FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. (7News) — Almost exactly three years after Fairfax County Police officers swarmed the home where Christine Banfield was stabbed to death and Joe Ryan was shot and killed, a judge will decide the final punishment for one of the co-conspirators of the double murder scheme.
Juliana Peres Magalhaes’ sentencing hearing is scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m. Friday.
A jury has already convicted Brendan Banfield for killing his wife, Christine, and an innocent stranger, Ryan, in a complex plot using a fetish website to lure Ryan and stage a home invasion.
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The aggravated murder conviction comes with an automatic life sentence.
Banfield was having an affair with Peres Magalhaes, the family’s au pair at the time, when the two carried out the plan.
However, the former lovers would later be turned against each other during the trial.
Peres Magalhaes became the Commonwealth’s witness as part of a plea deal: plead guilty to the lesser manslaughter charge for a more lenient sentence in exchange for testifying against Banfield.
As part of this deal, prosecutors are recommending that Peres Magalhaes be handed down a sentence of time served, allowing her to be released from jail immediately after sitting in a cell for a little more than two years.
However, the judge can overrule this recommendation and sentence her to up to 10 years in prison.
Will she walk? Or will she spend the next decade behind bars?
John Fishwick is a former federal prosecutor who served as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, but is now a defense attorney and the current owner of the Fishwick & Associates law firm. He told 7News he does not anticipate the judge ruling against the prosecution’s recommendation, despite the gruesome nature of the crimes.
“Remember, the judge saw Juliana Magalhaes testify – the au pair – and I thought she was a very good witness. Without her, I’m not sure the prosecution case against Banfield would have been successful. I think she was a critical piece of the evidence. She gave testimony, sadly, about what happened in that bedroom and, obviously, the jury believed her,” Fishwick said. “I think the judge is going to follow the plea agreement and listen to what the prosecutor says. Yes, the judge can do more than what the prosecutors are saying, but I think the judge will, ultimately, follow the deal the prosecutors struck because the judge – I would imagine, like most folks – was impressed with her testimony.”
Across her two days of testimony, Peres Magalhaes detailed the complex scheme to kill Christine Banfield and Joe Ryan.
She also provided eye witness testimony of the moments Banfield killed his wife.
Peres Magalhaes: “He, he got on top of her, and that’s when I first saw him stab her with a knife.”
Prosecutors: “Where in her body was he stabbing her?”
Peres Magalhaes: “Her neck.”
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Fishwick said this might have put the jury over the edge in convicting Banfield.
Despite her role in the murder, Fishwick said the prosecutors likely figured the tradeoff was worth it if it put Banfield in prison for the rest of his life.
“I think the prosecutors looked at this as who was the most culpable and, also, who was the mastermind behind this whole thing. That’s, clearly, Banfield. This was his wife he wanted killed because he didn’t want to divorce her. He wanted to kill her, and he killed this stranger. This was all his idea,” Fishwick said. “It’s rare for a judge to not follow what the prosecution says that they recommend to the judge because judges defer to prosecutors because prosecutors know the players, they know the witnesses, they know the defendants, they know the culpability of everybody, so judges will defer to their discretion as to what the appropriate sentence is.”
This lenient sentence has drawn criticism from outside observers.
Some of those critics have called the au pair’s plea agreement a “sweetheart deal.”
In the minutes after Banfield was convicted, prosecutors pushed back against the label, while leaving open the possibility that the judge would hand down a tougher sentence than the recommendation.
“I wouldn’t necessarily describe it as a ‘sweetheart deal.’ She does face 10 years in prison. That has not yet been determined. It is, obviously, reduction. It is, certainly, reflective of her cooperation. But in order to encourage her to tell the truth, there had to be something,” said Fairfax County Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Jenna Sands, the lead prosecutor in this case. “I think the agreement she entered into will, hopefully, allow for the judge to pass judgment on her in a way that is measurable. It will, certainly, never account for the lives she was responsible for taking, but I think the amount of time she will serve will be determined by Judge Azcarate, and I’m sure it will be appropriate.”
Fishwick said Peres Magalhaes’ deportation after her release – no matter what the judge decides – may have also played a role in the prosecution’s decision to offer her a plea deal.
“I think the prosecutors weighed that and decided, ‘Well, she’s not going to be in our country, Banfield’s our primary target here, so we’re going to cut this deal with her,'” Fishwick said. “Ultimately, once she leaves this country, if we incarcerate her for a lengthy period of time, America pays for that. If she’s deported and goes to another country, they’re not going to pay for that. Her life, as she knew it, is over here. She’s not coming back into this country.”
Banfield’s sentencing is May 8th, which is mostly a formality given his automatic life sentence. However, it will be a chance for victims of Christine Banfield and Joe Ryan to directly speak to him during victim impact statements.
“I think we do need to remember what the au pair did. What she did was horrible. She shot somebody and she was part of this conspiracy to kill Mrs. Banfield and to kill this innocent stranger,” Fishwick said. “That’s horrible conduct, but without her testimony, I’m not sure this case would have been successful.”
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