Au pair accused of double murder pleads guilty to manslaughter

National news

By OLIVIA DIAZ and MAURICIO SAVARESE, Associated Press

updated on October 30, 2024 | 13:45

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — A Brazilian housewife who fell in love with an IRS agent pleaded guilty Tuesday to involuntary manslaughter in what prosecutors said was an elaborate double-murder scheme to frame another man for his wife’s murder.

In the months following the Feb. 24, 2023, killings, it may have appeared that Juliana Perez Magallans and IRS agent Brendan Benfield got away with the killing, according to new details prosecutors released in court in support of their guilty pleas.

Christine Benfield, a pediatric intensive care nurse with a 4-year-old daughter, was fatally stabbed in the neck, and Brendan Benfield, her husband and their live-in nanny said they shot her apparent killer, a man who had been lured to the bedroom with promises of rough sex.

Magallias called 911 at a home in Herndon, Virginia, and sat at the scene as she described the murders.

The detectives didn’t believe it, but it took time to build their case. Meanwhile, the person living with the family moved into the master bedroom with Benfield and posted photos of them as a couple, authorities said. When she was arrested in October 2023, there was a photo of her with Brendan Banfield on her nightstand.

As she remained in prison for more than a year afterward, she refused to say anything more.

Then came the long-awaited medical examiner’s report on the blood spatter evidence, which prosecutors said showed that Brendan Banfield smeared blood from Christine Banfield’s wounds on the body of Joe Ryan, the man they were trying to frame for stabbing her. Authorities arrested Brendan Banfield in September on a charge of aggravated murder.

Benfield’s attorney, John F. Carroll, told the court before he was denied bail in September that the evidence “simply does not add up” that he killed his wife.

In October, Magalhainsh agreed to cooperate with police during her second interview since the day of the crime. Days later, on Tuesday, two weeks before she was scheduled to stand trial on second-degree murder and felony firearm charges, Magallias pleaded guilty to Ryan’s murder, saying she agreed to help the man in a ruse to kill wife and make it look like they both shot the predator.

“Do you plead guilty because you are actually guilty of this crime?” Chief Judge Penny Azcarate asked Magallance before accepting her plea to one count of involuntary manslaughter, reduced from murder and a firearm offense.

“Yes,” she answered quietly.

The verdict of Magallans, who grew up on the outskirts of São Paulo, is now awaiting the conclusion of the trial of Brendan Banfield. Depending on her cooperation with authorities, attorneys said in court they may agree to sentence her to the time she has already served.

“Much of the information that led to this agreement cannot be released at this time due to the upcoming criminal trial against another defendant in this case,” said Fairfax County District Attorney Steve Descano.

Vivian Magallance, her stepmother, said she hoped her stepdaughter would return to Brazil soon and that “this nightmare would be over.”

“We still can’t figure it out — I think this guy tricked her, he brainwashed her,” Vivian Magalhães said in Portuguese, referring to Benfield. “She was never a gold digger in Brazil, for many years she dated a man as modest as her. We could never have thought that she was living in such a situation.”

Outlining the facts Magallias testified to in court, prosecutors said she made several calls to 911 that day. The first lasted a few seconds, with no words, just someone’s guttural moan in the background. Then, about 15 minutes later, another call came in that an intruder had injured her friend. Brendan Banfield then picked up the phone to say he had shot the man who had stabbed his wife.

The officer’s body camera footage, released in court last month, shows Magallias kneeling in the driveway, appearing disoriented and unable to catch her breath.

“There was a lot of blood,” said Magallanes while hyperventilating. “Brendan said, ‘Please drop the knife, drop the knife’ because he had a knife.”

She later told detectives that she shot the intruder in the chest after Brendan Banfield shot him in the head.

In court Tuesday, prosecutors argued she lied in an attempt to lure someone else into the home so she could be accused of killing her wife.

Magalhaes began working for the Benfields in late 2021, the affidavit said. Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Eric Klingan told the court that the nanny and the man began an affair in August 2022. Soon after, Brendan Benfield began planning to kill his wife, Klingan said. .

To cover up the ruse, Klingan claimed that Brendan Banfield created a profile for his wife on a social network for people interested in sexual fetishes and matched her with Ryan. The two soon communicated via Telegram, an encrypted messaging app, and Magallias pretended to be Christine Banfield during the voice call. Ryan agreed to come to the house for what appeared to be consensual sex.

“At various points prior to the 24th, Perez Magallanes told Brendan Banfield that she did not believe he would go through with the plan, and at other times she told him she did not want to continue,” Klingan said. “But he insisted it was too late for her to give up.”

Klingan said Magallance and Brendan Benfield left their daughter in the basement and then followed Ryan into the bedroom with a gun in hand.

Authorities monitored her phone calls at the Fairfax County Jail. In one call last month, Klingan said Brendan Banfield’s mother, who paid for the au pair’s legal defense, discussed the consequences the “bumpers” would face in prison.

In another, between Brendan Banfield and an au pair, Magallance said: “I hope you stay with me not just because you’re afraid I’ll turn against you.”

Associated Press writer Mauricio Savarese reported from Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Olivia Diaz is a member of The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative.