The Brazilian woman might have been released after giving evidence against Banfield in return for accepting a downgraded charge of manslaughter, under a deal she struck with prosecutors in 2024.<\/p>\n
![\"Brendan](\"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/26\/01\/768x432\/skynews-brendan-banfield-virginia_7134675.jpg?20260113221250\")
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Instead, Fairfax Chief Circuit Court Judge Penney Azcarate handed her the state’s maximum possible sentence for the crime on Friday, telling her she didn’t deserve anything other than “incarceration and a life of reflection on what you have done to the victim and his family. May it weigh heavily on your soul”.<\/p>\n
Calling it the “most serious manslaughter scenario” the court had ever seen, according to Sky News’ US partner NBC, the judge rejected a sentencing recommendation of time served because the pair’s plan “did not work without your full involvement”.<\/p>\n
In a statement to the victims’ families, Magalhaes, who waited months before agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors in their case against Banfield, said: “I know my remorse cannot bring you peace.<\/p>\n
“I lost myself in a relationship, and left my morals and values behind. I hope someday I can be forgiven, as I hope to be able to forgive myself.”<\/p>\n
Prosecutors said they continued their affair for months after the killings.<\/p>\n
Banfield was found guilty of the aggravated murder of his wife and Mr Ryan earlier this month, and could spend the rest of his life behind bars.<\/p>\n
![\"Brendan](\"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/26\/01\/768x432\/skynews-brendan-banfield-christine-banfield_7134668.png?20260113220627\")
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Magalhaes told her own trial that she and Banfield, an IRS agent, used his wife’s laptop to set up an online account in her name on a sexual fetish website in a catfishing scheme.<\/p>\n
Mr Ryan responded, and he was persuaded to come to Banfield’s home for what he believed to be a fake-rape fantasy involving a knife with Ms Banfield.<\/p>\n
The lovers took Banfield’s four-year-old child to the basement, and then went to the bedroom, where she said Banfield shot Mr Ryan and stabbed his wife in the neck.<\/p>\n
When she saw Mr Ryan moving, Magalhaes said she fired the second shot that killed him from point-blank range.<\/p>\n
She was arrested eight months later, and only agreed to talk to detectives as her own trial date approached.<\/p>\n
The plotters planned to tell police they shot Mr Ryan after he stabbed Ms Banfield, Magalhaes said in court.<\/p>\n
Mr Ryan’s mother, Deidre Fisher, said her son’s life “was used and thrown away, seen as worthless and utterly disposable”.<\/p>\n
Source: \u00a0![\"Sky](\"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/sky-news-logo-1.png\"){kind=logo}
<\/a> news.sky.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"