Amy Robach & T.J. Holmes Present
Au Pair Affair Murder Trial: Frustrated Au Pair Tells Defense “I am not going to do this” As Prosecution Shows Jurors Bloody Crime Scene Photos
15 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Hey there, folks. It is Thursday, January 15th, and the au pair and the so-called au pair affair double murder trial has wrapped her testimony. And we got a few problems. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Robes, it got testy.
Chapter 2: What happened during Juliana Peres Magalhães' testimony?
Didn't get nasty, but you could tell she got annoyed at times. The defense seems to make the points they want to make, but there are some bigger things at play. But first of all... I was surprised she wasn't up there longer.
I was surprised that they rapped at the end of the day yesterday because, yes, this is key, her testimony, Juliana Perez-Majales, her testimony, key to the prosecution, and it's key to the defense too because they needed to... destroy or at least question her credibility. And they made some headway doing just that yesterday from this observer.
Let me ask this. If the jury doesn't believe this woman, does that mean they would have to vote for an acquittal? What I'm saying is, can you be sitting on that jury and go, I don't believe that woman at all, and still find him guilty?
I don't know. That's the answer because we're listening and we're hearing now what they are presenting. The prosecution is presenting some blood evidence. But yeah, based on his version of events, he would have had blood on him. So it would be a very significant amount of evidence that would be needed to forensically tie him to the actual murder.
Because without her credible testimony, this case is very flimsy.
And a reminder, Joseph Ryan and Christine Banfield are dead. These two are dead. Christine Banfield, the husband of Brendan, excuse me, the wife of Brendan Banfield, who is on trial for killing his wife, and Joseph Ryan, a stranger who was lured to the house, who they plan to frame, according to prosecutors, for the death.
Christine Banfield and then shoot the man he's the hero and but instead he's on trial for double murder there's what this is where we are now Rose we got a lot of detail this was a very I mean this was a drawn-out it took them a while to come up with the plan and then to execute this very complicated plan but she is the one who was giving us all these details about the plan and
And right now, Robes, there are questions about her motives. We've known that from the beginning, but they're trying to say this is all set up by a woman who wants to save her own ass.
That's right, because for more than a year, she had the same version of events that Brendan did. She claimed that the scene was exactly as they described it, that they don't know what was going on between Christine Banfield and this stranger, but that when he walked in, he was defending his wife by killing the attacker, and the attacker was stabbing his wife.
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Chapter 3: How did the defense challenge Juliana's credibility?
That is the when and where and how and who. It has to do with someone set up, they say, a false FetLife account. FetLife, if you don't know, I assume you don't. There's apparently a website where you can go on and find other people who are like-minded in that S&M world and want to set up whatever sex scenario. Fine. But they set up, according to prosecutors, this account in her name.
To do it, they had to retrieve her laptop without her knowing it. So the lawyer, the defense attorney, is saying, hey, au pair, How did you get the laptop? Where did you go? How long did you have it? And who actually was on the computer doing it? She had no answers to any of that.
She couldn't remember. And in fact, you know, the other point of this that made it all the more, I would think, memorable in the moment is they had to take the laptop while Christine, the wife, was at home. Stressful time, it should be. Imagine that.
You're sneaking and stealing someone's computer who is in the home, who if they catch you, you literally have no reason why you would have their computer. And what you're doing is setting up their death.
It's key to the crime. And she has no idea. Who took it? Who put it back? Who actually physically signed up for it? Where were you in the house? She has no idea.
Who was reading the messages back and forth to these folks that they were conversing with on FetLife? They were trying to find the right person to set up for a murder, and that involved not meeting that person ahead of time, which is... It's good to know that some people actually are taking safety in mind and say, yeah, before we do this...
you know, violent or like full violent, I guess, sex act.
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Chapter 4: What key details emerged about the murder scene?
Let's meet in person and make sure that we don't have trust issues before we do this fairly non-conventional violent sex act together.
