A former IRS agent in Virginia will spend the rest of his life in prison for a double-murder plot that centered on his affair with the family’s au pair. Chief Judge Penney Azcarate gave 41-year-old Brendan Banfield a life sentence without parole on Friday, reports the Washington Post. “The level of cruelty, calculation and inhumanity in this case reflects something far deeper than anger or impulse,” the judge told him. “It reflects evil.” At the sentencing, Banfield continued to maintain his innocence and said he loved his wife.
Jurors convicted him of murdering 37-year-old pediatric ICU nurse Christine Banfield and 38-year-old Joseph Ryan. Prosecutors say Brendan Banfield lured Ryan to the couple’s home as part of a convoluted plan to frame Ryan for Christine’s murder—the idea was to make it look like Christine had invited Ryan for a tryst. They say Banfield shot Ryan and fatally stabbed his wife, while au pair Juliana Peres Magalhaes admitted firing an additional shot at Ryan.
Magalhaes, who testified against Banfield and described his scheme to “get rid of” Christine so the pair could build a life together, previously pleaded guilty and received a 10-year sentence—despite an expectation that she would walk free. Banfield also was convicted of child endangerment, notes the AP, because the couple’s 4-year-old daughter was home when the murders took place.
