Frame By Frame: The Murders of Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan

In the 18 years I’ve been on the bench, I have seen hundreds of defendants appear before me, and I have had the arduous task of sentencing these individuals. The sentence I impose today reflects not only the law, but the judgment of the community. The jury did not find your you credible on the stand. To testify as you did shows the court that you still think that you are the smartest person in the room.

 The level of cruelty, calculation, and inhumity in this case reflects something far deeper than anger or impulse. It reflects evil, which is why I carry no burden and find no hesitation in sentencing you to life. You should understand you were found guilty of crimes that five short years ago would have carried a sentence of death.

 That reflects the severity of your crimes and your actions. February 24, 20,23 820 5.  Perfect. 911. Where’s your emergency?  I need I need help. There is my my friend. She just wasn’t stuck on the mic. Now she’s bleeding a lot. I don’t know what to do anymore.  Okay. Where are you located? What’s your address? Um um I Oh my god. Take a deep breath for me.

 Just let me know your address.  Take a deep breath for me. You’re You’re on Stable Brook.  Are you on Stable Brook Way?  Yes.  What’s your house number? It’s um um um I know [clears throat] is there somebody else there that can give you the address?  13230 Stable Brook Way.  Okay. And what’s your name and what’s going on?  My name is My name is Brendon Banfield.

I’m a I’m a f I’m a federal agent. This is my house. There’s somebody There’s somebody here. Uh I I shot I shot him. Um but he stabs her. She ble She’s bleeding. She got several several marks on her neck. What do I What do I do?  Okay. So, what I need you to do is apply direct pressure directly to where she’s bleeding from. Okay.

 And if it becomes, just add more cloth to what it’s already there. How old is the person? I I don’t know  the person that’s bleeding.  Uh 37. [laughter]  Okay. Okay. So, the person that you shot, where is he?  I don’t know. I don’t know him.  Okay. Where is he, though?  He’s here. He’s on the ground.  Okay.

 So, I want you to get a clean cloth and apply direct pressure to where you’re bleeding from. Okay.  Okay. Are you the one that’s bleeding? Just keep applying pressure. Don’t remove it. If you come soaked, just add more cloth to what is already there. Do not use a tourniquet. If one is already on, don’t remove it. And don’t throw or flush any blood soaked items.

 Okay? And sir, I need you not to touch the weapons or disturb the scene at all. And don’t touch or remove any impaled object. Okay? Sir. Hello. Ma’am, can you hear me?  Hey, P or  there’s a dog. So somebody’s outside.  Someone’s outside in the background.  In the back.  There’s a dog in the back.  Anybody else outside?  Who wants to stay outside?  Nobody’s outside here.

 Stay here. Stay here. Stay here.  Stay right here.  Who is the shooter?  Who shot who?  Brandon. He’s an officer.  I got a blowout, kid. If you need it,  bring it up.  Is there anyone else in the house? Any kids in the house? Knife’s there, guns are on the bed.  It wasn’t long before emergency services arrived at the home in the quiet neighborhood.

 Inside, they found a complex and violent crime scene. Two victims lay in the main bedroom on the second floor. One was an unidentified man and the other was 37year-old Christine Banfield. Christine owned the house with her husband Brendan, the man who had just been on the phone to 911.  Yep.  Whenever they called us whenever  you say it again.

 So you with it? My office is in Vienna, correct? Did you  Did you call my office?  No.  I I need to call my manager at some point.  It’s the least of our worries right now, man.  [ __ ]  We’re just going to get you in a cruiser outside in the air where you can breathe. You’re okay. Okay.

 You’re not hurt. I don’t think so.  We’ll check them out when we get him over to the car. I don’t know. Just take some deep breaths. All right.  You need to sit down somewhere.  Is there a way to get an update?  Right now. Right now.  They’re handling everything from here.  We’re going to go ahead and uh check this gentleman out in the back.

