Husband in au pair affair testifies on killings of wife, another man. ‘I
did not want to shoot him.’
[January 30, 2026]
By OLIVIA DIAZ
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — In the cold formality of a northern Virginia
courtroom, Brendan Banfield testified on Thursday that prosecutors got
it wrong: He did not fatally stab his wife in 2023, but instead shot the
man who did.
The former IRS law enforcement officer-turned-defendant in an aggravated
murder trial continued his testimony about what happened the day his
wife, Christine Banfield, and Joseph Ryan were killed. Banfield
recounted the terror he said he felt while seeing Ryan, his wife, a
knife and blood in his bedroom.
“I don’t know that I’ve ever been more panicked in my life,” Banfield
testified. “I was hoping to de-escalate the situation. I did not want to
shoot him. I wanted him to let her go.”
Banfield fired a single shot at Ryan, who he had said was holding a
knife while standing over his wife. And Juliana Peres Magalhães, the
family's au pair and his romantic partner, also shot the man moments
later, he testified.
His statements come as Fairfax County prosecutors have been telling a
different story: that the husband stabbed his wife and lured Ryan to the
house as a way to frame him in the case. Magalhães has testified that
she and Brendan Banfield created an account in Christine Banfield’s name
on a social media platform for people interested in sexual fetishes.
There, Ryan linked up with the account and planned to meet for a sexual
encounter involving a knife on the day of the killings.
John Carroll, Banfield's attorney, spent hours scrutinizing Magalhães'
motives in testifying against Banfield, identifying notes she had
written in jail about negotiating payment with a true-crime author and
producers after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the case.
Officials also heavily questioned Banfield's statements on Thursday,
particularly in light of his romantic affair with Magalhães that began
in the months before his wife's death and continued afterward. On
Wednesday, Banfield described the relationship as casual while his wife
was alive.
Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Jenna Sands presented letters and
messages Banfield sent to Magalhães before and after the killings, where
they discussed baby names for their future children and love for each
other.
“You are contending, again, these feelings — these very strong feelings,
these ‘let’s be together for the rest of our lives’ feelings — did not
exist when your wife was alive, correct?” Sands asked. “And they
certainly did not motivate you to kill your wife?”
[to top of second column]
|
“Juliana and I weren't even together when Christine died,” he said,
acknowledging their volatile affair.
“You had broken up, is that correct?” Sands followed, then asking:
“Did you need to kill your wife to get her back?”
“Definitely not,” he replied.
Banfield's at-times tense testimony comes after his attorney
scrutinized the county's investigation into the defendant, arguing
that officials, almost since the beginning, forced a theory that the
husband had catfished and killed his wife, and ignored evidence that
undermined that conclusion.
“We had a briefing within the first week of the incident where we
were discussing everything everybody had done and the information
that was collected,” Leah Smith, a homicide detective, testified in
the defense's case. “Our supervisor at the time told us that there
were two theories in the case and we needed to get behind the right
one.”
Carroll, Banfield's attorney, presented witness after witness,
revealing tensions in the county's police department regarding
whether Ryan was catfished. One of those witnesses included Brendan
Miller, a digital forensics examiner at the department who concluded
that there was no indication that Christine Banfield lost control of
her devices before the slayings.
His attorney also submitted a video of Banfield learning of his
wife's death, crying at times into his bloodied hands while a doctor
patted his back.
Banfield took the stand after the jurors watched the video, and
described in detail his actions earlier that morning: waking up,
taking a shower, saying goodbye to his wife before leaving his house
extra early for an important work meeting with other agents and his
manager.
“This was a particularly important meeting for me, as it had been
indicated that success in this case may lead to me getting a
promotion to a senior special agent,” Banfield said.
His boss at the time said otherwise, testifying afterward that there
was no such meeting on the calendar.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved
 |