Let's go to Starbucks for coffee before I come over and fake raping you with a knife.
Literally, that is apparently how it works. And so they were running into roadblocks because people were actually going about it in the safe way.
It's nice to know people out there with these fetishes do it in a safe, mindful way.
Before I end up, yes, cutting your clothes off with a knife and gagging you. Let's, yeah, let's have a drink. Let me see that we're both good with this, but I get it.
Do your thing, knock yourself out.
They had to go through several different folks to find the person, and it ended up being, unfortunately for Joseph Ryan, he ended up agreeing to carry out this sex fetish without meeting up in person. But you would think, again, conversing with people, asking for very violent, specific things. Who wrote the email? Who read the email? She couldn't remember anything.
Anything. He went through a few of the notes that had to be written to other people. And he said, well, who wrote this one? Was it you or was it Brendan? Don't know. Who wrote this? Don't know. Can you tell by the way you write? Who writes like that? Who types like that? Don't know.
And she ended up getting at one point so annoyed, she said, I am not going to do this. And when she got defiant like that, the defense attorney went to the judge and said, help. She just said she's not going to do this anymore. What should we do?
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Chapter 5: What were the implications of the plea deal for Juliana?
But right now, it's he said, she said versus evidence case.
That is the majority of the case. Now, this morning, we should point out we've been watching some of the testimony, and they've had detectives come back up on the stand. And the impact is pretty much the visual. I mean, the jury is seeing crime scene photos. They're seeing the bloodstains. They're seeing the bloody knife. They're seeing the gun used.
It brings the weight of the crime in the forefront. You just see the violence and the blood and just the aftermath. It feels devastating to see that. But I have yet to hear that we've seen the clothing that Brendan was wearing. They showed his bloodied jeans and blood marks on his jacket. But the problem is he was there in... he claims to have been trying to help his wife.
So he had her blood all over him. So I don't know how they're going to, from an evidence standpoint, prove that the blood he got on him was from murdering her versus from trying to help her.
Yeah, there's a different version. We were all in here. I fired a gun at this guy who was doing this thing. Yes, everything on him. He can explain away. Well, there's blood on. Yeah, I told you I was in the room and I shot a guy and I tried to help my wife. I don't know how you get around that the way they get around it. Two things, right? One, you got the au pair.
So if you believe her, all right, he's done. And two robes. Fet Life. I'm going to have to check out this website at some point. I haven't yet.
Just out of research purposes.
But, Robes, the whole foundation of their case is that he set up a murder plot. Key to the murder plot was luring Joseph Ryan to the house. There is a question of whether or not Brendan Banfield actually had anything to do with setting up that account. And there's even questions if Christine Banfield herself was the one doing it. Now, where are we after the au pair?
Because we haven't gotten to digital stuff yet.
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Chapter 6: How did the defense attorney's questioning impact the jury's perception?
that she would make all of this complicated, detailed story up, that also seems improbable.
You make a good point. And so I don't know, as a juror, how you weigh both of those questions that are reasonable to have. I think you can reasonably question her motives, but also at the same time question her ability to be, in a sense— the mastermind of this new plot. Unless, like the defense is saying, the prosecution came up with this and fed it to her, and now she's just regurgitating.
Because I don't think anyone will believe that she, at the age of 21 or 22 when this was going on, would be able to come up with this while sitting in jail ruminating.
And that makes sense. There you go. She just essentially give me the form. I'll sign it, whatever the details are. I'll study them and repeat them in court for you if you want me to. Okay. I would buy that as a juror. Boy, I swear, I swear. If we ever get called for a jury, we're going to send them back to this episode. Listen to this one. Who's going to want us on a jury?
Nobody is going to.
Those two. We would mess up a jury room.
You would hang a jury. I know that much.
Oh, yeah. Nah, you can't decide.
I might be able to be convinced. I'm like, I just want to go home. But no, I know you would hang a jury. I know you would.
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