 Where’s my daughter?  Talk to another officer.  I think she’s out there with them. Good.  Is there anybody else in the house other than your daughter and the other female?  Okay. So, she’s uh an Alair Manny.  Okay.  But it’s just the two of them, correct?  Yeah.  Okay.  My daughter. Just one sec.

 We’re going to head around this door. All right. sit here. Okay. Right here as you can.  The couple’s opair, a 23-year-old called Juliana Perez Margales, was also inside. She was the woman heard on the call before Brendan took over. Christine and Brendan’s four-year-old daughter was also inside the house, but had been left in the basement and was physically unharmed.

 I need to talk to her. She She doesn’t know anything. What? What’s  Can we get her and we’ll go outside?  I’m going to grab her.  She’s grabbing their four-year-old. We’re going to go outside.  Okay.  I know. This is hard. Let’s get her outside and then I need to get some information from you.  Hi.

 Hi.  Hi.  Hey, I’m Officer Bell. Nice to meet you. Do you want to go outside with us?  We need to go outside. Okay,  let’s go.  It’s okay. Just breathe. Okay. Okay. Let’s go out this way. So, hey, do you want to hang out with that officer right there to take over?  Good. Still breathing.  Sorry.  Still breathing.

 Still breathing.  Uh,  if you just want to tell me quickly what happened. If  I don’t really know what happened. Everything happened too fast. I was going to take her to the zoo this morning.  Can you go with Officer Batani really? Why  don’t you come with us?  He has some stickers for you.  I was going to take her to the zoo this morning and then I forgot the long we were going to pay.

 I turned around came back here and then um I saw this car inside. I guess  you don’t know who that Do you know who the person is?  I have no idea. And then Oh, so I called her to see what’s going on because it’s early in the morning. Like the people who is here and then he was trying to voicemail. I called Brandon. It’s her husband. He’s up there. I got him.

 I I see his friend car, but I don’t know who is that. Can please come here. I’m scared. I hope it’s Valer in the car. And then  he he he came here and then we went inside. He the guy I don’t know who he is. He was spanking hair doing I was just here.  Were you here when it happened or did you walk up in there and  they were Yeah, he went upstairs first and then I went like to see what is going on.

 I left in the basement and then when I went upstairs he Brendan was saying drop the knife. Drop the knife.  So Brendan’s a police officer.  Yeah, he’s an officer.  Is he with Fairfax?  No. Where is he an officer?  I don’t know. I think it’s I don’t know. I think it’s he was offici Vienna.  Yeah.  Okay.  One second.  I’m going to get  Okay.

 The  Do you need anything else right now?  Not right now. The The guy who shot is a They think of Vienna police officer. So, we got to think about that. That car we don’t know who that’s the guy who came up here that’s started the issue. This car is the outside guy. The silver car. These two. So, this is their car.

 That is the guy who came here.  Okay.  Um,  he was saying like drop drop drop the the I’m sorry, my first language is  No, no, no. You’re doing really well.  Um, he was saying drop drop the  Oh,  the knife or the gun?  The gun. And when said, “No, please don’t drop the knife.” And then he was say, “I’m going to kill her.

 I’m going to kill her.”  I don’t know. He is stabbed from he stabbing her. Bren I think Bren shot him and he asked me how to shoot him too because  it’s okay. You don’t have to get it all out right now.  I never saw that before. Like  you didn’t see the girl before either.  So the guy and the girl you don’t know.

 She’s my boss.  Okay.  But I never seen it before. Like it’s a lot of fun and Okay. Christine was alive but in critical condition. She had suffered stab wounds to her upper body. The unidentified man was deceased. He had suffered a number of gunshot wounds. Christine was rushed to hospital for life-saving treatment and Brendan was taken to the same hospital.

 Were you hit with anything? A knife? Anything?  No. I took I took the knife I took the knife from him.  Okay. All right. So, you’re not hurt anywhere. Is that not your blood? Correct. I I think it’s  all right. You want to slip this jacket off for me so we can evaluate you real quick? I’m going to have you.

