Ex-IRS agent Brendan Banfield sentenced to life in prison for murdering wife and stranger

A judge slammed ex-IRS special agent Brendan Banfield as pure “evil” as she sentenced him to life behind bars without parole Friday for killing his wife and a sex-seeking stranger in a twisted plot he cooked up with his Brazilian au pair lover.

The 40-year-old former fed stared ahead stoically as Chief Judge Penney Azcarate handed down the sentence — after he gave a bizarre statement whining that he’s “disappointed in the legal system” and insisting he’s “not responsible” for the murder.

“The level of cruelty, calculation and inhumanity in this case reflects something far deeper than anger or impulse, it reflects evil,” Azcarate said, adding he’s shown no remorse. “You still think you are the smartest person in the room.”

Banfield was convicted by a jury in Fairfax, Virginia in February of stabbing his 37-year-old wife Christine and shooting Joseph Ryan, 38.

Ryan was lured to the couple’s Herndon home under the false pretense of a sexual encounter with the wife as part of a convoluted frame-job, jurors heard at the sordid three-week trial.

Christine’s heartbroken sister, Danielle Hawker, testified Friday about the gut-wrenching grief she suffered over her loved one’s tragic death — calling it a “soul-crushing loss.”

“I envisioned Christine’s fear, her terror and wished I was there to take her place. I no longer had a sister. I was no longer a sister,” she said.

“Some days I feel like I’m living with a ticking time bomb waiting for it to explode, [with] fear and anxiety taking over my mind,” she said.

Hawker then called out Banfield for lies he’d told about her sister over the course of the investigation and trial.

“He attempted to smear her through outright lies and victim blaming,” she said, adding that Christine was a loving and devoted nurse. “As Christine sister, I didn’t just lose her. I had to sit and listen to a version of her that did not exist.

At the sentencing hearing, Ryan’s mother, Deirdre Fisher, also gave a tearful statement, describing the moment a police officer notified her about her son’s death.

“When he gave me the horrible news that my baby had been murdered… I let out a primal scream,” she said.

“I was the last person he called the night before he was brutally murdered,” she said. “It was the last time I got to hear the word ‘mom.’”

She said Ryan was a caring person, despite defense lawyers’ attempts to frame him as “an intruder” and “a fetish guy.”

“Joe was extremely caring. He lived with his grandmother and was dedicated to her health and her well-being,” she said. “Joe was a guy who believed in fighting for the underdog and even actual neglected dogs.”

Before his sentencing, Banfield continued to insist that he’s innocent — and that he’s the true victim.

“I am greatly disappointed in the legal system,” Banfield moaned. “My right to defend my family has been taken away.” 

“I’m being sentenced on an impossible set of circumstances,” he said. “I am not responsible for her death. This is not a knife I ever carried in my hand and I never stabbed her.”

Juliana Peres Magalhães — the 25-year-old nanny-turned-mistress — was also sentenced in February to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty for her role in the murders.

Both Magalhães and Banfield testified at trial offering conflicting accounts to the jury about how the Feb. 24, 2023 slayings went down.

Magalhães — the nanny of the Banfield’s 4-year-old daughter — claimed that just months after she started sleeping with her married employer the duo came up with a plan to off Christine so they could be together.

The cheating pair started a bogus fetish account posing as Christine and arranging for Ryan to help Christine live out her supposed fantasy to be raped, the nanny told the jury.

So Ryan went to the Banfield home armed with a knife as instructed, but the wife — who worked as a nurse for sexual assault victims — didn’t know what was in store for her, the au pair claimed.

At the same time, Magalhães waited in a car outside the home with the daughter, and called Banfield to alert him that someone was breaking into the house — all part of the scheme to pin everything on Ryan, the nanny alleged.

The husband rushed home and went inside with the nanny — the pair leaving the little girl in the basement while the gruesome scene unfolded above, the sitter claimed.

Banfield shot Ryan with his service weapon to make it appear as though he valiantly saved her from being raped. He then stabbed the wife multiple times in the neck and doctored the crime scene so it would appear as though Ryan attacked her, Magalhães claimed.

When Banfield took the witness stand to testify in his own defense, he admitted to cheating and said it wasn’t his first time having an affair. He also claimed Christine had slept with other men and even had a BDSM fetish.

He also confessed to the jury that he shot Ryan but maintained it was to defend his wife and not a ruse to make Ryan the fall guy.

Banfield’s criminal defense attorney, John Carroll, told jurors not to trust Magalhães’ testimony since she was motivated to flip to get a good plea deal and to make money off of selling the rights to the salacious story for a documentary.

“Her entire story has been bought and paid for,” Carroll alleged.

Prosecutor Jenna Sands told the jury Banfield fell in love with Magalhães and “he was afraid of losing her.

“He needed to get rid of his wife so they could be together, so they could get married, so they could have children together.”

Banfield has maintained his innocence. He was convicted on two counts of aggravated murder, once count of child endangerment for leaving his daughter during the crime and one count of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

The aggravated murder convictions carry a penalty of mandatory life in prison.