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Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary

Robin Dreeke on Juliana Magalhães: FBI Expert Evaluates the Au Pair's Credibility

Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary

True Crime Today

True Crime, News Commentary, News

3.3910 Ratings

🗓️ 19 January 2026

⏱️ 14 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

She lied for a year. She promised to protect Brendan Banfield. Then she flipped, took a plea deal, and testified against him in open court. Now she's negotiating with Netflix and media producers are paying her jail expenses.

Juliana Peres Magalhães is the prosecution's star witness — and the defense is trying to destroy her credibility. Former FBI special agent Robin Dreeke joins me to break down what her behavior reveals. How do you evaluate a witness who changed her story after a year? Does financial incentive undermine testimony? And what does her relationship with Banfield tell us about manipulation and control?

Banfield has pleaded not guilty. The trial continues in Fairfax County.

#BrendanBanfield #JulianaMagalhaes #RobinDreeke #FBI #AuPairAffair #Credibility #MurderTrial #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers #ChristineBanfield

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This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Bruske, Stacey Cole and Todd Michaels.

0:08.6

Let's talk more about her.

0:10.2

Juliana Perez Mangalas is the prosecution's entire case.

0:14.3

She's the only person alive who was in that bedroom when Christine Banfield and Joseph

0:19.4

Ryan were killed.

0:20.3

She testified that she watched Brendan Banfield shoot Ryan Ryan were killed, she testified that she watched

0:21.6

Brendan Banfield shoot Ryan in the head and stab his wife repeatedly in the neck. She admitted

0:26.7

on the stand that she fired the second shot into Ryan's chest, but she also lied for over a year.

0:32.9

She wrote letters from jail promising to take the blame for Banfield. She told his mother, she would give

0:39.3

my life for his, and she only flipped after Banfield was arrested, after she was hospitalized

0:45.5

from stress, and after his family stopped paying her legal bills. Now she's negotiating a deal

0:51.2

with Netflix. Media producers are paying her commissary and a letter to her mother.

0:56.0

She wrote, we do deserve something.

0:58.7

The defense says she's a liar who will say anything to walk free and get paid.

1:02.9

The prosecution says the blood evidence will back her up.

1:06.6

Robin Drake, retired FBI Special Agency for the Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program with us.

1:12.1

What do you think is going on here? Because I think, in my opinion, two things can be true at the same time.

1:17.5

She may want to just, you know, get back home and move on with her life.

1:22.7

And maybe the story she's telling is true. And she also does want to profit from it.

1:26.5

And it seems reality has

1:30.1

presented her a path to do just that. Does that make her a bad person? I don't know. I mean,

1:36.7

I guess it would be if she's lying to do it, but is she lying?

...

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