 Where did all this blood come from? Do you know?  I was holding her neck.  All right. I don’t see any wounds on you. I’m just going to check you out. Would you like to run up to the hospital?  Can I be with her?  Uh, I’m They’re going to work on her when they get there. You wouldn’t be able to see her immediately anyway if you do choose to go. Yeah. Why? Yes.

I I want to be I want to be with her.  Okay. Then we’ll uh we’ll take you up there for evaluation then. Okay.  Sure.  What What’s going to happen to my daughter?  That I’m not sure. That’s a  As of right now, I believe she’s sitting with one of our officers until we figure out what all is going on.  Anything hurting you at all, man? They’re trying to find out so we can make sure we get you help, too.

 Yeah,  we’re going to need his uh  You’re good. We need that.  That’s fine.  You’re not going to be able to have it in the hospital anyway.  I have cuffs. Okay. What department are you with?  Uh Department of Treasury Internal Revenue. Okay.  It’s okay. Those can stay for right now. That’s fine.  My other gun.

 My other gun is my uh personal weapon.  Oh, that that’s the 43X.  Yeah.  So, both those are yours?  Both of them are mine.  Okay. The ones that we saw on the bed, correct? Correct.  Okay. Thank you, sir.  I don’t think anybody wants to uh upset her currently.  She’s only four.  Yes, sir. I understand that.  We’re trying to find out what room to put you in.

 Not yet.  Once he arrived, he was taken into a different room.  Hello, sir. My name is D. I’m one of the doctors here. Um, your wife has died.  She died of blood loss. Um, her airway was actually okay.  I’ll call the medical examiner, of course, and we’ll we’ll um do an autopsy and make sure we know for certain,  but um  I was starting to just like pressure.

 Yeah. [clears throat] I mean those were enormous wounds and you know it’s not so there were so many  it’s not a survivable injury. [snorts]  You want to wash your hands?  Probably feel better after that soap and Mr. Bfield. Yes.  Hi, my name is Mike. I’m one of the detectives.

 My colleague, Detective Bryant back there. Um, and I’m so sorry to reach under the circumstances.  Police now had two victims in a crime scene that was more confusing than anything else. They took statements from Brendan, Brendan and Christine’s daughter, and Juliana. Based on the statements, this is what the police learned.

 Brendan had left early for work that morning at around 7:10 a.m. as he had an important meeting to get to. Juliana had left the house relatively early, too, alongside the Banfield’s daughter as they planned to go to the zoo. When Juliana was just a few minutes down the road, she realized she had forgotten the packed lunches she’d made for herself and the child.

 So, she turned the car around and drove a few minutes back to the house. When she arrived at 7:20 a.m., Juliana noticed that there was a car in the driveway that did not belong to anyone she knew. A man whom she didn’t recognize then got out and walked into the house. Juliana got out of the vehicle and walked towards the property.

 She opened the front door and called out for Christine. She knew Christine had a day off work and so she’d likely still be at home. Juliana was surprised when she got no answer. She said she had a bad feeling and backed up out of the house and called Brendan’s number. He’d only left for work 10 minutes ago, so it wouldn’t be far away.

 Brendan said he received that phone call whilst he was sat inside of a McDonald’s having breakfast. He managed to get back to the house within minutes of the call. And once he arrived, he told police he got out of the car and rushed in through the basement door. Juliana and Christine and Brendan’s daughter followed, but Brendan told them to wait there while he went upstairs.

 Juliana then heard a noise and decided to go up to see what was happening. In her words, it sounded like a physical altercation. She heard Brendan saying, “Police officer, drop the knife.” And Brendan told police that when he arrived upstairs, he saw a man he didn’t know attacking Christine with a knife. This was when he shouted to drop the knife whilst holding his gun pointed towards the intruder.

