An au pair who helped set up a meeting that led to a fatal confrontation in a Virginia bedroom was sentenced to 10 years in prison after a judge declined prosecutors’ request for leniency, according to court testimony and Friday’s hearing. Juliana Peres Magalhães pleaded guilty in February 2023 killings tied to a plot prosecutors said was carried out through an online account and coordinated communications.
Prosecutors had asked Judge Penney Azcarate to allow Magalhães to walk free after she pleaded guilty to a downgraded manslaughter charge, the AP said. Instead, Azcarate imposed what she described as the maximum possible sentence, saying the defendant did not deserve anything other than incarceration and “a life of reflection on what you have done to the victim and his family.”
Magalhães had been a key witness for the government in the case against Brendan Banfield, an IRS agent-turned-lover whose jury conviction came earlier this month. Prosecutors described her cooperation as central to their prosecution of Banfield, the AP said, but the sentencing hearing focused on how Azcarate viewed Magalhães’ role in the events that led to the deaths of Joseph Ryan and Banfield’s wife, Christine Banfield.
In court statements summarized by the AP, Magalhães told the judge she did not believe Banfield’s plan would actually happen, and she said, “I lost myself in a relationship, and left my morals and values behind.” She also told the victims’ families that her remorse could not bring them peace, and that she hoped they could someday understand her belief about whether the plan would be carried out.
Azcarate responded directly to that position, according to the AP, telling Magalhães that she did not deserve leniency and that she had been encouraging Ryan to bring a knife. The judge also said Magalhães knew, “through the phone conversation,” that she was bringing Ryan “to his death,” while Ryan was later described as the person Magalhães testified to shooting.
The case involved testimony that Magalhães created an account in the name of Banfield’s wife on a social media platform for people interested in sexual fetishes, the AP said. Joseph Ryan connected with the account and agreed to meet for a sexual encounter involving a knife, and Magalhães testified that she and Banfield took their 4-year-old child to the basement before encountering Ryan in the couple’s bedroom.
According to the AP’s recounting of Magalhães’ testimony, Banfield shot Ryan and began stabbing Christine Banfield in the neck, and when Magalhães saw Ryan moving, she fired the second shot that killed him. The AP said she was not arrested until eight months later and remained in jail, and prosecutors told the court that if she had been granted bail she could flee to Brazil or be deported before prosecutors could finish the case.
At Friday’s sentencing hearing, the AP reported that Ryan’s mother, Deirdre Fisher, described him as her “greatest gift,” saying she could not bear taking down the Christmas tree three years after his killing. Fisher told the court she turns on the tree’s lights each day and that there is an urn with Ryan’s ashes in front of the decoration.
The AP said Ryan’s sister, Sangeeta Ryan, described Joseph Ryan as “inquisitive, curious, smart, charming and so dang talkative,” and said he loved martial arts and role-playing with friends. The AP also reported that she said he had moved in with his octogenarian grandmother to care for her, and that Christine Banfield’s relatives attended the hearing as Banfield’s sentencing was set for May.