Brendan Banfield, a Virginia man currently facing trial for allegedly stabbing his wife, Christine Banfield, to death in February, 2023, took the stand on Friday and denied committing the crimes. Brendan was having an affair with the family’s au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães who confirmed witnessing Brendan killing his wife.
Appearing in front of the jury on Friday, Brendan was cross examined. He is also accused of shooting Joe Ryan, the man who entered the couple’s bedroom with a knife. When questioned about the shooting, Brandon mentioned that he did it to save Christine, who he claimed was attacked by Joe. It should be noted here that Joe was also shot by Juliana who used a different gun.
While Brandon did admit to shooting Joe once to allegedly save his wife, he denied attacking Christine at any point of time. She was stabbed 7 times and Brandon claimed that she told him that she was bleeding out.
“Jurors watched a defendant who spoke at length about logistics … but showed remarkably little emotional response when describing his wife being stabbed to death in front of him.” More legal analysis of Brendan Banfield’s testimony: https://t.co/hJTlsZ0Ap7
— NBC4 Washington (@nbcwashington) January 29, 2026
However, the medical examiner on the case had previously confirmed that the wounds on Christine were severe and she would have died quickly. Therefore, Christine chatting with her husband in such a condition seemed unbelievable and he was cross questioned about the same. Brandon however, maintained that she indeed talked to him while dying.
It should be noted here that Juliana has presented a very different version of the events as she claimed that she and Brandon had created a social media account in Christine’s name to lure people who were into se – – al fantasies. This is how Ryan got involved and he came to the couple’s place to engage in se – – al activities that involved a knife.
Juliana claimed that this was an elaborate part to kill Christine made by Brandon. She also claimed that ever since their affair started, Brandon had planned to kill his wife and eventually live with Juliana. She also testified that she had crouched behind the bed white covering her ears and eyes as Brandon repeatedly stabbed Christina to death.
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However, Brandon continued to mention that despite having affairs throughout the course of their long marriage, he loved his wife and never had any plans of killing her. He also added that he and Juliana had broken up multiple times during their affair and there was no possibility of plotting a murder plan with her.
The prosecution has presented the case in a way that shows Brandon shooting Ryan and then stabbing Christine to death. Brandon’s ultimate plan, according to the prosecutors, was to frame Ryan for Christine’s killing and tag Ryan’s murder as self defense.
Brandon has, however, continued to deny these allegations and his lawyers have accused the prosecution of manipulating evidence and the narrative to suit their version of the events. As Brandon took the stand on Friday, the jury will now have to decide whether they believe the prosecution, whose argument has also been corroborated by Juliana or if they choose to go along with Bradon’s version of the tragedy.
