Brendan Banfield just bet everything on himself.

The Virginia man accused of killing his wife Christine and a stranger named Joseph Ryan took the witness stand today in Fairfax County Circuit Court. It's a move most defense attorneys advise against — once you testify, everything you say becomes ammunition for the prosecution. But Banfield apparently decided the only way to beat the au pair's testimony was to counter it directly.

And counter it he did. Banfield admitted the affair with Juliana Peres Magalhães, the family's Brazilian au pair. He said it started in August 2022. But he told the jury he was upfront with her — this was just another affair, and it wasn't going to change his relationship with his wife. He said both he and Christine had strayed before. They'd gone to counseling. They'd made the decision to stay together.

When asked if he plotted with the au pair to kill Christine, Banfield's response was immediate: "No, there was no plan." He called the accusation "absurd" and "absolutely crazy."

The prosecution's theory is that Banfield and the au pair catfished Joseph Ryan using a fake profile on a fetish website, lured him to the house, then killed both Ryan and Christine in an elaborate staged crime scene. The au pair, who flipped on Banfield in exchange for a plea deal, testified to exactly that.

Now the jury has two completely different stories. And Banfield has to survive cross-examination Thursday morning.

#BrendanBanfield #TrueCrimeToday #AuPairAffair #ChristineBanfield #MurderTrial #FairfaxVirginia #JosephRyan #TrueCrimeNews #CourtTV #BreakingCrime

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