A Brazilian au pair who fell in love with an IRS agent pleaded guilty Tuesday to manslaughter in what prosecutors say was an elaborate double-murder scheme to frame another man for stabbing his wife.
Months after the murders on February 24, 2023, it may have seemed as if Juliana Peres Magalhães and the IRS agent, Brendan Banfield, got away with murders, according to new details prosecutors revealed in court in support of her guilty plea. CBS affiliate WUSA-TV reported that prosecutors recommended a prison sentence in court Tuesday, but asked to delay sentencing until after Brendan Banfield’s trial to see how cooperative Peres Magalhaes is in that case.
Christine Banfield, a pediatric intensive care nurse with a four-year-old daughter, had been fatally injured with stab wounds to her neck, and Brendan Banfield, her husband, and their live-in nanny had both shot her apparent killer—a man lured into the bedroom with promises of rough sex.
Magalhães had called 911 to the home in Herndon, Virginia, and hyperventilated at the scene as she described the murders.
The detectives didn’t believe it, but it took time to build their case. Meanwhile, the live-in au pair moved into the master bedroom with Banfield and posted photos of them as a couple, authorities said. When she was arrested in October 2023, there was a photo of herself with Brendan Banfield on the bedside table. She has been behind bars ever since.
And when she was in prison for over a year afterward, she refused to say anything more.
Then a long-awaited forensic report on the blood spatter evidence came in, and prosecutors said it showed that Brendan Banfield had smeared blood from Christine Banfield’s wounds onto the body of Joe Ryan, the man they had tried to entrap because he had stabbed her. CBS affiliate WUSA-TV reported that Banfield was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in Ryan’s killing.
Banfield’s attorney, John F. Carroll, said in court before he was denied bail in September that the evidence “simply doesn’t add up” that he killed his wife.
In October, Magalhães agreed to cooperate with police during her second interrogation since the day of the crime. Days later, on Tuesday, two weeks before she was scheduled to appear in court on charges of second-degree murder and use of a firearm, Magalhães pleaded guilty to Ryan’s murder. She said she agreed to help the husband’s ruse to kill the wife and it appears they both shot a predator. She told prosecutors that Brendan Banfield bought a gun and gave it to the au pair to use, and also took her to the shooting range to practice shooting, WUSA-TV reported.
“Are you entering your guilty plea because you are actually guilty of this crime?” Before accepting her plea, Chief Justice Penney Azcarate asked Magalhães to a single charge of manslaughter, reduced by murder and a firearms offense.
“Yes,” she replied softly.
The sentencing of Magalhães, who grew up in the suburbs of Sao Paulo, now awaits the conclusion of the trial of Brendan Banfield. Depending on her cooperation with authorities, attorneys said in court they would agree to her being sentenced to the time she has already served.
“Much of the information leading to this agreement cannot be made public at this time due to the upcoming criminal trial of the other defendant in this case,” Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano said after court closed .
Prosecutors laid out facts that Magalhães confirmed in court, saying she made several 911 calls that day. The first lasted a few seconds, with no words, just the sound of someone’s guttural noise in the background. Then, about 15 minutes later, another call came in, saying an intruder had stabbed her friend. Brendan Banfield then answered the phone and said he had shot a man who was stabbing his wife.
An officer’s body camera footage filed in court last month shows Magalhães on her knees in the driveway, apparently confused and unable to catch her breath.
“There was a lot of blood,” Magalhães said as he hyperventilated. “Brendan said, ‘Please drop the knife, drop the knife,’ because he had a knife.”
She later told detectives that she shot the offender once in the chest after Brendan Banfield shot him in the head.
But on Tuesday, prosecutors alleged in court that she lied as part of a ruse to lure someone else into the house to be charged with the woman’s murder.
Magalhães began working for the Banfields in late 2021, according to affidavits. Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Eric Clingan said in court that the au pair and husband began having an affair in August 2022. Soon after, Brendan Banfield began plotting to kill his wife, Clingan said. .
To cover up the ruse, Clingan claimed that Brendan Banfield created a profile for his wife on a social networking platform for people interested in sexual fetishes and set her up with Ryan. Soon they were chatting via Telegram, an encrypted messaging application, with Magalhães posing as Christine Banfield during a phone call. Ryan agreed to come to the house for what appeared to be a consensual sexual encounter.
“At several points before the 24th, Peres Magalhães told Brendan Banfield that she did not believe he would go through with this plan and at other times she told him she did not want to proceed,” Clingan said. “But he insisted it was too late for her to back out.”
Clingan said Magalhães and Brendan Banfield left the girl in the basement and then followed Ryan into the bedroom, guns in their hands.
Authorities listened to her phone conversations at the Fairfax County Jail. In a phone call last month, Clingan said Brendan Banfield’s mother, who paid for the au pair’s legal defense, discussed the consequences “snitches” would face in prison.
In another conversation, between Brendan Banfield and the au pair, Magalhães said, “I hope you’re not staying with me just because you’re afraid I’m going to turn on you.”
