Juliana Peres Magalhães, from Brazil, and her employer-lover catfished one of their victims as part of an elaborate double murder plot to kill her employer’s wife
A nanny who colluded with her employer-turned-lover to kill his wife as part of a double murder plot has been handed the maximum possible sentence.
Pleading guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter, Brazilian Juliana Peres Magalhães was handed 10 years behind bars for helping her American lover, Brendan Banfield, 40, kill his wife Christine Banfield, 37, along with Joseph Ryan, 39. The 25-year-old’s sentence exceeded the recommendation set out as part of an earlier guilty plea deal, which could have seen her a free woman as early as Friday.
Chief Judge Penney Azcarte said: “Your actions were deliberate, self-serving, and demonstrated a profound disregard for human life. You do not deserve anything other than incarceration and a life of reflection on what you have done.
“May it weigh heavily on your soul.”
The lovers plotted an elaborate double murder, working together to lure Ryan – who has no connection to either Magalhães or the Banfields – to the Banfields’ luxury pad in Herndon, Virginia, under the pretence of hooking up for a sexual encounter, and then making it look like Ryan had killed Christine.
Magalhães told the court that together, they created a profile for Christine on a sexual fetish website to catfish potential victims.
She told jurors that she and Banfield, a former IRS agent, impersonated paediatric intensive care nurse Christine on Fetlife, luring Ryan in with a “rape fantasy”, where Ryan would creep into the Banfields’ home with a knife so he appeared to be an intruder.
The nanny, then 22, testified that after taking the Banfields’ four-year-old child to the basement, the pair went to the bedroom where Ryan was with Christine.
She said that when she arrived, Banfield yelled “Police officer”, with Christine yelling back, “Brendan! He has a knife”, before Banfield shot Ryan.
Banfield then stabbed his wife in the neck.
Magalhãe said she covered her eyes during the murder, but admitted that she saw Ryan moving on the ground. She shot him at point-blank range with a gun Banfield had given her.
Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Eric Clingan told the court that “definitive” blood splatter analysis indicated the bodies were moved.
Judge Azcarate said: “The facts of this case demonstrate an intentional and calculated level of violence that is the most serious manslaughter scenario this court has ever seen.”
She added that although Magalhães “may not have come up with a plan” and that “an older man may have groomed “ her “to a point”, the nanny was an “active participant” and knew that he was bring Ryan to his death.
She continued: “At any point for at least the month prior – or that day – you could have stopped this. The plan did not work without your full involvement.”
Banfield was convicted of two counts of murder and is expected to be jailed for life on his next apperance on May 8.
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