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Jury finds Brendan Banfield guilty of killing wife, another man in alleged scheme with au pair
A verdict was reached Monday in the murder trial for Brendan Banfield, a former IRS law‑enforcement officer turned defendant who prosecutors say had an affair with his family’s au pair and took part in a double‑murder plot to frame another man for his wife’s stabbing.
FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. - A verdict was reached Monday in the murder trial for Brendan Banfield, a former IRS law‑enforcement officer turned defendant who prosecutors say had an affair with his family’s au pair and took part in a double‑murder plot to frame another man for his wife’s stabbing.
Brendan Banfield was found guilty in the aggravated murder of Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan.
What we know:
Attorneys delivered closing arguments to a packed courthouse Friday.
Prosecutors told jurors Brendan Banfield killed his wife Christine Banfield and Joe Ryan, a stranger who he lured to their home to set up as a fall guy using a ruse of a fetish-driven sexual encounter with Christine.
They again said Brendan wanted to leave his wife for their au pair, Julianna Magalaes, with whom he was having an affair with. Prosecutors told the jurors to not only believe Magalaes, who took a plea deal and became the prosecutor's star witness, but to look at the digital data, blood smear forensics and other evidence.
The other side:
Banfield’s attorney, John Carroll, reiterated what Banfield said himself when he took the stand, that he’s innocent.
Banfield, he said, shot Joe Ryan in self-defense after he came home to find him stabbing Christine.
Carroll tried to poke holes in the commonwealth’s argument, saying Magalaes' story was bought and paid for— pointing to the fact she’d met with television producers about a documentary.
He told jurors certain evidence wasn’t tested for DNA, and that prosecutors rushed to judgment, ignoring or even manipulating evidence to fit their decided-upon narrative.