Inside The Banfield Trial: Au Pair Testifies

0:00We're going to start things off with a trigger warning. Some of the reporting is disturbing, so please listen and watch with care.

0:10So welcome to a special episode of the 48 Hours podcast, Inside the Banfield Trial. I'm your host, 48 Hours correspondent Anne-Marie Green, and today we are taking you inside the court case of Brendan Banfield, The former IRS agent charged with a February 2023 stabbing murder of his wife, Christine, and then the fatal shooting of another man, Joseph Ryan, in the Banfields, Northern Virginia home. Brandon pleaded not guilty to all of the charges, and he maintains that it was Joseph who stabbed his wife while he shot Joseph in self-defense. This is one of the most talked about trials in the country right now.

0:52It's even sort of being dubbed the au pair affair because Brendan had been having an affair with the family's Brazilian au pair. Her name is Juliana Perez Magalese. She pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter for shooting Joseph Ryan. Here's prosecutor Jenna Sands describing what she says was Brendan's plan to kill his wife. He wanted her out of the picture, and he convinced young Juliana, 22 years old, not from the United States, living in his home, in love with him, that they should get rid of Christine. He talked about hiring a hitman, finding someone to kill her for money, but he was concerned that that would tie back to him, that there would be too much evidence against him and that he could end up at risk.

1:43So they crafted a plan. They would use Christine's email accounts to create a fake profile to lure someone in who was into kinky sex, violent sex. And they would get this guy to come into the house and fake rape Christine. Brendan would be the hero of the day. He would show up, kill the guy, kill his wife, pretending that it had been that guy. And that guy was Joseph Ryan. So joining me now to discuss this case is 48 Hours producer, Michelle Sigona. Michelle, it's great to see you. It's great to see you, Emory. So this is one heck of a case, boy. I mean, I understand why the entire country has been watching, and you've been following this case basically since it started.

2:33And I just want to point out that this trial, the Brendan Banfield trial, is taking place in the same courthouse as the Johnny Depp Amber Heard defamation trial? And it's the same judge. Cameras generally usually are not permitted. But like the Depp trial, there's a lot of interest in this case. So as for this trial, Banfield's au pair, Juliana, she's now 25 years old. She was originally charged with the murder of Joseph Ryan, but then she pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, involuntary manslaughter, and she decided to cooperate with the government. She is the star witness, which is why I expected her to show up maybe later on in the trial.

3:16I was really surprised that she was called so early in the trial. What was it like when she walked into the courtroom? It was, first, it was very surprising. I mean, openings were a little more than a half hour. There were some other witnesses who had testified. And then they talked about the co-defendant. Like on the first day? Oh, my goodness. She walks in through a side door, has to walk past the defense table and all the way up to be sworn in to sit down. And she looked drastically different. We've seen photos of Juliana throughout these, you know, these last few years. Her hair is long, blonder, different style clothing.

4:00This was a version of her that we have not seen before. Her hair is now completely dark. She had glasses on. It was a muted version of her. Okay, so before she testifies, though, we have the opening arguments and we hear the prosecution sort of lay out the case that they believe they have against Brendan. What do we hear? As we heard earlier, the prosecutors allege in February 2023, Brendan and Juliana were having an affair. This is inside of their property. And by the way, the defense doesn't dispute this relationship at all, from what we've heard so far. Brendan and Christine also had a young daughter.

4:41Her name is Valerie. And Juliana said Brendan wanted out of this marriage. Now, they weren't together at first. This was something that evolved over time. From what she testified to, had spent about a year in the house and then renewed for another year in her program. But he felt a divorce was not an option. He wanted full custody of his daughter, and Juliana said money was also involved and part of the issue. And then so how do things unfold? So the alleged catfishing scheme comes about using this website called FetLife, as in fetishes. And they would take Christine's laptop and phone to message the people while Christine was in the house.

5:26This is an incredibly important point because Christine being inside of the house, according to Juliana, was the reason why they would message these other men at home and from her laptop because Brendan told her if there's some sort of investigation, it would always look like the messages were coming from Christine, coming from her phone, coming from her computer. And according to Juliana, Brendan was looking for someone who would be aggressive and would bring restraints and also a knife to this meeting at the House. She said they were also looking for someone to agree to come to the House before ever meeting Christine in public.

