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Chapter 1: What led to Brendan Banfield's life sentence?
One would hope that someday you will become tortured by what you have done to Christine, Joe, Christine's daughter, and their families, but nothing I have seen suggests that you will. 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.
That was Fairfax County Circuit Judge Penny Ascarate announcing the sentence for former IRS Special Agent Brandon Banfield. Life in prison without the possibility of parole. Banfield was found guilty of murdering his wife, Christine, and another man, Joseph Ryan, inside the Banfield's Northern Virginia home in 2023.
The case had been dubbed the Au Pair Affair because of Brendan's relationship with the band feels Brazilian live-in nanny Juliana Perez Magalhães. Juliana pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter for also shooting Joseph Ryan and cooperated with the government testifying against Brendan. In February, Magalhaes was sentenced to 10 years behind bars.
And on Friday, June 5th, the victim's family members spoke up to honor their loved ones and seek justice.
Somehow I found myself reliving something I had never experienced as if I had been there. I envisioned Christine's fear, felt her terror and wished I was there to take her place. I no longer had a sister. I was no longer a sister.
The absence of Joe is not abstract. It is constant, visible and devastating.
Welcome to Case by Case. I'm 48 Hours correspondent Anne-Marie Green, and I'm joined by producer Michelle Sigona, who has followed every twist and turn of this story. Today, we're going to discuss its dramatic conclusion, including Brandon Banfield's decision to speak in court. Hello, Michelle.
Hey, Anne-Marie, it's great to see you. You know, it's been more than three years for these victims' families. And during sentencings, I always think about how difficult this is for them, but also how strong they have to be to be able to be that voice for their loved ones.
I want you to sort of walk us through some of the key moments from the sentencing. But can you also remind folks of just how we got here?
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Chapter 2: How did the Au Pair Affair unfold?
That is, until Juliana was arrested months later, followed by Brendan's arrest.
Right. So let us go back over sort of the details of this murder plan because it's sort of convoluted.
It is convoluted. There's so many details and so many twists and turns. It's hard to wrap your brain around a lot of it. According to the prosecution and Juliana, Joe was told to come to the house. This was on February 24th, 2023. And it was in the early morning and Christine was still in the bedroom.
Brendan then left the house under the pretense of going to work, but he was really at a McDonald's. Now, Juliana had also departed with the Banfield's young daughter for a supposed trip to the zoo. The door was left unlocked when they left the house ready for Joe's arrival. Now, Juliana said she parked near the house and tipped Brendan off as to when Joe went inside the house.
Now, Brendan, Juliana and Valerie, all three of them returned to the house and they went around back and they entered through the basement. Valerie and Juliana stayed downstairs. Now, this was as Brendan headed upstairs to the bedroom. But then Juliana followed Brendan. Juliana testified that when she got to the room, Christine was still alive. yelling at Brendan that Joe had a knife.
And that's when Juliana said, Brendan shot Joe.
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Chapter 3: What role did Juliana Peres Magalhães play in the case?
So, you know, Christine obviously is unaware of any of this. She thinks that a man has entered her bedroom. A knife-wielding man has entered her bedroom. Joe thinks that he is coming for some sort of consensual rendezvous. So they are both sort of confused about what's happening. At this point, Christine has not been stabbed yet.
She was yelling because there's a strange man in her room and he's got a knife.
And according to Juliana, Christine was terrified and told her to call 911. Now, she did make the call, but then claimed that Brendan did some sort of signal for her to hang up, so she hung up right away. That was the first 911 call. She stepped away and then returned to see Brendan stabbing Christine. Juliana said that she also saw Joe moving and warned Brendan and then shot Joe.
Now, she said Brendan had given her a gun earlier that day.
Chapter 4: What were the victim impact statements during sentencing?
And then she called 911 for real.
911, where's your emergency? So law enforcement arrived soon after, but Brendan was not arrested.
That didn't actually come until a year and a half later. In fact, Juliana was the first one arrested and jailed.
And she stood by Brendan, but then ultimately cooperated with the Commonwealth and and pleaded guilty to manslaughter. And then Brendan was arrested and indicted.
And correct me if I'm wrong, Michelle, but she was getting help from Brendan's mom. Like they were putting money on her books and that sort of thing while she was in jail. And she was standing by him for a bit.
She did stand by him for a while. His family was helping her out, especially in the beginning. This was until she decided to be the Commonwealth Star Witness.
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So, Brendan and his defense, they continue to deny this whole catfishing scheme. This was always self-defense after an intruder entered the home and then attacked Christine.
Even when he spoke at sentencing, Anne-Marie, Brendan said that there was no indication that he or Juliana had access to Christine's devices to create fake accounts. He said there was no evidence that he even stabbed Christine.
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Chapter 5: What were the key details of the murder plot?
It did. His mother, Deidre Fisher, She wasn't able to be in the courtroom, but she did speak via video conference. And she was emotional. She really was when talking about how hard it was to see her son in the public eye initially being accused of killing Christine. She said she has a lot of medical issues right now, which are linked to the trauma of her son's murder.
Brandon Banfield, his defense team said, Even some of the press carelessly characterized Joe as the intruder, the fetish guy into rough sex, the rapist and the murderer, or simply the other forgettable guy. not even showing Joe's face during the murder trial. Joe was chosen because Brendan Banfield thought he would make a good dupe to be framed for the planned murder of his wife.
As with so many other things, Brendan was wrong. In some ways, my son was flawed, regular Joe. But he also had some amazing qualities.
She described Joe as caring, someone who looked after his grandparents. She said he was the person who would fight for the underdog. He had a lot of love for gardening. He loved animals. And she also described him as a feminist.
I mean, Michelle, here's the thing, right? Whatever he was sort of involved in, this is supposed to be consenting adults. There's nothing wrong with this sort of behavior. And it's also just one aspect of a person's life. You know, clearly it was much more than that.
I just I wish that these positive things about Christine and Joe would be the first first things that come up on the first page of a, you know, of the search engine as opposed to to all of this negativity.
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And then Brendan Banfield spoke. I wasn't sure what he was going to say. I wondered whether or not he would apologize or take sort of any ownership at all. Certainly he testified during the trial, but this was a moment for him to speak beyond that. I'm curious, you know, your reaction to what he had to say.
I would like to say I was surprised or shocked that he didn't take responsibility. But I think what we heard at the trial and what we heard at the sentencing really go hand in hand. He had trouble getting out some of his sentences. He was reading very fast. At one point, he even stopped and paused for a long period.
He continued to blame law enforcement, who he believes put the catfishing story ahead of the evidence in his case. And I was struck at how he described Christine as a wife and a mother. And we want to play you a little bit of that.
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