Overview
- Sixteen jurors, including four alternates, were seated Monday in Fairfax County, with opening statements expected Tuesday and pool cameras approved for livestream coverage.
- Brendan Banfield has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder and a firearm count and also faces child abuse and child cruelty charges because his then-4-year-old daughter was in the home.
- Prosecutors say Banfield and au pair Juliana Peres Magalhães used a fetish-site account in Christine Banfield’s name to lure Joseph Ryan and staged the scene to look like a defensive shooting.
- Peres Magalhães pleaded guilty in 2024 to involuntary manslaughter for shooting Ryan, will testify for the prosecution under a recommendation of time served, and will be sentenced after Banfield’s trial.
- The defense challenges the catfishing theory, pointing to a former Fairfax digital examiner’s findings—peer-reviewed by a University of Alabama team—concluding Christine connected with Ryan herself.