Judge Rejects Plea Deal in Banfield Case — Juliana Magalhães Gets 10 Years | Au Pair Sentencing
Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary
True Crime Today
3.3 • 907 Ratings
🗓️ 18 February 2026
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The prosecution recommended time served. The judge said no.
Juliana Peres Magalhães — the au pair who admitted firing the shot that killed Joseph Ryan while Brendan Banfield stabbed his wife Christine to death — was sentenced Friday to ten years in prison. Judge Penney Azcarate rejected the Commonwealth's recommendation that Magalhães walk free after roughly two years behind bars, delivering instead the maximum sentence available under the plea agreement.
"You do not deserve anything other than incarceration and a life of reflection on what you have done," Azcarate told Magalhães. "May it weigh heavily on your soul."
The judge called this "the most serious manslaughter scenario this court has ever seen" and systematically dismantled any notion that Juliana was merely a passive participant in Brendan Banfield's scheme. She detailed how Juliana spent weeks messaging Joe Ryan, knowing she was luring him to his death. How she waited nearby and alerted Banfield when Ryan arrived. How she hung up when Christine Banfield begged her to call 911. And how she walked up to Joe Ryan as he lay moaning on the floor and shot him point blank in the heart.
"At any point for at least the month prior — or that day — you could have stopped this. The plan did not work without your full involvement."
Joe Ryan's mother delivered a devastating victim impact statement, revealing she still hasn't taken down her Christmas tree since her son's murder — it stands behind the urn holding his ashes. "My son's life was used and thrown away, seen as worthless and utterly disposable."
This episode features full analysis of the sentencing hearing, the judge's ruling, and what this means for cooperating witnesses in future cases.
#JulianaMagalhaes #BrendanBanfield #AuPairAffair #ChristineBanfield #JosephRyan #FairfaxCounty #TrueCrime #Sentencing #JudgeAzcarate #HiddenKillers
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Hidden Killers with Tony Bruske. |
| 0:03.0 | Here now, Tony Bruske. |
| 0:06.5 | Don't you love a happy ending? |
| 0:09.5 | This one has kind of a, I mean, it's not, I mean, there's two people dead. |
| 0:14.0 | So there's that, without a doubt. |
| 0:15.8 | That's not the happy ending. |
| 0:17.0 | But a happy ending to a worst case scenario, I guess is what you can say on the |
| 0:23.2 | au pair affair trial. Just the other week, we saw Brennan Banfield be found guilty. And for a while, |
| 0:36.1 | we thought, Juliana, the au pair, that went on the stand and basically |
| 0:42.9 | blamed everything on him in exchange for what she thought was |
| 0:48.0 | going to be a free ticket back to Brazil and time served turned out to be anything but the bitch got what she get coming. |
| 1:00.8 | Woo! |
| 1:01.6 | Finally, little small victory in the land of insanity that is true crime. |
| 1:09.0 | You do not deserve anything other than incarceration and a life of reflection on what you have |
| 1:15.1 | done. |
| 1:16.1 | May it weigh heavily on your soul. |
| 1:18.7 | That's Chief Judge Penny. |
| 1:21.5 | Askeret, speaking directly, to Juliana Perez Moggaly's at a Fairfax County courtroom just this last week. |
| 1:30.3 | And if you've been following this case, |
| 1:36.3 | if you watch the trial, listen to the testimony, tracked every twist in the au pair affair, |
| 1:41.8 | you probably expected the sentencing hearing to be more of a |
| 1:45.3 | formality, a procedural box to check before Juliana got shipped back to Brazil. That's not what |
... |
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