 Within seconds, Brendan shot him. Juliana told police this was the first moment she saw Christine who was lying on the floor naked covered in blood. She also saw the man on the floor lying down wounded from the gunshot. Seconds later, the man moved. This caused Brendan to shout at Juliana to go and get the other gun out of the bedroom safe.

 Brendan told police he shouted the code to her as she left. When Juliana returned a few minutes later, she was holding the gun and it was clear that the intruder was still alive. And so she told police she shot him in the chest. Immediately after that was when she called 911. This version of events was compiled together based off of both Juliana and Brendan’s accounts.

Immediately following Christine’s death, reporters filled the surrounding streets and Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis made a statement. He said, “We know what our 911 caller, the husband, told us, but we have a lot of work to do to substantiate that claim or to otherwise identify the person responsible for that crime.

 The investigation had now begun.” Christine’s family and friends were dumbfounded. At the time of her death, she had been working as a pediatric intensive care unit nurse. Her shifts at work were long and intense. She was described by her colleagues and friends as a devoted caretaker and mother who had organized the neighborhood playdates.

 One neighbor said that Christine had been organizing a bike ride for the neighborhood children in the days before she died. Christine’s husband, Brendan, was working as a specialist agent with the IRS’s criminal division, a job he’d had since 2009. [music] His days would involve looking into financial crimes, and as part of his work, he was able to carry a service weapon.

 He also had irregular hours and had to travel for work. This was a crime that seemingly made no sense, and investigators got to work on securing the crime scene and processing the evidence. The first thing they needed to do was establish who this intruder was. This was easy and done in good time, as the man’s car was parked right outside.

 Inside the vehicle was his ID, wallet, and phone. The man’s name was Joseph Ryan, and he was 39 years old and lived in Springfield, Virginia. As investigators dug into his background and phone activity, they quickly learned that he and Christine did appear to know each other. There were multiple messages between the two of them, including on a website called Fetlife.

 Fetife is a sexual kink website where like-minded individuals could speak to others and arrange chats or meetups to cater to their specific interests. Investigators soon found Christine’s profile which showed her photo, but underneath was a different username, Anastasia 9. In the recovered messages between Anastasia and Joseph, they outlined how she was looking for someone to help make her fantasies a reality.

 Investigators found multiple messages between Anastasia and other men from this Fetife website before the messages between Anastasia and Joseph started. One of these fantasies included consensual non-consent in the form of a rape. The messages showed that Anastasia spoke very specifically about how she wanted this to feel real and therefore didn’t want to meet up with Joseph beforehand.

 Police found more messages, some of which outlined with more specificity exactly how Anastasia wanted the rape fantasy to go. She wanted it to happen in the early morning hours and that Joseph should leave his phone in the car. Once inside the house, no matter if I cry, no matter if I say it hurts, no matter if I ask you to stop, keep going.

 The messages also told Joseph to bring cable ties, a knife, and that there wouldn’t be a safe word. As investigators pieced together the alleged timeline of events from the witness accounts, evidence collected from the scene, and digital forensics, it first appeared to be a case of sexual assault that had escalated into at least one murder and another death in self-defense.

 But very quickly something else became apparent. There were inconsistencies in the timeline that had been put together from those witness accounts. It did not seem to match the evidence collected. And it all started with the 911 call on the morning of the murders. The first call made to 911 from the Bfield residence wasn’t the one at 8:02 that was played earlier.

 When police dug into the calls, they discovered two more calls had come in before that. The first was at 7:47 a.m. and lasted for 8 seconds.  February 24,23 7473 32.  Fair County 911. Where’s your emergency?  Hello, Fairfax County 911. [clears throat]  The Fairfax County 911 operator answered the call but couldn’t hear any speaking on the other end.

 There was some noise but it wasn’t audible. Instead, it was reported as groaning or moaning sounds. The call then suddenly disconnected. Just minutes later, at 7:49 a.m., the operator called the number back. Nobody answered, so a message was left. Another two attempts were made to call the number within seconds of each other before the final 911 call connected.

