RICHMOND, VIRGINIA– A babysitter has admitted plotting with her employer-turned-lover to kill his wife and another man She said she confessed because she wanted to do good — not in the hope that cooperation would lead to her being freed from a Virginia prison so she could return to her home in Brazil.
The judge will determine her fate on Friday.
Juliana Perez Magalhaes will be sentenced in Fairfax County Circuit Court for the murder of Joseph Ryan in February 2023. She testified that she shot and killed Ryan while Brendan Banfield was stabbing his wife, Christine, in the couple’s bedroom.
Magalhaes pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter in Ryan’s killing after agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors in their case against Brendan Banfield, who was convicted By a jury this month on a charge of first degree murder in the deaths of his wife and Ryan.
Prosecutors said Magalhaes and Banfield had an affair in the months before the killings, and continued their relationship afterward.
At his trial, Magalhaes testified that she and Banfield, the IRS agent, created an account in the name of his wife, a pediatric intensive care nurse, on the social media platform for people interested in sexual intercourse with girls. Ryan contacted the account and agreed to meet for a sexual encounter using a knife.
Magalhaes said she and Brendan Banfield took their 4-year-old child downstairs, then entered the bedroom, where she said Brendan Banfield had shot Ryan and was stabbing his wife in the neck. Magalhaes said that when she saw Ryan moving, she fired the second shot that killed him.
She was not arrested until eight months later I didn’t speak to investigators for over a yearUntil she changed her mind as her trial date approached.
Banfield’s attorney examined the former nanny’s motives During his trial, arguing that she was only saying what prosecutors wanted to hear.
As part of the plea deal, her attorney and prosecutors agreed to end her time behind bars Sentencing hearing. Chief Justice Benny Azcarate could still reject that agreement. In Virginia, manslaughter is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.