FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. β The husband of a woman killed more than a year and a half ago has officially been charged with murder, the Fairfax County Police Department announced Monday.
Brendan Banfield is facing four counts of aggravated murder and one count of using a firearm during the commission of a felony. Only two people were killed that day in 2023.
"The reason we did that is, it's very lawyerly and technically, but essentially it boils down to in the aggravated murder statute there are a number of different options to prove that. When we took a look at what we intend to present at trial, we believe our presentation of evidence can possibly hit both of those different subsection elements," said Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney Steve Descano.
He said they wanted to be sure they gave the jury every option available.
"We wanted to cover all our bases and make sure the jury had every option that they could want when looking at the evidence," said Descano.
Banfield's arrest coming more than a year after his wife Christine Banfield, and a man named Joseph Ryan were killed.
"On Feb. 24, 2023, I stood in the middle of a culdesac street in Fairfax County and described the deaths of two persons inside of a residential home," said Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis. "Now, 570 days later, we know the deaths of Joseph Ryan and Christine Banfield are both in fact murders."
"The double homicide of Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan shook our community," said Descano.
On Feb. 24, 2023, police found the bodies of Joseph Ryan and Christine Banfield in the Banfield family's home.
A woman who was working for the family as an au pair from Brazil, or a live-in nanny, was indicted in April after the Commonwealthβs Attorney Office alleged she was responsible for Ryan's death.
On April 15, Juliana Peres Magalhaes was indicted in Ryan's death, but not Christine Banfield's. Peres Magalhaes was charged with second-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
Until now, Brendan Banfield had not been charged in the bizarre murder case. Upon his arrest, police say Brendan Banfield was taken to the same detention center Magalhaes has been in since her arrest in 2023.
Prosecutors alleged Peres Magalhaes and Brendan Banfield were having an affair months prior to the deadly shooting. Records in court showed photos of the same room after the killings with new framed photos of the two.
According to court documents, Brendan Banfield is accused of deliberately and willfully planning to kill his wife and Ryan.
"I was happy, grateful," said Deirdre, Ryan's mother in an interview with WUSA9 Monday.
Banfield was expected to be arraigned on the charges on Tuesday morning in Fairfax County circuit court. That hearing has been pushed to Thursday morning.
Earlier this year, Senior Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Eric Clingan shared records from Silver Eagle Group Shooting Range in Ashburn. They showed two months before the shooting, Peres Magalhaes and Brendan Banfield visited the gun range. A few weeks later, Clingan said Brendan Banfield also purchased a gun which would eventually be used to shoot Ryan.
What happened the morning of Feb. 24, 2023?
In April, an attorney representing Peres Magalhaes painted a picture in court of the chain of events that led to the two people's deaths.
There were two 911 calls that morning 15 minutes apart starting at 7:47 a.m. that led investigators to the Banfield's home on Stable Brook Way in Herndon.
The morning of the shooting, Christine Banfield had purchased tickets for Peres Magalhaes to take her 4-year-old daughter to the zoo.
Peres Magalhaes ended up returning home because she'd left their lunches behind and wanted to pick them up. When Peres Magalhaes got to the home, there was a car she didn't recognize in the Banfields' driveway.
Peres Magalhaes' defense attorney said that she called Christine Banfield from outside, and when she didn't answer, she called Brendan Banfield, who was at a nearby McDonald's.
Peres Magalhaes waited outside for Brendan Banfield, her attorney said. And when they entered the home, he went upstairs where Peres Magalhaes said Brendan Banfield caught his wife in the room naked with Ryan.
There was a commotion upstairs, and Peres Magalhaes' attorney said she heard calls to "drop the knife." And she eventually heard the sound of "flesh being struck."
According to Peres Magalhaes' chain of events, Brendan Banfield shot Ryan. She confessed to a detective that Brendan Banfield then instructed her to get a second gun in the safe in the bathroom closet.
Prior to the au pair's indictment, attorneys had said Peres Magalhaes and Brendan Banfield acted out of self-defense.
"Mr. Banfield told her to obtain a firearm from the bathroom closet," testified Fairfax County Police Detective Steven Carter earlier this year. "Mr. Banfield provided her with the code to get into the safe."
Peres Magalhaes confessed to shooting Ryan, who was already on the ground, in the chest β "piercing through his heart."
But why did Peres Magalhaes do as Brendan Banfield allegedly asked?
Peres Magalhaes initially told detectives that she was not in a romantic relationship with Brendan Banfield, an assertion not shared by her attorney in court in April β who described Peres Magalhaes as Brendan Banfield's "girlfriend, live-in lover."
The morning of the shooting, Brendan Banfield told authorities that he'd shot a man in his house who had stabbed his wife. Brendan Banfield was an IRS special agent, and prosecutors previously suggested he was carrying his issued gun at the time of the shooting.