That came in at 8:02, starting with Juliana and then Brendan taking over to report that he’d shot someone and that his wife had been stabbed. The timeline of the 911 calls did not match with the version of events given by Brendan and Juliana. On top of this, detectives learned that since Christine’s death, Juliana had moved into the master bedroom.

 Her clothes and belongings were in the wardrobes and drawers, and there was a framed photograph of Juliana and Brendan on the bedside table. It turned out that the pair had been having an affair going back to before Christine’s death. They also discovered that it was only after Brendan had shot Joseph in the head that he told Juliana to go and get the gun from the safe.

This did not make sense to the investigating team. Why would Brendan insist Juliana go to a separate room to get another firearm while he had his own gun in his hand and Joseph was incapacitated and injured on the floor? Brendan said it was because he panicked and that when Juliana came back into the room with the gun, she perceived Joseph as a threat and that’s why she had shot him.

 When the autopsy came back, however, it showed that the first injury Joseph had suffered was the gunshot wound to his head from Brendan. It would have incapacitated him in such a way that he would likely have been blinded. It seemed highly improbable that he would have been any threat that would justify shooting him again. And to add to this, there was another part of the story that just wasn’t making sense.

Investigators knew that there was no evidence of forced entry into the house. This was questionable in and of itself because the Bamfield’s home had a complex security system that was set up electronically and controlled from their phones. On the morning of the murders, Christine’s phone had disabled the alarms.

 Her phone was found by the investigating team in one of the kitchen drawers and it was turned off. The blood spatter evidence found on Joseph showed that the blood had rolled down his back, something that indicated he must have been lying down, likely in his final position when he came into contact with Christine’s blood.

 This also didn’t make sense for the frenzied attack that was alleged by Brendan. A blood stain expert would later speak about how Christine’s blood on Brendan’s jeans looked like castoff spatter as opposed to simply rendering aid. The police had a lot of evidence, but none of it pointed directly to the version of events from the morning of the murders.

 They did, however, feel they had enough evidence to show that Juliana was an active participant in the shooting of Joseph and not an innocent bystander. With this, Juliana was arrested for secondderee murder. She was originally from Brazil and had been working as the Bfield’s Opair as part of a transfer program.

 She was being paid $200 a week and had a room inside the house. After her arrest, her lawyer was paid for by Brendan’s mother. She also continued a relationship with Brendan from inside prison, seeing him whenever he would visit. But those visits became more and more infrequent. At the same time, the detectives working on the case had started speaking with her directly while she was inside.

 As Brendan visited her less and less, she opened up more and more to the officers. According to Juliana, Brendan had confided in her that he’d had affairs before, including sugar relationships where money was exchanged. He told her that Christine knew about these affairs and had since forgiven him. In terms of his relationship with Juliana, Brendan assured her he would never tell Christine he didn’t want to risk her job.

 The affair continued with both of them speaking about their feelings intensifying for one another and letters outlining his love for her. The feelings in the affair grew in such a way that Brendan spoke about a plan to get rid of his wife. He said he couldn’t get a divorce because he was worried Christine would take custody of their daughter.

His plan involved removing her from the picture and setting someone else up, someone neither of them knew, so they could live together without any suspicion on them. Juliana told detectives that the first step was to set up a fake Gmail account, which Brendan did. He then used that to set up the Fetife account under the name Anastasia.

 For the profile, Brendan used a photo Christine had sent specifically to him one day when she was in the gym bathroom. The Fetife account was set up on the 17th of January, 2023. Just minutes after he received that photo, he used the account to speak to a number of men. Juliana added that she occasionally also sent messages from the Anastasia account.

Because of Brendan’s work with the IRS, he told Juliana that the Fetife messages should only be sent from Christine’s laptop. and when Christine was home. This was in case digital forensics were done as part of the eventual investigation into the murders. Prosecutors later discovered that the Fetife account was accessed on February the 14th, 2023 when Brendan was not at home, leading them to believe that Juliana had accessed it herself on Valentine’s Day.

