Brendan Banfield sentenced to life in prison for murders of wife, stranger amid affair with his family’s au pair

By Nicki Brown, CNN

(CNN) — Brendan Banfield, the Virginia man convicted of killing his wife and a stranger as part of an elaborate plot with the family’s au pair, was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole after facing his victims’ loved ones in court.

“The level of cruelty, calculation and inhumanity in this case reflects something far deeper than anger or impulse – it reflects evil, which is why I carry no burden and find no hesitation in sentencing you to life,” Judge Penney S. Azcarate said as she handed down the sentence.

Banfield and the au pair – who were having an affair – lured Joseph Ryan into the family’s home in February 2023 under the pretense of a sexual encounter to frame him for the killing of Banfield’s wife, Christine, prosecutors argued.

Brendan Banfield and the 26-year-old au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães, both took the stand during the double-murder trial and offered conflicting accounts about the killings, with Banfield insisting he shot Ryan after he found the man attacking his wife.

The judge also ordered Banfield, 41, to serve consecutive prison sentences for his convictions on a firearms offense and a child endangerment charge. The latter charge was related to his young daughter, who was in the Herndon, Virginia, home at the time of the murders.

Banfield addressed the court before Azcarate handed down the sentence, maintaining his innocence and arguing prosecutors’ case was flawed.

“I’m not trying to diminish in any way what (Christine’s) life was. She truly was a caring mother, a caring wife, a loving nurse,” he said. “But I am not responsible for her death.”

Family members of Banfield’s victims also addressed the court Friday, with Christine’s older sister recounting countless fond memories growing up alongside her beloved “sissy.”

“Since losing her, those same memories have changed. They’re no longer just joyful, but layered with grief, each one a reminder of both how much I had and how much was taken,” Danielle Hocker said.

Christine was a dedicated mother to her young daughter, Valerie, who will now largely know her mother through stories she hears from others, Hocker said.

“I will be there, never to replace my sister, but to tell Valerie who her mother was, remind her of her big laugh and even bigger heart,” Hocker said. “I will tell Valerie how much she was loved by her mother, and I will forever carry both the grief of losing her too soon and the gratitude of having loved her for 37 years and being loved by her in return.”

Before the sentencing, a lifelong friend of Christine remembered her as a dedicated pediatric nurse, an advocate for rape victims and a selfless friend.

“She always carried everything with the most respect and, again, it was just all about helping people and being a person who somebody could go to and trust,” Lucille Priolo told CNN Trial Correspondent Jean Casarez in an interview last month.

Priolo, who grew up with Christine Banfield on Long Island, New York, described her as “one of the kindest people I have ever been in contact with.”

“Through life, every chapter, we were together, we were friends, and she just always made sure she was that person who was at the door, even without being asked,” Priolo said.

At Friday’s sentencing, members of Ryan’s family remembered their beloved “Joe,” who his mother described as a “kind human being who had a full life of meaning.”

“Brendan will remain known as an abusive father, the brutal murderer of his dedicated and compassionate, beautiful wife, and a narcissistic killer of an innocent man,” Deirdre Fisher said. “My son’s legacy is one of selfless love, while Brendan’s is one of senseless evil.”

Ryan’s aunt does not forgive Banfield, who she said made a “calculated decision” to kill her nephew and then distort the truth to dodge responsibility.

“Today we take back Joe and Christine’s memory from the lies, from the manipulation, and from the man who thought he could control their story even after taking their lives,” Sangeeta Ryan said.

Au pair described the plot to ‘get rid’ of Christine Banfield

Over five days, Fairfax County prosecutors called more than 20 witnesses including Peres Magalhães, who testified for three days about the scheme to “get rid” of Christine Banfield.

Peres Magalhães pleaded guilty in October 2024 to involuntary manslaughter for fatally shooting Ryan as part of a plea deal in which she agreed to cooperate with prosecutors against her former paramour.

The Brazilian au pair said she started living with the Banfields in October 2021 and began having an affair with the defendant the following August.

Banfield wanted to be with her but did not want to pay for a divorce or share custody of the couple’s daughter, Peres Magalhães said, so he hatched a plan to kill his wife.

Using Christine Banfield’s laptop, the pair created a fake email address and an account on a fetish website to find a man willing to carry out a rape fantasy so they could frame him for her murder, the au pair testified.

Posing as his wife online, Brendan Banfield gave Ryan specific instructions for the baited sexual encounter, prosecutors said.

“Christine will be asleep in bed. Come straight upstairs. Cut off the clothing. Tie her. Rape her. Simple and fun. That was how it was posed,” Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Jenna Sands said in her opening statement.

After Ryan arrived at the family’s home the morning of February 24, 2023, Peres Magalhães and Banfield followed him into the bedroom, the au pair said.

When they entered the room, Ryan looked up at them and appeared “shocked,” she said, before Brendan Banfield shot him and then repeatedly stabbed his wife.

Banfield later took handfuls of his wife’s blood and dripped it on Ryan in an effort to frame him, the au pair said.

When investigators returned to the crime scene roughly eight months after the double homicide, they found a framed photo of Banfield and Peres Magalhães on a bedside table in the room where the murders occurred.

Defendant denied plan to kill his wife

When Brendan Banfield took the stand in his own defense, he pushed back against the au pair’s testimony and adamantly denied any plot to kill Christine Banfield, calling the allegation “absolutely crazy.”

Brendan Banfield said he loved his wife, although he claimed they both had affairs throughout their nearly 20-year relationship. Banfield and Peres Magalhães weren’t actively together at the time of the killings and their relationship wasn’t going to change his marriage, he said.

Banfield testified he returned to the house on the day of the killings after he received a call from a distressed Peres Magalhães and was unable to reach Christine Banfield by phone.

Brendan Banfield, then an IRS investigator, entered the master bedroom with his service weapon drawn and announced himself as “police,” he said. He described seeing Ryan kneeling over his naked wife on the floor before he began stabbing her. Banfield then fired a shot that struck Ryan before Peres Magalhães shot him again with his personal firearm, he said.

Hocker described Banfield’s testimony as “the most self-serving display of narcissism I have ever seen.”

“Hearing him attempt to rewrite her life and her character felt like losing her all over again, piece by piece, in a room where she could not defend herself,” she said in court Friday. “His lies did not just attempt to destroy her reputation – they forced me to relive my grief with anger and helplessness I cannot fully describe.”

Though Peres Magalhães agreed to testify against Banfield if prosecutors recommended a sentence of time served, Judge Azcarate ultimately sentenced her to 10 years in prison – the maximum sentence and well above the joint sentencing recommendation by prosecutors and her attorneys.

“Your actions were deliberate, self-serving and demonstrated a profound disregard for human life,” the judge said. “So let’s get straight: You do not deserve anything other than incarceration and a life of reflection on what you have done to the victim and his family. May it weigh heavily on your soul.”

Christine Banfield’s loved ones, meanwhile, continue to feel her absence, which her sister described as a “missing piece, an emptiness that fills the room.”

“The weight of that feeling makes it hard to move through the day, like walking through water fully clothed,” Hocker said.

Priolo mourns all the future milestones she won’t be able to experience with her lifelong friend, she told Casarez.

“When you say you’re friends with someone for 37 years, that’s not long enough. It really isn’t – not (with) the type of person she was,” Priolo said as she wiped her eyes with tissues. “I wanted longer, and we were cut short of that.”

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CNN’s Jean Casarez, Lauren del Valle and Eric Levenson contributed to this report.