An IRS agent accused of concocting a twisted rape fantasy plot to murder his wife during an affair with his child’s au pair turned on the waterworks in court as his defense team played police bodycam video of the moment he was told his spouse was dead.
Brendan Banfield, 40, bowed his head and wiped away tears Wednesday while he watched footage of himself during his trial for the murders of his wife, Christine Banfield, and a stranger he tried to frame, Joseph Ryan.
The father-of-one denies fatally stabbing his wife in the neck after shooting Ryan as part of a twisted scheme using a fetish website to lure the man to his bedroom and pin the murder on him to start a new life with his Brazilian nanny, Juliana Peres Magalhaes, 25.
An IRS agent accused of murdering his wife in a plot to be with his child’s au pair turned on the waterworks in court on Wednesday as the jury was shown police bodycam video of the moment he was told his spouse was dead. COURT TV
Banfield bowed his head and wiped away tears while he watched footage of himself during his trial for the murders of his wife, Christine Banfield, and a stranger, Joseph Ryan. COURT TVFairfax County Police Officer Zachary Beckner, called at the start of the defense on Wednesday, was one of the first officers at the scene of the double murder at the Banfields’ house in a leafy Washington, DC, suburb on Feb. 24, 2023.
In Officer Beckner’s bodycam video, a doctor approaches Banfield and the cop, telling him, “Your wife has died,” and describing her catastrophic blood loss.
“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 told Banfield in the video.
“I was trying to apply pressure,” Banfield interrupted the doctor at one point, while discussing his wife’s wounds.
Banfield allegedly murdered his wife, Christine, the mother of their 4-year-old daughter. Christine Banfield/Instagram“I mean, those were enormous wounds, and you know, it’s not,” the doctor responded, to which Banfield said, “There was so, there was so many.”
“Yes, and the neck is not compressible. So it’s not possible, really, to stop all the blood loss,” the doctor said in Officer Beckner’s bodycam video.
Banfield is heard sobbing loudly in the video, as the doctor reassures 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. You did a, a wonderful, you know, you did everything that was possible. It’s not a survivable injury,” the doctor told Banfield.
Banfield allegedly plotted his wife’s murder in order to start a new life with his child’s Brazilian au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhaes. Julianna Peres/InstagramMagalhaes testified last week that she and Banfield created a fake profile for Christine on a sex fetish website. Ryan responded to a request to help fulfill a rape fantasy.
The nanny posted lusty selfies with the married federal agent just weeks before the pair allegedly plotted to murder Christine.
Juliana Peres Magalhaes pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2024 and detailed Banfield’s alleged plot at his trial. Fairfax County Police“Oh my god, I’m so incredibly in love, I’ve been smitten since July of last year,” Christine gushed in one the selfies, shown to jurors in Banfield’s murder trial last week.
The two secret lovers posed naked in the bathtub with Banfield’s face half-obscured by an emoji.
Just months after the murder, Magalhaes had moved her lingerie into the master bedroom, and replaced pictures of Christine with photos of her and Banfield.
As part of the convoluted plot, Banfield installed triple-glazed windows in the house to mask the screams of his wife and Ryan. The father bought a handgun just weeks before his wife’s death.