 Just 5 days later, on the 19th of February, Joseph Ryan first connected with the Anastasia account. The conversations continued over the next few days, and as well as the setup of the rape fantasy, there were also messages about blood [music] play, a fetish involving making one or both participants bleed. According to the prosecutors, Brendan knew that Christine had a blood clotting disorder.

 She would bleed much more severely than most people. The conversations continued with Joseph asking to meet face to face. The Anastasia account said no, so Joseph asked if they could speak on the phone. Joseph spoke with Juliana, who was pretending to be Anastasia. On the 23rd of February, at 12:52 a.m., Joseph messaged Anastasia asking for her home address. And at 9:36 p.m.

 that evening, he got a reply. 13230 Stable Brookway, Henden, Virginia. At 11:14 p.m., the Fetife password was reset. And 15 minutes later, Joseph was told to aim for 720. At 6:24 the next morning, Joseph messaged saying that he was going to be leaving soon and would arrive between 7:20 and 7:30. At 6:48 a.m., the final message from Anastasia to Joseph said, “Okay, I’ll be waiting for you.

” At 7 that morning, Christine was still asleep in the master bedroom. Her phone was removed from beside her while she slept and taken downstairs. It was used to deactivate the electronic front door lock and then turned off and placed by Brendan into the drawer of the kitchen bar. At 7:10 a.m.

, Brendan left the house, but instead of going to his work meeting, he drove to a nearby McDonald’s for breakfast. At 7:20, Juliana called his phone so the intruder story would line up with the phone records. Brendan then drove back home and made his way with Juliana and his daughter into the basement. His daughter was left in the basement as he ascended the stairs and made his way to the master bedroom.

 He found Joseph in there, pulled out his gun, and according to Juliana, Christine called out to Brendan, “He’s got a knife.” Brendan pointed his gun toward Joseph and shot him, and Joseph fell onto the floor. At this moment, Juliana walked in and Christine told her to call 911.

 This was the initial 911 call made at 7:47 a.m. that lasted for 8 seconds. This had not been part of the plan. Brendan then told Juliana to go and get the other gun from the safe. When she returned, she shot Joseph in the chest. Then Brendan picked up the knife that Joseph had brought with him, walked over to Christine, and began stabbing her.

 He stabbed her a total of seven times. According to Juliana, he then went over to Joseph’s body so he could lean over him and cover him in Christine’s blood. Juliana would eventually plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years as part of a plea deal. The judge said, “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.” On the 16th of September 2024, almost a year after Juliana was arrested, Brendan Bamfield was arrested too. When investigators presented him with what Juliana had said, he denied it all. He admitted that he and Juliana had been having an affair, but it was never very serious. However, when the love letters were presented to him with details of the names they would use for their future children, Chloe for a girl, Robbie for a boy, Brendan admitted he might have been in love with Juliana after all, although

insisted he only fell in love with her after Christine’s death. Brendan Bamfield would plead not guilty to the charges, meaning this was going to go to trial. Tonight, a Virginia husband charged in a gruesome double murder. Accused of plotting with the family’s Opair to kill his wife.

 Fairfax County police taking Brendan Banfield into custody. A year and a half after his wife, Christine Banfield, was found stabbed to death in the family’s home. And another man, Joseph Ryan, was found shot nearby.  Caller saying he shot someone. There’s a 34 year old female that got stabbed by someone and then he shot him.  Anything to say about your wife’s death? Brendan Banfield’s arrest on charges of aggravated murder and use of a firearm just the next step in potentially proving that theory.

 We’re not finished yet. We still know we have more work to do. But I can tell you that this has been something, this case has been something that’s been on my mind. Um I know it’s been on the chief’s mind, my prosecutor’s minds, uh since the day it happened.  But investigators say for months they believed there was more to the story.

