A Virginia jury on Monday found Brendan Banfield guilty of aggravated murder for killing his wife and another man nearly three years ago.

Prosecutors said Banfield and the family’s au pair, with whom he had an affair, plotted for months to kill his wife, Christine Banfield, and incriminate another man, Joseph Ryan.

Brendan Banfield was found guilty of aggravated murder, firearms offenses and two counts of child endangerment. His daughter, who was 4 at the time, was home at the time of the killing, prosecutors said.

Banfield remained calm as the Fairfax County jury’s verdict was read in the courtroom. The committee received the case at noon Friday and deliberated most of Monday.

He is expected to receive a mandatory life sentence for Virginia’s highest murder charge. Sentencing is scheduled for May 8th.

Prosecutors said Banfield was in love with his au pair, Juliana Pérez Magalhães, and planned to get rid of her so they could be together. Together they created a fake account, posing as his wife on a fetish website, and lured Ryan into the house under the guise of consensual but violent sexual encounters with Christine. The au pair testified.

Prosecutors allege Banfield intervened during the encounter between Ryan and his wife, then stabbed his wife and shot Ryan during a staged crime scene to make Ryan’s killing look like an act of self-defense.

The trial began on January 12th. Prosecutors called about 20 witnesses in the case over four days, and two more in a short rebuttal case.

The defense called several law enforcement witnesses to strengthen its case that the investigation was flawed because prosecutors manipulated evidence to indict Mr. Banfield. The defense also went after digital forensic analysts, saying data recovered from Christine Banfield’s device suggests there may not have been a catfishing plan as prosecutors claimed.

The defendant took the witness stand

Banfield maintains his innocence, but he took the stand in his own defenseadmitted to having an affair with Perez Magalhães that began in August 2022, but denied planning to murder his wife.

He testified that he loved his wife, even though they had affairs with each other throughout their nearly 20-year relationship, and said his recent affair with his nanny was not going to change their marriage.

Banfield also said that she and Perez-Magalhães had broken up at different times during an affair and that they were not actively dating on the day of the murder.

The prosecution’s case relied heavily on the testimony of the au pair, who detailed the plan she helped Mr. Banfield carry out to “eliminate” Mr. Banfield’s wife. According to the au pair, she witnessed Banfield stab his wife to death and stage the crime scene to frame Ryan before calling 911.

Perez Magalhães was arrested in October 2023 for Ryan’s murder, and a year later agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for a recommendation for a prison sentence for Banfield.

Banfield was not arrested or charged with murder in the deaths of his wife and Ryan until September 2024.

Banfield testified that on February 24, 2023, while she was out for an important business meeting, she received a call from Perez Magalhães, telling her that she had seen an unknown man enter her home. Banfield said he thought his wife was cheating on him and drove home from a nearby McDonald’s to investigate.

He said Perez Magalhães followed her into the house and up the stairs, leaving her 4-year-old daughter alone in the basement. Banfield, an armed IRS special agent, said he entered the bedroom with his weapon drawn and found Ryan attacking his naked wife. Banfield testified that the man stabbed Christine Banfield repeatedly, then identified himself as police and shot Ryan.

Perez-Magalhães fired a second shot at Ryan with Banfield’s personal gun. Although the au pair testified that he never told her to take the gun from the safe or to shoot Ryan, the au pair said Banfield taught her how to shoot before the incident and gave her the gun earlier that morning.

When officers arrived at the scene, they found Banfield kneeling over his wife’s body with his hands on her neck. Banfield testified that his wife, who was still conscious at the time, instructed him to apply pressure to the wound to stop the bleeding.

Brendan Banfield’s DNA was not found on the knife used to stab Christine to death. Prosecutors allege that the only DNA recovered was from Christine and Ryan, who posed as his wife and brought the knife in at Brendan Banfield’s direction.

The jury deciding whether to convict Mr. Banfield on Virginia’s highest murder charge had to consider Mr. Banfield’s credibility with Perez-Magalhães. Prosecutors and Banfield’s defense attorney agreed not to present the jury with a lesser murder charge to consider against Banfield.

This is a developing story and will be updated.