory.

“It is a theory in search of facts rather than a series of facts supporting a theory,” Carroll said.

Banfield, whose then-4-year-old daughter was at the house on the morning of the killings, is also charged with child abuse and felony child cruelty in connection with the case. He will also face those charges during the aggravated murder trial.