 I suspected I had a feeling that there was a lot more to what met the eye that that morning. The nature of this relationship would be central to the trial and a police victim’s advocate would testify saying that the night after Christine and Joseph had been killed, Juliana Brendan and Brendan and Christine’s 4-year-old daughter were staying in a hotel together, the little girl had been overheard asking Juliana, “Can I call you mommy now?” To which Juliana allegedly replied, “Yes.

” The same testimony revealed that the witness heard the child ask, “Are you going to marry my daddy?” And according to the testimony, Juliana replied, “I wish.” During his trial, Brendan admitted that he had been unfaithful in the past, but said this was okay because Christine had had numerous affairs herself.

 He added that she had used fetish websites to try and find people to have affairs with. However, digital forensics showed that in the last 10 years, there was no evidence from Christine’s devices that she had engaged in any affairs or been a part of any fetish websites.  Good afternoon.  Good afternoon.

 Could you please state and spell your name for the court record?  Yes. Juliana. J U L I A N A Perez B E R E S Magalo. M A G A L H A E S.  As part of Juliana’s plea deal, she agreed to testify against Brendan. Evidence was brought in to show that on the 29th of October 2022, Juliana had signed a service agreement and waiver at Silver Eagle Group Shooting Range.

 There was also evidence that she had checked into the shooting range that same day. Then on the 23rd of December, 2022, both she and Brendan had checked into the shooting range. There were documents that showed shared firearms related activity, and Juliana said that Brendan had taken her there to teach her how to shoot in preparation for the murders.

However, Brendan said he went there often as part of his job, and Juliana had just decided to come along one day. On the 28th of January, he’d purchased a firearm and later given it to Juliana. As for the alleged work meeting that was the reason Brendan had to leave the house so early, Brendan’s supervisors testified, stating that none of them were in the office that particular day.

One of them said he wasn’t even in the country.  I was able to to see him stabbing her. The family’s Opair, Juliana Perez Malles, testifying as the prosecution’s star witness, telling the jury Banfield, told her he wanted to get rid of his wife. But Banfield later taking the stand in his own defense, claiming it was the stranger who killed his wife.

 I saw him do a downward stabbing stroke, and that is when I and that’s when I fired at him.  Prosecutors said that Joseph was not a predator, but instead a victim. They said he had been lured to the house to be killed and then framed for Christine’s murder. And Joseph’s family supported the prosecution’s theory.

 Verdict watch for the Brendan Banfield double murder trial out of Fairfax County. Jurors heard closing arguments today and they are now deciding the fate of Brendan Banfield after hearing weeks of testimony.  [music]  We the jury find the defendant guilty of aggravated murder of Joseph Ryan and Christine Banfield as part of the same act.

 In February of 2026, Brendan was found guilty of first-degree murder, as well as the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and child endangerment because his daughter was inside the house during the killings.  It’s a story that made international headlines over the past 3 years. And his sentencing this morning brings it all to a close.

 Before he was sentenced, Brendan spoke for 11 minutes arguing that he was innocent.  During COVID, she volunteered to take care of to take care of many of the people that were sick and struggling. She signed up for extra shifts. She signed up for vaccination clinics. She cared for her daughter. She went she enrolled her in dance lessons.

 She was there for for recital. I loved her very much. Despite what you may think of my affairs, our marriage worked for us. It wasn’t something it wasn’t something that I looked to end. There was no It was told to other women that I was never going to leave Christine. That was always that was always how it was said. Christine cared very much for her family and friends.

Not trying to I’m not trying to diminish in any way what what her life what her life was. She truly was a caring a caring mother, a caring wife, a loving nurse. But I am not respon I am not responsible for her death. This is not a knife that I ever held in my hand and I never stabbed her. Thank you.  But the judge was having none of it.

