A Brazilian nanny received a sentence of 10 years in prison this Friday, the 13th, in the United States, for conspiring with her employer, who had become her lover, to kill his wife and another man.
Prosecutors had recommended the immediate release of Juliana Peres Magalhães in exchange for her guilty plea to a reduced charge of manslaughter in the killing of Joseph Ryan in February 2023. She testified that she fatally shot Ryan while Brendan Banfield stabbed his wife, Christine, in the couple’s bedroom.
Instead, the judge imposed the maximum possible sentence on the Brazilian woman. “I know that my remorse cannot bring peace to you,” Juliana told the victims’ families. “I got lost in a relationship and left my moral values behind.”
<p>The judge Penney S. Azcarate, of the Fairfax Circuit Court, showed little mercy. “Let’s be clear: you deserve nothing but prison and a life of reflection on what you did to the victim and to her family. May that weigh on your soul,” the judge said.</p><p>Juliana remained silent for months before agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors in the case against Brendan Banfield, who was convicted by a jury this month of first-degree murder for the deaths of his wife and Ryan. Prosecutors stated that the two defendants continued their affair for months after the killings.</p><p>At the trial, Juliana testified that she and Banfield, a United States IRS agent, created an account on a social network for people interested in sexual fetishes in the name of Christine, Banfield's wife and a pediatric intensive care unit nurse. Ryan connected to the account and agreed to meet for a sexual encounter involving a knife and simulating a rape.</p>
<p>Juliana said that she and Brendan Banfield took the couple's four-year-old daughter to the basement, and then entered the bedroom, where she said Brendan shot Ryan and was stabbing his wife in the neck. When she saw Ryan moving, Juliana said she fired the second shot that killed him.</p><p>The plan was to say that Ryan had raped and stabbed Christine, and Brendan, when he arrived home, would shoot the man as a way to defend the woman.</p><p>She was only arrested eight months later and did not speak to investigators for more than a year, until changing her mind as the date of her trial approached. Banfield's defense scrutinized the ex-nanny's motives during the trial, arguing that she was simply saying what the prosecutors wanted to hear.</p>
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</div>As part of the plea agreement, her attorney and the prosecutors agreed to end her time behind bars at the sentencing hearing, which was rejected by the judge in the case. In Virginia, manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
*This content was translated with the aid of Artificial Intelligence tools and reviewed by the Estadão editorial team. Learn more in our AI Policy.*
