Brazilian au pair Juliana Peres Magalhães, who went along with former IRS agent Brendan Banfield in a northern Virginia double murder plot, was sentenced to 10 years in prison with two years of probation. On Friday morning, Fairfax County Judge Penney Azcarate decided to give the 25-year-old the maximum sentence, which was up to 10 years on a manslaughter charge for which she pleaded guilty in 2024."Your actions were deliberate, self-serving, and demonstrated a profound disregard for human life," Azcarate said in delivering her ruling."So, let's get straight: You do not deserve anything other than incarceration and a life of reflection on what you have done to the victim and this family."A new "20/20" episode about the case, "The Au Pair, The Affair and Murder" is scheduled to air Friday, Feb.
20, at 9 p.m.ET on ABC and streaming the next day on Disney+ and Hulu. Juliana Peres Magalhaes is escorted into the courtroom before continuing her testimony, during the double murder trial for Brendan Banfield in Fairfax County Circuit Court, on Jan.
14, 2026, in Fairfax, Va.Tom Brenner, Pool via AP, FILEMagalhães and Banfield were separately arrested over their roles in the Feb.24, 2023, murders of Joseph Ryan and Banfield's wife, Christine Banfield, which were committed inside the Banfield home.Early in the investigation, detectives discovered evidence suggesting that Banfield and Magalhães were having an affair -- and that they had plotted to kill his 37-year-old wife. Part of that plot, according to prosecutors and Magalhães' testimony, involved covertly creating a profile for, and thus masquerading as, Christine on a social media site for sexual fetishes.Ryan, 39, took the bait in what prosecutors called the "catfishing" scheme.
Ryan communicated back and forth with the profile account that was allegedly posing as Christine, as they together crafted a rape fantasy scenario using a knife, chains and rope. Brendan Banfield double murder trial: M...