In the cold formality of a northern Virginia courtroom, Brendan Banfield testified on Thursday that prosecutors got it wrong: He did not fatally stab his wife in 2023, but instead shot the man who did.
The former IRS law enforcement officer-turned-defendant in an aggravated murder trial continued his testimony about what happened the day his wife, Christine Banfield, and Joseph Ryan were killed. Banfield recounted the terror he said he felt while seeing Ryan, his wife, a knife and blood in his bedroom.
“I don’t know that I’ve ever been more panicked in my life,” Banfield testified. “I was hoping to de-escalate the situation. I did not want to shoot him. I wanted him to let her go.”
