A cheating husband on trial for allegedly killing his wife was seen breaking down in tears on Wednesday when he was forced to rewatch the moment he was told she had succumbed to her injuries.
Brendan Banfield, 40, is facing trial in Virginia on four counts of aggravated murder and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony for the deaths of his wife Christine, 37, and a stranger, Joseph Ryan, 39, on February 24, 2023.
He is also accused of child abuse and felony child cruelty in connection with the Banfields’ then-four-year-old daughter being inside the home at the time he allegedly stabbed Christine in the neck.
Prosecutors have claimed the former IRS agent concocted a scheme to lure Ryan into his bedroom and pin his wife’s murder on Ryan so that he could start a new life with his Brazilian au pair Juliana Peres Magalhães, 25.
Banfield has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges and was seen on Wednesday bowing his head and wiping away tears as his defense team played police body camera footage showing the moment he was told Christine was dead.
In the body camera footage, audio from which was played over the gallery, Fairfax County Police Officer Zachary Beckner was seen accompanying Banfield to the hospital, where a doctor told him, ‘Your wife has died.’
‘I can explain what happened when she arrived here, but you were there and it sounds like there was a lot of blood loss,’ the doctor said, adding that she suffered some ‘enormous wounds.’
‘There were so many,’ the doctor told Banfield and the cop.
Brendan Banfield, 40, was seen breaking down in tears in court on Wednesday as body camera footage played showing the moment he was told his wife was dead
Banfield is accused of stabbing his wife, Christine, to death in a plot to start a new life with his Brazilian live-in nanny
Banfield is also facing murder charges in the death of Joseph Ryan, 39 (pictured)
At one point during the exchange, Banfield interrupted the doctor to explain that he ‘was trying to apply pressure.’
But the doctor went on to tell him ‘it’s not possible, really, to stop all the blood loss.’
Banfield could be heard in the video sobbing loudly as the doctor reassured him that everything had been done to save his wife’s life.
‘Everything that was possible to be done was done for her right away,’ he said.
‘You did a wonderful, a wonderful, you know, you did everything that was possible,’ the doctor tried to reassure the father-of-one. ‘It’s not a survivable injury.’
As the audio played, Christine’s parents and Brendan’s stepmother were also seen tearing up in the gallery, WUSA reports.
Wednesday marked the second time during the trial that Banfield was seen crying.
When the dispatch call Magalhães made to police officers was played in court last week, accusing Ryan of stabbing his wife, Banfield was also seen wiping away tears.
Banfield is facing four counts of aggravated murder and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, as well as charges of child abuse and felony child cruelty
He was previously seen crying in court when the dispatch call Magalhães made to police officers was played in court last week
But in court, Magalhães told jurors how Banfield created an elaborate plot to ‘get rid’ of his wife.
She told jurors that she began living with the Banfields inside their $1 million home in October 2021, aged 21, to look over their daughter.
The following summer, she said she started having an affair with the former IRS agent, even sharing a picture of them cuddled together in a bubble bath in December 2022 – though Banfield’s face was obscured with an emoji.
‘Oh my God, I’m so incredibly in love, I’ve been smitten since July of last year,’ the caption, written in Portuguese, said.
Other images showed them spending time at a gun range and fondling each other under a table.
Soon, she claimed, Banfield began talking about killing Christine and moving to Brazil with her to start a new life. The au pair claimed divorce was not an option for Banfield because he did not want to lose money or custody of his daughter.
And so they created a fake account on sex fetish website Fetlife, using it to pose as Christine and communicate with multiple potential candidates, instructing them to roleplay breaking into the Banfields’ home and raping her at knifepoint.
Magalhães claimed that she and Banfield used Christine’s laptop to create a fake email address and Fetlife account. They were then careful to send messages on the account when Christine was also in the home to cover their tracks, she said.
Magalhães told jurors how Banfield created an elaborate plot to ‘get rid’ of his wife
She shared a photo of her cuddled up with Banfield in a bubble bath in December 2022 – though Banfield’s face was obscured with an emoji
Eventually, Magalhães said, they chose Ryan for the rape fantasy and their plan came to fruition one morning in February 2023.
That day, the nanny told the court she waited in her car outside the home with the Banfields’ daughter and then called Banfield – who was lying in wait at a nearby McDonald’s – when Ryan arrived.
Once Banfield returned to the house, she claimed they went inside the home and up to the bedroom, where they shot Ryan dead.
Magalhaes alleged she then watched as Banfield repeatedly stabbed his wife, before they called 911, claiming they had shot an intruder who was attacking Christine.
However, during a tense grilling, the defense sowed doubts around Magalhães’s motivations for changing her story, pointing out that she stood by her original claim that she and Banfield found Ryan stabbing Christine to death and shot Ryan dead.
Jurors were shown jailhouse letters following her October 2023 arrest for murder in which she said she was willing to take the blame for her lover.
Later, the defense argued, her stance changed as she voiced concerns over a lifetime in prison and her mother urged her to blame Banfield.
Magalhães then pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter as part of a plea deal in exchange for cooperating in Banfield’s prosecution.
During her testimony last week, Magalhães revealed that the pair (pictured together) had planned to be together after Banfield’s wife and Ryan were murdered, according to a letter brought up in court
The nanny’s mental state has also fallen under the microscope, with letters describing depression and suicidal thoughts behind bars.
Still, Magalhães has insisted that she was finally telling the truth now because she could no longer live with the guilt and shame over what she allegedly did.
Magalhães had been sleeping in the bed Christine had shared with her husband eight months after the murders, Fairfax County Sgt. Kenner Fortner told the court last week.
He said he first entered the Banfield’s home in February 2023 as part of the investigation into the murders and photographed the house, including both the primary and Magalhães’s bedrooms, Fox News reported.
When he visited the home again eight months later, ‘red, lingerie-style clothing items’ and a yellow t-shirt with green trim that had previously hung in the au pair’s closet had been moved to the master bedroom, Fortner testified.
They had gotten new flooring, new bedroom furniture,’ Fortner said, noting how photographs that once featured the Banfields had been ‘taken down and replaced with Brendan and Juliana together.’
Photographs in the bedroom that once featured the Banfields had been ‘taken down and replaced with Brendan and Juliana together,’ an investigator testified
The lead crime scene detective assigned to the case also told the court Thursday how he found the murder weapons in the master bedroom.
‘The knife was found underneath the blankets, between the edge of the blanket in the bed,’ Det. Terry Leach said.
‘[The] only thing we could see when we arrived was the handle. And the knife was on its backside – so it’s blade up – and then the handle is towards the bed.’
Investigators also found two handguns in the room, which Leach said he later determined had been moved from their original locations after first responders arrived on scene and tried to save Ryan’s life.
The defense is now expected to push back on the ‘catfish theory,’ presenting digital evidence to prove it was in fact Christine using the FetLife account.
The trial is expected to continue on Thursday.