Brendan Bfield was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. The judge’s sentencing remarks was scathing. You should understand you were found guilty of crimes that five short years ago would have carried a sentence of death. That reflects the severity of your crimes and your actions. Life in prison is a punishment reserved for a very small number of individuals.

those whom the commun community has determined should never walk free again. It is a harsh sentence, but in this case, it is a justified one. In the 18 years I’ve been on the bench, I have seen hundreds of defendants appear before me, and I have had the arduous task of sentencing these individuals. In the vast majority of these cases, people made mistakes, were struggling with substance use disorders or acting in anger, choosing violence in a moment that changed everything.

 They were not inherently bad people, but they made terrible decisions and suffered the consequences. Sentencing in those cases is difficult. It weighs on me often long after the hearing is over. Only two times prior to today have I encountered something different in my courtroom. Two individuals that carried no remorse calculated and planned their violent crimes and left many victims and devastation in their path.

 As I listen to the evidence in this case and listen to your testimony, it is apparent that I am once again looking at that same kind of evil. It is impossible to comprehend what Joseph Ryan experienced, seeing you enter the court, enter the room, being shot in the head, blinded, hearing you instruct the codefendant to shoot him again.

 And Christine to imagine her final thoughts as she initially thought you were there to save her from what she thought was a brutal attack. And then to see you over her stabbing her again and again with a knife in her neck. Her final realization that this was all you’re doing and in her final moments thinking of her daughter.

 To testify as you did shows the court that you still think that you are the smartest person in the room. One would hope that someday you will become tortured by what you have done to Christine, Joe, Christine’s daughter, and their families. But nothing I have seen suggests that you will.

 The level of cruelty, calculation, and inhumity in this case reflects something far deeper than anger or impulse. It reflects evil, which is why I carry no burden and find no hesitation in sentencing you to life.  I will tell you, I have been doing this job for a while. I’ve been a prosecutor for a long time. Um, I haven’t seen a crime like this.

 Chief Judge Ash Karate mentioned that this is a crime that rises to the top in her in terms of her career in terms of severity and evilness. So the fact that we brought these aggravated murder charges to us it was necessary because that was the only charge that reflected the seriousness, the deviousness of this crime.  Also at the sentencing hearing, the loved ones of both Christine and Joseph spoke about the impact their deaths had had.

 Joseph’s mother, Dearree, told the court that her son was extremely caring. He was someone who was a caretaker for his grandmother and other loved ones. He would walk into an animal shelter and ask for the oldest, ugliest dogs. Bring them home and love them for years, she said. Dearree said that she tries to live by the words he would often tell her. Be kind to yourself, Mom.

 Take better care of yourself, Mom. Love you, Mom. Christine’s older sister, Danielle, spoke in her victim impact statement about just how kind and selfless her sister was. She said they’d grown up chasing fireflies and sleeping next to each other on the floor in sleeping bags. When she was born, I became we. I haven’t stopped saying we when I speak about my childhood after her death.

Except now when I do, it takes my breath away. A pause filled with a love that has nowhere to go. She had a way about her that made people feel comfortable and welcomed without effort. It didn’t surprise anybody that she became a pediatric ICU nurse. She provided comfort to frightened parents. She made those moments more bearable with her big smile and infectious laugh.

In the end, this wasn’t a crime committed by a stranger lurking in the shadows. This was a betrayal carried out in a place where Christine should have felt safest, by the very people she had every reason to trust. While she was planning for her future, two people were already conspiring to take that away. That is perhaps the most frightening part of this case.

 Not just the violence itself, but the deception that surrounded it. Hidden in plain sight beneath the surface of an ordinary life. And this tragedy did not end with Christine. An entirely innocent man, Joseph Ryan, was drawn into a plot that had nothing to do with him, and he paid for it with his life. Two families were left carrying the weight of decisions that they never made.

 Brendan Bamfield and Juliana Perez Magal will spend the rest of their lives defined by what they did. But those who loved Christine remember something very different. A devoted mother and an incredible nurse. Perhaps the most important thing now is that her daughter grows up knowing exactly who her mother was. Not through the horror of this crime, but through the love, kindness, and strength that defined her life long before it was taken.