John Jefferson
Inset left to right: Brendan Banfield and Juliana Peres Magalhaes (Fairfax County Police Department). Background: The house where Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan were killed (WTTG).
When an au pair from Brazil moved to Virginia, her life apparently became dedicated to two things: a romantic affair — and homicide.
Juliana Peres Magalhaes, 24, was once the live-in nanny at a two-story house on Stable Brook Way in Herndon, a medium-sized town that’s part of the broader Washington, D.C., metro area. Her charge was the young daughter of Christine Banfield, 37, and Brendan Banfield, 39.
Now, she could spend the next several years behind bars — although such a punishment appears to be exceedingly unlikely.
On Tuesday, Magalhaes pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter in a Fairfax County courtroom, prosecutors announced.
The plea deal means the defendant will forego a trial — and could potentially put the screws to her alleged partner in crime.
Initially, Magalhaes was the lone alleged culprit in the double slaying of Christine Banfield and Joseph Nathan Ryan, 39, a semi-mysterious man who died alongside her on the day in question. The au pair was arrested and charged in October 2023 for Ryan’s death on one count of murder in the second degree. But that calculus would eventually change.
The Stable Brook Way slaughter occurred in February 2023. Then, for several months, law enforcement hung back and investigated. One alleged oddity observed by detectives would prove pivotal in the overarching case: the widower and the nanny began openly expressing affection for one another and carrying on as a couple.
Buoying this turn of events was, in at least two senses, photo evidence: newly-framed photos of the two alleged conspirators together. In one such photo, set up in Banfield’s bedroom after the killings, the husband and the au pair share an embrace, the nanny’s head resting on the IRS special agent’s shoulder; both smiling.
The upturned grins wouldn’t last.
Left: Juliana Peres Magalhaes and Brendan Banfield in a photo together next to his bed (NBC Washington via Fairfax County Police). Right: Christine Banfield (via her Facebook).
Last month, Brendan Banfield was indicted on four counts of aggravated murder and one count of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
Magalhaes was the first person to call 911 that day. She first dialed dispatchers at 7:49 a.m. in what amounted to an “open line hangup,” Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said. Some 13 minutes later, Magalhaes called again and spoke, saying her friend was hurt. Then Brendan Banfield got on the line to say he had shot Ryan, claiming the other man had entered their home and stabbed his wife.
More details came to the fore when Brendan Banfield was indicted in September. Law enforcement now believe Ryan was snookered — by way of a fake profile on a sexual fetish website — into showing up at the Banfield residence and acting out a part. Whoever ran that profile, known as a catfish, was posing as Christine Banfield, police allege. Intended to play the role of the patsy, Ryan was eventually found in the bedroom with Christine Banfield. And both would die there.
Police would come to refer to Ryan as not “necessarily a stranger.” The sexual fetish website angle filled in the picture for why his car was parked on the driveway right outside the two-car garage.
“There was no forced entry whatsoever,” Davis told the press on the day of the slayings. “This was not a home invasion. Here’s what I can say right now with certainty: He did not force entry into the home. I do not know exactly what the nature of his presence in the home is all about just yet, but we’re working hard to determine that.”
Prosecutors say they found messages on the fetish website between both victims — even one arranging a meeting on the fatal day in question. But, law enforcement alleges, the way the fake Christine Banfield profile communicated with Ryan did not match the way she otherwise spoke, citing descriptions provided by friends and family.
Tuesday’s developments necessarily lock away, at least for awhile, many details — or, perhaps, new or different accounts — of how the double homicide went down at the house on the tree-dotted lot in Herndon.
“Earlier today, Juliana Peres Magalhaes pled guilty to manslaughter for shooting and killing Joseph Ryan on the morning of February 24, 2023. Today’s agreement marks a significant step forward in this case, and it is an important development in our pursuit of justice for the victims and their families,” Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano said. “Much of the information that led to this agreement cannot be made public at this time, due to the upcoming criminal trial against the other defendant in this matter.”
Stories in the case have necessarily diverged.
To hear the version the defendants had told for months: Magalhaes left the home with the Banfield’s daughter in tow around 7:30 a.m. that day, just after Christine Banfield purchased their tickets for the zoo. Then, the au pair told police, she doubled back because she forgot to grab their packed lunches and saw a car she did not recognize in the driveway. A phone call to Christine Banfield went unanswered, Magalhaes said, so she called Brendan Banfield. He happened to be at a nearby McDonald’s and quickly rushed home.
The trio — husband/father, daughter, and au pair — entered the house. Upstairs, the defendants claimed, Ryan was in a bedroom with a naked Christine Banfield, who had been stabbed repeatedly in the neck. Ryan was then shot with a gun already in Brendan Banfield’s possession. Then, the husband directed the au pair to retrieve another gun from a safe in a bathroom closet, and he provided the code.
While Brendan Banfield initially said he was the one who shot and killed Ryan, Magalhaes would later admit she used the second gun to shoot the already-shot man in the chest. Another story allegedly diverged: the au pair first said she and Brendan Banfield were not in a romantic relationship, but her attorney later confirmed that they were.
The pair claimed in their story that they acted in self-defense, but investigators were immediately suspicious.
Now, it seems entirely possible that Brendan Banfield’s narrative of the killings may be entirely his own.
Magalhaes, for her part, was given a plea deal in exchange for promising to cooperate against Brendan Banfield, according to a courtroom report by D.C.-based NBC affiliate WRC.
Prosecutors, in fact, told the judge overseeing the matter they intend to recommend an exceedingly light sentence for her — time-served that would conclude at the end of the widower’s trial.
Magahlhaes technically faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in state prison. Her sentencing hearing is slated for March 21, 2025.
Brendan Banfield’s trial is currently scheduled for Feb. 3, 2025. If convicted as charged, he faces life in prison.
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