{"id":198583,"date":"2026-01-30T00:59:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T00:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/in-au-pair-double-murder-trial-brendan-banfield-testifies-he-confronted-stranger-fatally-stabbing-his-wife-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T00:59:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T00:59:07","slug":"in-au-pair-double-murder-trial-brendan-banfield-testifies-he-confronted-stranger-fatally-stabbing-his-wife-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/in-au-pair-double-murder-trial-brendan-banfield-testifies-he-confronted-stranger-fatally-stabbing-his-wife-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"In 'au pair' double murder trial, Brendan Banfield testifies he confronted stranger fatally stabbing his wife – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Virginia man on trial for the killing of his wife and another man testified Thursday that he yelled \u201cpolice\u201d when he burst into a bedroom at his home and found his naked spouse on the floor with a stranger.
Brendan Banfield, who is accused of conspiring with Brazilian au pair Juliana Peres Magalhaes to kill his wife, Christine Banfield, and the stranger, Joe Ryan, is a former IRS agent.
Banfield said he went up to the upstairs bedroom because he heard somebody having \u201csex\u201d and found his wife with Ryan.
\u201cBrendan, he has a knife,\u201d his wife cried out, Banfield testified.
Banfield, under questioning by his lawyer John Carroll, said he told Ryan to drop the knife. Ryan refused, he said.
\u201cHe said that she was his and that \u2018she gave herself to me,\u2019\u201d Ryan declared, according to Banfield. \u201cAnd Christine kind of yelled, moaned.\u201d
Both Banfield and Peres Magalhaes shot Ryan, police have said.
\u201cI did not want to shoot him,\u201d said Banfield, who testified he was armed with his service weapon. \u201cUm, I wanted him to let her go.\u201d
Banfield said he was tending to his wife when he heard a shot and turned to see Peres Magalhaes <\/strong>holding a gun she had retrieved from his safe in the master bedroom.
\u201cI was stunned,\u201d he said.
The dramatic testimony came a day after Banfield, who is also accused <\/a>of trying to pin his wife\u2019s murder on Ryan, insisted he did not conspire with Peres Magalhaes to commit a double murder.
\u201cI think that it\u2019s an absurd line of questioning for something that is not serious that a plan was made to get rid of my wife,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is absolutely crazy.\u201d
But Banfield, who is 40, also told the court he launched into an affair with the 25-year-old au pair in August 2022, a little less than a year after he and his wife hired Peres Magalhaes to watch their daughter, who is now 7.
\u201cI was definitely in love with her\u201d at one point, Banfield admitted on cross-examination by lead prosecutor Jenna Sands when he was confronted with messages they had exchanged on Discord. \u201cWe weren\u2019t together when Christine died.\u201d
Banfield is charged with four counts of aggravated murder and using a firearm in the commission of a felony in connection with the killings on Feb. 24, 2023. He has pleaded not guilty and could face life in prison if he is convicted.
Christine Banfield had been stabbed multiple times in the neck, police have said.
Last week, Peres Magalhaes testified that Banfield was trying to avoid a divorce as their affair developed. She said they used Christine Banfield\u2019s laptop to set up a fake account on the BDSM website FetLife.com.
They used the account, Peres Magalhaes said, to lure Ryan to the Banfield home for what he believed to be a fake-rape fantasy with Christine Banfield.
The plan, according to Peres Magalhaes, was to tell police they shot Ryan after he stabbed Christine Banfield.
Banfield said he\u2019d never heard of FetLife.com before the shooting but said his wife had expressed \u201cinterest in bondage-type situations.\u201d
The ex-IRS man has admitted that both he and his wife had engaged in outside affairs. He said the reason he strayed was because he wanted to \u201chave sex more frequently than we did.\u201d
Sands questioned Banfield about a woman named “Danielle” and told the court he met her on fetish website that she called a “sugar baby” site.
Banfield did not deny knowing the woman but insisted the site was for married people seeking “arranged” relationships.
When Sands accused Banfield of seducing his best friend’s wife, the former federal agent denied the man was his best friend but not that he had an affair with the woman.
Banfield also said he knew nothing about Ryan \u201cprior to this incident in the bedroom.\u201d
Peres Magalhaes was arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder<\/a> eight months after the February 2023 killing. In 2024, she pleaded guilty to the downgraded manslaughter charge.
Banfield was indicted in the killing of his wife and Ryan nearly a year after Peres Magalhaes was charged in connection with the double homicide<\/a>.
On the morning of Feb. 24, 2023, Peres Magalhaes dialed 911 and said a friend had been hurt, a police official previously told reporters.
Brendan Banfield then took the phone and told a dispatcher that an \u201cunknown male\u201d had entered his home, the official said.
\u201cThere\u2019s somebody here. I shot them,\u201d Banfield told a dispatcher in a 911 call that was played at the trial. \u201cHe stabbed her. There\u2019s several marks on her neck. What do I do?\u201d
Christine Banfield was found fatally stabbed in an upstairs bedroom, the police department said in a news release at the time. Ryan, who had been fatally shot, was discovered nearby, the department said.
Corky Siemaszko is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeThe Virginia man on trial for the killing of his wife and another man testified Thursday that he yelled \u201cpolice\u201d when he burst into a bedroom at his home and found his naked spouse on the floor with a stranger.Brendan Banfield, who is accused of conspiring with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":198584,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-198583","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}