Brendan Banfield appeared to cry again in court Wednesday morning.
WASHINGTON — Christine Banfield’s family cried in court Wednesday listening to the body-worn camera footage from the morning she died.
Brendan Banfield, a former IRS agent is accused of murdering his wife, Christine Banfield, and a stranger, Joseph Ryan, back on Feb. 24, 2023. Brendan Banfield had an affair with the family’s Brazilian live-in nanny, Juliana Peres Magalhaes, and allegedly conspired with her to lure Ryan to the house on the sexual fetish website Fetlife to frame him for his wife’s death. Christine was found stabbed multiple times, and Ryan was found shot twice, once by Brendan Banfield and once by Peres Magalhaes, the two have admitted.
Peres Magalhaes testified against Brendan Banfield last week, as a part of the terms of her plea deal. Wednesday morning, Defense attorney John Carroll accused Peres Magalhaes of giving false testimony on the stand and attempted to have the case dismissed, claiming the commonwealth knowingly allowing it. The motion was denied.
“Counsel simply doesn’t like what she said, that doesn’t make it false,” Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Jenna Sands said.
Carroll presented body-worn camera footage from police response on the morning of Christine and Ryan’s deaths. The first piece of footage was worn by officer Zachary Beckner, who took the stand for a second time Wednesday. The hour-long video is under seal, but audio was played for the whole court.
Beckner accompanied Brendan Banfield to the hospital on Feb. 24, 2023. The video showed the morning, from the officers bringing Banfield from his house, into the ambulance and all the way to the hospital, Beckner said.
Banfield appeared to cry again in court while watching himself on video learn that Christine died from her injuries. He sat in the courtroom in a navy suit with his shoulders hunched, wiping his eyes. Jurors didn’t seem to notice, though, all watching the footage intently on their screens.
“Those were enormous wounds,” a doctor told Banfield in the video, as he replied, “There were so many.”
“You did a wonderful — you did everything that was possible,” the doctor told him. “It’s not a survivable injury.”
It’s the second time he has looked like he was crying in the trial. The first was during the very first witness, when listening to the 911 call reporting the incident to police.
In the audio of the body camera footage, Brendan Banfield only begins crying once he gets into the ambulance.
When he arrived at the hospital, Brendan Banfield was checked out to for injuries. He tells a doctor that his arm hurts because Ryan hit him there. The doctor replies that maybe he was having a muscle spasm from the stress.
Throughout the audio, Brendan only says “my wife.” It’s not until the hospital chaplain meets him, nearly an hour later, and asks him her name for a prayer that he utters the word “Christine.” He could be heard crying while the chaplain recited “Our Father.”
That’s when Christine’s parents began crying in the gallery.
After he learned about Christine’s death, Beckner allowed him to wash the blood off of his hands. Beckner testified last week that he did so because he felt bad for him.
Carroll brought up his own blood stain pattern analyst on the stand after showing the video. LeeAnne Singley is still on the stand as of the lunch break.