6:08So then who's doing the messaging to all of these men? Are both of them? When the defense asked Juliana who was doing this, there were times when she couldn't remember who was doing the messaging. But she did say it was both of them at different times on different days. So ultimately, after messaging several men, they finally messaged Joseph Ryan, who is open. And we see the messages in the court presented to the gallery on the Telegram app between Joe and Christine's account. And that account used an alias as well, Anastasia. And there are exchanges between them about cuts and bruises. And Anastasia messaged that, quote, some marks are OK.

6:54I said, as long as they are covered by my clothes, I have a few days to heal up. Yeah, and this character is sort of encouraging a certain level of violence. And I don't know if she asked for a photo of the knife, but he eventually sends a photo of a knife too, right? Yes, Joe did share an image of a knife. So it's one thing to have this communication online, but this is part of a bigger plot. Can you tell us how things were supposed to unfold in the House when Joseph Ryan shows up? I still cannot get over the level of detail that went into this alleged plot, again, according to Juliana. And here's the prosecutor explaining how this day started.

7:46On February 24th, 2023, Brendan Banfield's birthday, the plan was put into action. Knowing that Christine had the day off, Brendan and Juliana arranged a fake outing at the zoo for Valerie. Juliana and Valerie packed a lunch, prepared for this fake outing. Christine, still in bed, asleep, at 6 a.m., Brendan takes her phone and Valerie downstairs. He chats with Joe to confirm a 720 arrival for the execution of the fake rape. And Brendan then disables the door lock, preventing it from automatically blocking, turns off Christine's phone, and puts it in her drawer in the kitchen where she couldn't possibly find it to call for help when she finds an intruder in her home.

8:44Brendan leaves the house, followed shortly by Juliana. Brendan drives to a nearby McDonald's. Juliana waits in the cul-de-sac, the plan to give a call out to Brendan as soon as she sees Joe. Valerie is in the back seat, and Juliana has a gun in her pocket. When Joe arrives, Juliana calls Christine's cell phone first to create a record of a fake warning, even knowing that the phone is turned off. She then calls Brendan to let him know that Joe is in the house. Brendan leaves the McDonald's, drives directly to the home, meets up with Juliana, and with Valerie in tow, they re-enter the house through the basement.

9:32okay so just to make it sort of clear to everyone the plan and it's unfolding exactly as brendan had planned is to have uh joe come into the house christina's no idea what's going on and so you know she's still in bed juliana is supposed to be taking care of valerie um and so valerie did reap from what we learned from juliana's testimony on the stand she remained downstairs while Brendan first went upstairs to the bedroom. A few minutes later, Juliana said she also went upstairs and told Valerie, look, stay behind. And here's Juliana on the witness stand. When I got to the bedroom, Brendan said, he yelled, police officer.

10:25And Christine's first reaction. That was the first time I heard she say anything at that point. Then she yelled back at Brendan saying, Brendan, he has a knife. And yeah, that's when Brendan first shot Joe.

10:47So, Brendan shoots Joe. This is part of his plot, right? He's going to come in and save her. But Christine is still alive. She is alive and allegedly She tells Juliana to call 911, which Juliana did, but then hangs up quickly after. Juliana claims Brendan gave her some sort of gesture to hang up the phone. She hangs up the phone. A period of time goes by. The 911 center calls the phone back, leaves a message. And so this is where the prosecution says everything sort of falls apart a little bit. Because Juliana wasn't supposed to call 911 until later. Juliana said Brendan then got on top of Christine and told her, Juliana, to get a towel.

11:31So she left, she came back, and that's when she saw Brendan allegedly stabbing Christine with this knife. And she testified, Juliana said she covered her ears and her eyes, and at times would look up and saw more of this stabbing taking place. Juliana says Brendan then told her to go to the safe in the closet because that was also part of his plan. But for reasons that she can't make sense of now, when she returned and saw Joe moving, she warned Brendan. And I just start telling him, his movie is behind you. And that's when I fired the shot, too. That's when you, could you say that again? I fired.

12:31And when you say you fired, you fired what? A gun. The gun that was where? that I had in my pocket, the handgun. Did you hit anyone? Yes. Who'd you hit? Joe.

