FBI Expert: Is Juliana Magalhães Credible? Plus Blood Evidence Expert Says Banfield Staged the Scene
Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary
True Crime Today
3.3 • 907 Ratings
🗓️ 26 January 2026
⏱️ 40 minutes
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Summary
She lied for over a year. She wrote letters from jail promising to "take the blame" for Brendan Banfield. She told his mother she would "give my life for his." She only flipped after Banfield was arrested, after she was hospitalized from stress, and after his family stopped paying her legal bills. Now Juliana Peres Magalhães is negotiating with Netflix while media producers fund her commissary. In a letter to her mother: "We do deserve something."
And she's the prosecution's entire case. The only person alive who was in that bedroom when Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan were killed.
Former FBI Special Agent Robin Dreeke—who spent his career reading people and identifying deception as head of the Bureau's Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program—analyzes Juliana's credibility. What does her behavior on the stand tell us? How do you evaluate someone who lied for a year and then flipped? Does the Netflix deal destroy her credibility—or is it irrelevant to whether she's telling the truth? And what does her relationship with Banfield reveal about the psychological dynamics at play?
The prosecution closed with their strongest forensic evidence. Blood stain pattern analyst Iris Dalley Graff testified that Joseph Ryan's body was moved after death and Christine's blood was deliberately placed on Ryan's hands and clothing to frame him. The transfer patterns were "finger-like in shape"—consistent with someone touching him with blood-covered hands. Blood droplets on his forearm suggested dripping from above.
Defense attorney John Carroll moved to dismiss, arguing prosecutors never called a single homicide detective and relied too heavily on a cooperating witness with credibility problems. Judge Penney Azcarate denied the motion. The defense now presents their case. Banfield has pleaded not guilty.
#BrendanBanfield #JulianaMagalhaes #RobinDreeke #FBI #ChristineBanfield #BloodEvidence #HiddenKillers #CrimeSceneStaging #AuPairAffair #Credibility
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the big breakdown. |
| 0:02.2 | A long look back at some of the biggest stories we're covering for you at the Hidden |
| 0:05.9 | Killers podcast and True Crime Today. |
| 0:09.2 | This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Bruske, Stacey Cole and Todd Michaels. |
| 0:17.7 | Let's talk more about her. |
| 0:19.3 | Juliana Perez Mangalas is the prosecution's entire case. |
| 0:23.4 | She's the only person alive who was in that bedroom. |
| 0:26.7 | When Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan were killed, |
| 0:29.4 | she testified that she watched Brendan Banfield shoot Ryan in the head |
| 0:33.1 | and stab his wife repeatedly in the neck. |
| 0:35.4 | She admitted on the stand that she fired the second shot into Ryan's chest, but she also lied for over a year. |
| 0:42.0 | She wrote letters from jail promising to take the blame for Banfield. She told his mother, she would give my life for his. |
| 0:50.3 | And she only flipped after Banfield was arrested, after she was hospitalized from stress, |
| 0:55.7 | and after his family stopped paying her legal bills. Now she's negotiating a deal with Netflix. |
| 1:01.2 | Media producers are paying her commissary and a letter to her mother, she wrote, |
| 1:05.7 | We do deserve something. The defense says she's a liar who will say anything to walk free and get paid. |
| 1:11.9 | The prosecution says the blood evidence will back her up. Robin Drake, retired FBI special |
| 1:17.6 | agency for the counterintelligence behavioral analysis program with us. What do you think is going on here? |
| 1:22.4 | Because I think, in my opinion, two things can be true at the same time she she may want to just you know get back |
| 1:29.1 | home and and move on with her life and maybe the story she's telling is true and she also does |
| 1:34.5 | want to profit from it and um it seems reality has presented her a path to do just that uh does |
| 1:43.0 | that make her a bad person? |
... |
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