Au pair gets 10-year sentence for scheme to kill lover’s wife and another man in Virginia

Prosecutors had recommended immediate release for Juliana Peres Magalhães in exchange for her guilty plea to a downgraded manslaughter charge in the February 2023 killing of Joseph Ryan. She testified that she fatally shot Ryan as Brendan Banfield was fatally stabbing his wife, Christine, in the couple’s bedroom. 

Instead, Fairfax Chief Circuit Court Judge Penney S. Azcarate delivered the maximum possible sentence to the woman from Brazil, citing “an intentional and calculated level of violence that is the most serious manslaughter scenario that this court has ever seen.” 

“Your actions were deliberate, self-serving, and demonstrated a profound disregard for human life,” Azcarate said at the sentencing on Friday, according to CBS affiliate WUSA. “So let’s get straight — you do not deserve anything other than incarceration and a life of reflection on what you have done to the victim in this family. May it weigh heavily on your soul.”

Magalhães had remained silent for months before agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors in their case against Banfield, who was convicted by a jury this month of aggravated murder in the deaths of his wife and Ryan. Prosecutors said they continued their affair for months after the killings.

At his trial, Magalhães testified that she and Banfield, an IRS agent, had created an account in the name of his wife, a pediatric intensive care nurse, on a social media platform for people interested in sexual fetishes. Ryan connected with the account and agreed to meet for a sexual encounter involving a knife.

Magalhães said she and Banfield took the couple’s 4-year-old child to the basement, and then entered the bedroom, where she said Banfield shot Ryan. When she saw Ryan moving, Magalhães said, she fired the second shot that killed him. 

Magalhães testified that she was in the room when Banfield killed Christine, but that she crouched behind the bed and covered her eyes and ears while Banfield repeatedly stabbed his wife, WUSA reported. 

She wasn’t arrested until eight months later, and didn’t talk with investigators for more than a year, until she changed her mind as her own trial date approached. Banfield’s attorney scrutinized the former au pair’s motives during his trial, arguing that she was only saying what prosecutors wanted to hear. 

Magalhães read a prepared statement before her sentencing. 

“I know my remorse cannot bring you peace,” Magalhães said to the victims’ families. “I lost myself in a relationship, and left my morals and values behind.”

Ryan’s mother and aunt both gave victim impact statements. Christine’s family had letters prepared but were not allowed to speak because Magalhães was only charged in Ryan’s death, according to WUSA. 

“Do I think or dare hope that there will be justice for Joe’s death? For my loss as his mother? I don’t believe that’s possible,” said Ryan’s mother, Dierdre Fisher. “What I do hope is that even for a moment, that the world and you, Judge, will say Joe meant more than nothing. That he was someone worthy of dignity and life who didn’t deserve to be used and thrown away, treated as utterly disposable.”

Banfield was found guilty of two counts of aggravated murder, one count of child endangerment, and one count of using a firearm in the commission of a murder, WUSA reported. Aggravated murder charges in Virginia carry a mandatory life sentence with no chance of parole. He will be sentenced on May 8.