12:55Juliana says she shot Joe, and Brendan gave her the go-ahead to call 911, this time for real. This is 15 minutes later. Perfect shot 911. Where's your emergency? I need any help. My friend, she just was a second in the mic now. She's bleeding a lot. I don't know what to do anymore. Then Brendan gets on the phone. My name is Brendan Banfield. I'm a federal agent. This is my house. There's somebody here. I shot him. He stabbed her. Okay. She's bleeding. She's bleeding. She's got several marks on her neck. What do I do? And again, Valerie is in the basement while all of this is happening. I mean, she must be hearing it.

13:50It's hard to tell what she heard. I'm a mom to three young children, and I can't even imagine this child being in this house in this particular situation. And just so you know, in addition to the aggravated murder charges, Brendan Banfield was also charged with one count of felony child abuse and neglect and one count of felony child cruelty related to everything that transpired that day.

14:26And so the investigation begins and unfolds. But before police go after Brendan, they actually arrest Juliana in October of 2023. Why did they arrest her first and not Brendan? That's a great question. They may have been building this case behind the scenes against Brendan. Investigators like to take their time. They like to build their case and be able to do this just the once. That's it. That's all you get. And so by the time Juliana was arrested, she was not only living in the marital home, a place that she was supposed to be an employee, but she had moved directly into the bedroom with Brendan Banfield.

15:08You've got to be kidding me. I mean, it's hard to say how people should behave, but that certainly raises some eyebrows. That behavior is going to make people very suspicious. Look, I've been doing this for 25 years, and I have seen cases across this country of all different magnitudes. And this is the level of detail and the things that have happened and the things that have come out in this courtroom about what went on allegedly behind those, you know, behind those walls of that house. It's it is it's really hard to understand. It really is. It's almost like she sort of slipped right into Christine's place.

15:55It's exactly what it seems like. And then not only does she do that, but according to Juliana, this relationship continues after her arrest. his mom apparently according to juliana is paying for her defense attorney at this point wow and so but then when is brendan arrested so brendan is then arrested in september 2024 and juliana decides to cooperate with authorities in october 2024 she had some sort of medical emergency she was in the hospital for a number of days when she came out a couple of days later she decided to sign this paperwork. That's what she testified to. And she said that's when the financial support from Brendan's family ceased.

16:42So this, to me, is a challenge for the defense. What is the defense's response? Well, the defense attorney, John Carroll, questioned her decision to take this plea, the timing of it all, months after her arrest. And there were letters that were read inside of the courtroom this week. and that she had written to Brendan and other people while she was in custody. She wrote about how she couldn't live without Brendan, but she also wrote that she had given up hope and this was torture for her. She was in terrible pain, saying in part that it was killing her while she was incarcerated and she was considering taking her own life.

17:26Juliana said she began medication while she was in jail. This was for depression and anxiety to help her. And later, she writes to Brendan saying that she knew the Commonwealth wanted her to cooperate against him. She wrote to Brendan's mother that she'd give her life for him and that she would never do anything to hurt him. Going on to say, quote, I'll take the blame for both of us. Okay, so that is an intense type of connection. I don't know if I call it love, whatever. I can see how, you know, as she's sitting in jail, though, like her commitment is starting to weaken. But but when do things go from I'm willing to take the blame for everything to I'm going to I got you know, there's a plea deal on the table.

18:12I'm taking it. Well, remember, Brendan is arrested in September 2024 and Juliana took the plea in October, the very next month, the end of the very next month. She messages that she's scared, and she later talks about being disheartened. Then there's a set of days in October when Juliana is in the hospital. We spoke about that briefly. Just days before the plea, that's when all of this is sort of taking place. The defense asked if this was just a coincidence, and she said it was. There's also a message from Juliana's mother to Juliana saying, quote, Please tell her not to cut you off from your mom.

18:52Please tell her it was all Brendan. Seeming to be referring to Brendan's mother not cutting off this support because, you know, not only was she apparently funding this defense attorney, but she was also funding her account to be able to she could have communication with her mom and other people and buy extra food from the commissary and things of that nature. Juliana had mentioned to her earlier that she was thinking about taking the plea and that this message was written around the time she actually did it. Okay, so this is kind of a standard thing for the defense to do, right? Like question the motives and the motivation of a witness.

