Hearings for Brendan Banfield and his former au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães, were held Thursday in the same Fairfax County courtroom.
The cases against a man charged with killing his wife and against the couple’s former au pair advanced Thursday in a Fairfax County courtroom, where his trial date was set in what authorities have described as an elaborate scheme rooted in a romantic relationship between the two.
Brendan Banfield, an IRS criminal investigator, is scheduled for trial Feb. 3 on charges that include aggravated murder and using a firearm to commit a felony in a double homicide that drew international attention to this D.C. suburb.
Banfield, now 39, was not present in the courtroom Thursday. Police and prosecutors have offered few details of the 19-month investigation into the stabbing of Banfield’s wife, Christine Banfield, 37, and the fatal shooting of Joseph Ryan, 39, in the Banfield’s Herndon home in February 2023. Brendan Banfield was indicted Monday. Juliana Peres Magalhães, who the Banfields hired to care for their young daughter, was arrested last year and is awaiting her own November trial from jail.
She appeared in court Thursday as her lawyers asked a judge to suppress certain evidence they claim was unlawfully collected. Magalhães was charged late last year with one count of second-degree murder in the death of Ryan, and has pleaded not guilty.
Authorities have described the killings as the result of an elaborate plot that lured a man interested in sexual fetishes to the Banfields’ Herndon home and ended in both his and Christine Banfield’s deaths.
When police responded to a confusing sequence of 911 calls that day from Magalhães and Brendan Banfield, they found four adults in the upstairs master bedroom and the Banfield’s 4-year-old daughter in the basement, according to court documents. Ryan was lying shot on the floor and Christine Banfield, a nurse at INOVA Fairfax, was bleeding from stab wounds to her neck. Magalhães and Brendan Banfield were unharmed.
Whether what Magalhães told police in the hours that followed can be used as evidence in her trial was the subject of debate before Judge Penney S. Azcarate on Thursday as her trial date nears and lawyers work to shape what a jury may hear.
At issue Thursday was whether police detained Magalhães against her will on the day of the killings.
Prosecutors say Magalhães admitted to shooting Ryan that day, who she described to police as an intruder. She also told detectives that Brendan Banfield shot Ryan once as they found Ryan in the act of stabbing Christine Banfield. She said Brendan Banfield then asked her to retrieve a gun stored in a safe in the bedroom’s closet, which she told authorities that she fired at Ryan. Her attorney has said in court that she was unsure whether the bullet struck him.
On Thursday, her lawyers argued that officers “unlawfully seized” her when they drove her and the 4-year-old child to the Fairfax County Police headquarters, where she remained from approximately 9:30 a.m. until just after 6 p.m.
Their case centers on body-camera footage that shows police approaching a shaking and gasping Magalhães outside the Banfield’s home. They can be heard telling her they want to take her and the child somewhere safe and warm, initially offering her the option to sit in the police car’s passenger seat and promising comfy couches and snacks at the police headquarters.
Kimberly Stover, a lawyer for Magalhães, pointed to one particular exchange between an officer and the au pair to assert she had been taken to the police headquarters without her consent.
“Do we have to go? Can’t we stay in the house?” Magalhães asked officer Alexander Battani, according to a transcript of the body-camera footage.
“It’s imperative for your safety type deal,” Battani replied. “We want you to be in a safe location. We want to know where you’re at.”
Prosecutors argued Magalhães agreed to go with police and could have declined to answer questions.
Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Kelsey Gill pointed to officers’ kind treatment of Magalhães, mentioning that one even did breathing exercises with her to calm the panicking woman down. Gill also said Magalhães was originally taken to “soft interview” rooms at the Fairfax County Police Department that are reserved for witnesses and victims, not suspects.
“They are treating her with a great amount of care, they are not treating her as a suspect or as if she was detained,” Gill said. “The tone of voice here is one of care and concern, not one of command.”
Azcarate said she will further review the motion and will issue a ruling Sept. 26 that will determine whether a jury may hear Magalhães’s statements to police.
