Brendan Banfield, a former Internal Revenue Service law enforcement officer, was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Friday in Fairfax County, Virginia, for the murder of his wife, Christine Banfield, and a second man whom prosecutors said Banfield and the family’s Brazilian au pair lured to the couple’s home as a fall guy.
Judge Penney Azcarate handed down the sentence, which is mandatory in Virginia for a conviction of aggravated murder. In February, a jury convicted Banfield on two counts of murder, as well as charges of child endangerment and use of a firearm.
Banfield claimed at trial that he had shot 23-year-old Joseph Ryan after coming upon Ryan attacking his wife on the morning of Feb. 24, 2023. Prosecutors, however, said Banfield and au pair Juliana Peres Magalhães had set Ryan up in a scheme to kill Christine Banfield, a pediatric intensive care nurse.
At the sentencing hearing, Azcarate said Banfield’s conduct was evil and calculated.
“The disregard of the life of your wife, someone you supposedly loved, is almost unfathomable,” Azcarate said. She described the scheme as involving “luring a completely innocent man into your deadly trap; continuing on after the murders without a care; and not once – not once – thinking of the impact” on the Banfields’ then-4-year-old daughter.
Banfield “took everything from her,” Azcarate said.
In addition to the life sentence for murder, Azcarate sentenced Banfield to five years on the child endangerment charge and three years on the firearms charge.
Speaking in court, Banfield proclaimed his innocence. He said he loved his wife and, although he had affairs, he never intended to leave her. Azcarate said his lack of remorse gave her no hesitation in ordering a life term.
Christine Banfield’s older sister, Danielle Hocker, described her sister as a kind, caring, reliable and selfless person. She recounted their childhood together, chasing fireflies and sleeping side by side in sleeping bags.
“When she was born, ‘I’ became ‘we’,” Hocker said. “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 love that has nowhere to go.”
Ryan’s mother, Deidre Fisher, told the court that her son was “extremely caring.” She said he was a caretaker for his grandmother and others.
“Joe was a guy who believed in fighting for the underdog, and even actual neglected dogs,” Fisher said. “He would walk into an animal shelter and ask for the oldest, ugliest dogs, bring them home and love them for years.”
Magalhães had previously pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in connection with the deaths and was sentenced to the maximum term of 10 years in February 2026.