19:32So that's fine. But what is the defense saying about this plot that Juliana alleges that she was involved in with Brendan? Brendan Banfield's defense attorney, John Carroll, disputed this whole catfishing story. This was in his openings. During the cross-examination, he tried to get Juliana to share exact details from setting up that account in Christine's name. But she said she wasn't able to remember a lot of the details. Oftentimes you would hear her say, I don't know. I don't recall. I think things like that. Or I've I told you that before. And there was clearly tension between her and Mr.

20:16Carroll. Yeah. In fact, the defense attorney sort of asks her about that, about her sort of weak memory. I want to play some sound from that. I mean, with all due respect, you don't remember a lot of details. Yeah. And that's what's really concerning about this. Well, if you were in my shoes, you don't remember either. You know, your brain has a way to defense mechanism, it's called, and it protects you from losing your mind, losing yourself. And many things our brain blocks out, and I guess everybody can relate to that at some point. Okay. I mean, it's reasonable. It's been a number of years.

21:01And so if she doesn't remember details, it's also something conveniently that witnesses often seem to forget in crucial details. Yes. And, you know, I think sometimes in, I know if I'm messaging, you know, there's a lot of things going on with work or messages and things like that. I may not remember certain, you know, certain dates and things of that nature. But when there's something as important as what happened here on that day, you would probably, I would venture to say, possibly be able to remember some of those things leading up to it and after. Absolutely. And the other thing that the defense sort of tried to do as well is kind of, you know, be critical of her character.

21:45And they bring up the fact that, you know, she needs money. She's dependent on Brendan's mother for money, but she's looking for money elsewhere, too. And he dissects all of her messages, but obviously pulls out the ones that are most important to what he wants to bring forward. And there's talk about how Juliana could profit from all of this. And the defense asks her about this, you know, exchanges that she's had over this time of incarceration with the media specifically. Now, full disclosure, a 48-Hours producer was mentioned during this trial since we are covering the case and seeking an interview, but we made it clear that CBS News does not pay for access ever.

22:28It's also important to note when we're working these cases and stories, especially over long periods of time, sometimes we don't do them, sometimes we do move forward with them. We reach out to everyone. It's very important. We want to be we want to be accurate. And that's just it's what we do. It's what we've always done at 48 hours and it's what we'll continue to do. Yeah, I think that's underline and highlight that. So this case is starting off with, you know, well, fireworks for sure. What can we expect now in the coming weeks? Well, the defense attorney, John Carroll, in his opening statement referenced the fact that detectives who didn't agree with this catfishing theory were transferred.

23:09So we may hear more about that. I also have a witness list here. This is from the Commonwealth. It was filed with the court. I was in the clerk's office earlier this week going through some of the filings, some of the old ones, some of the new ones. I don't have a defense witness list right now. This trial is slated for four weeks. Whether it will go four weeks or not, it's anyone's guess. But we will be tracking this and we will be keeping a very close eye on this case. So we don't know if we'll see Brendan on the stand. But boy, things are starting off really, really interesting. Thank you so much, Michelle, for joining us.

23:44Thank you so much for having me here with you today. And thank you to the listeners as well. Remember, you can tune into 48 Hours as well as a 48 Hours postmortem podcast. You can find it right here in your feed or wherever you get your podcasts.

24:05Deadlines move, plans change, and sometimes opportunities pop up out of nowhere. When you need branded gear fast, 4imprint is ready to deliver. 4imprint offers hundreds of promotional products in their 24-hour category. Everything from custom apparel, bags, and drinkware to writing tools, trade show staples, and high-tech gear. At 4imprint, it's not just about speed. It's about doing it right. Your logo is printed with precision, your order is packed with care, and it all ships out fast. And with their 360-degree guarantee, you can be confident it'll show up right on time, just the way you planned it.

24:44That's the certainty of 4imprint. So if you're prepping for a last-minute event or jumping on a big opportunity, you don't have to settle or scramble. With 4imprint, you get fast, reliable service and peace of mind built right in. Check out their full 24-hour selection at 4imprint.com. 4imprint, for certain. Pluto TV has thousands of free movies and TV shows. You swear? If I'm lying, I'm dying. This is the mindset. Free. This is the mantra. Free.

25:19With movies like Titanic, Dreamgirls, and Gladiator. Are you not entertained? And TV shows like Survivor, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Fairly Odd Parents, and Ghosts. Pluto TV is always free. Huzzah! Pluto TV. Stream now. Pay never.