Man sentenced to life for elaborate double-murder plot to get rid of his wife

He was convicted of killing his wife and a stranger lured to their house.

A Virginia man found guilty of killing his wife and a stranger lured to their home in an elaborate plot to get rid of his spouse so he could be with his au pair was sentenced to life in prison on Friday, with the judge calling the crimes "unfathomable."

Brendan Banfield was convicted in the 2023 murders of his wife and a man prosecutors said he "catfished" on a fetish website. Prosecutors said Brendan Banfield pretended to be his wife to lure the man to their Fairfax County home for what was believed to be a consensual fake rape scenario in order to frame that stranger for his wife's murder.

A jury found him guilty of two counts of aggravated murder in February. The judge denied a defense motion to overturn his murder convictions on Thursday, ahead of his sentencing.

"It is a harsh sentence, but in this case it is a justified one," Judge Penney Azcarate said while handing down the life sentence without the possibility of parole.

"The disregard of the life of your wife, someone you supposedly loved, is almost unfathomable," she said.

"Scheming for months, a master plan involving so many moving parts, including deception and manipulation, luring a completely innocent man into your deadly trap, continuing on after the murders without a care, and not once, not once thinking of the impact on Christine's daughter, the unspoken, tragic victim of your behavior," she said.

The former IRS agent was charged with two counts of aggravated murder in 2024 following a monthslong investigation into the deaths of his wife, 37-year-old nurse Christine Banfield, and the stranger, 39-year-old Joseph Ryan.

Azcarate said she hopes he "will become tortured" by what he did to his wife, their young daughter, Ryan and the victims' families.

"The level of cruelty, calculation and inhumanity in this case reflects something far deeper than anger or impulse, it reflects evil, which is why I carry no burden and find no hesitation in sentencing you to life," she said.

Brendan spoke out at length ahead of his sentencing, saying he is "greatly disappointed in the legal system" while continuing to proclaim his innocence.

"The system has failed not only me, but also Christine, my daughter Valerie Benson, and the rest of my family," he said. "I was found guilty of a crime that I did not commit. It is actually impossible to have committed the crime, as the prosecution, their experts, and their witnesses have presented. The prosecution and their witnesses' statements do not match the evidence. My rights to def