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Brendan Banfield convicted of double murder in au pair affair trial

Kraig Pakulski 0 26 Article rating: No rating


CNN

By Lauren del Valle, Nicki Brown, CNN

(CNN) — A Virginia jury found Brendan Banfield guilty of killing his wife and another man as part of an elaborate scheme with the family’s au pair.

Prosecutors argued Banfield plotted with the au pair – with whom he was having an extramarital affair – to lure another man, Joseph Ryan, into their home with a fetish website and frame him for the murder of his wife, Christine Banfield.

Brendan Banfield was convicted of two counts of aggravated murder, a firearms offense and child endangerment. His daughter, who was 4 at the time, was in the home at the time of the killings, prosecutors said.

Banfield appeared stoic as the Fairfax County jury’s verdict was read aloud in court. The panel got the case midday Friday and deliberated much of Monday.

He is expected to be sentenced to life in prison, the mandatory penalty for the highest murder charge in Virginia. Sentencing is scheduled for May 8.

Steve Descano, commonwealth’s attorney for Fairfax County, said Banfield’s actions were “monstrous.”

“I hope he thinks about his wife in jail and about what a heinous thing he did,” Descano told reporters after the verdict Monday. “Because that’s something he’s rightfully going to have to live with for the rest of his life.”

Banfield was in love with the au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães, and plotted to get rid of his wife so they could be together, prosecutors said. Together they created fake accounts to pose as his wife on a fetish website to lure Ryan to the home under the guise of a consensual but violent sexual encounter with Christine, the au pair testified.

Prosecutors say Banfield fatally stabbed his wife and shot Ryan when he intervened in the 2023 encounter between Ryan and his wife and then staged the crime scene to make Ryan’s killing appear to be an act of self-defense.

The trial began January 12. Prosecutors called about 20 witnesses in the case over four days and another two witnesses in a short rebuttal.

The defense called several law enforcement witnesses to bolster its claims of a flawed investigation that led prosecutors to manipulate evidence to make a case against Banfield. The defense also put on a digital forensics analyst who said data recovered from Christine Banfield’s devices suggests there could not have been a catfishing scheme as prosecutors asserted.

The defendant took the stand

Banfield, who’s maintained his innocence, took the stand in his own defense, acknowledging the affair with Peres Magalhães started in August 2022 but denying any plans to kill his wife.

He testified he loved his wife despite them both having affairs throughout their nearly 20-year relationship and said his latest dalliance with the nanny wasn’t going to change his marriage.

Banfield also said he and Peres Magalhães had broken up at different times in their affair and were not actively in a relationship the day of the killings.

Prosecutor Jenna Sands, who cross-examined Banfield, said he was dishonest and cold during his testimony.

“He showed absolutely no human emotion that we’d expect to see of someone in that position,” Sands said after the verdict on Monday.

The prosecution’s case relied heavily on the au pair’s testimony detailing the scheme she says she helped Banfield execute to “get rid” of his wife. According to the a

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All-Star de la NBA 2026: este es el listado completo de titulares y suplentes, con la sorpresa de Lebron James

Kraig Pakulski 0 23 Article rating: No rating

Por Federico Leiva, CNN en Español

El baloncesto estadounidense está muy cerca de presenciar el gran circo del año: el All-Star Game, el “Juego de las Estrellas”, donde se reúne a los mejores jugadores de la NBA para un fin de semana cargado de volcadas y jugadas fantasiosas que parecen más sacadas de un videojuego que del deporte de verdad.

Este año, el evento principal contará con un formato renovado, pero eso terminó pasando a un segundo plano al conocerse la noticia de que LeBron James, posiblemente la figura más emblemática de los últimos 15 años del básquetbol, participará por 22da ocasión consecutiva, pero, por primera vez, como suplente. Es decir, el máximo anotador de la historia de la competición no fue seleccionado para ser titular en una votación que incluye a aficionados, medios de comunicación y jugadores.

Un total de 24 jugadores fueron seleccionados para el All-Star, que se llevará a cabo entre el viernes 13 y el domingo 15 de febrero en Los Ángeles. Sin embargo, para esta edición se abandonará el tradicional formato de 12 contra 12, que históricamente fue Conferencia Este contra la Oeste, y más recientemente, en Estados Unidos contra el Resto del Mundo.

En este caso, la NBA anunció que los 24 atletas quedarán divididos en tres equipos de solo ocho jugadores cada uno, formando dos conjuntos enteramente estadounidenses y uno de extranjeros, que se enfrentarán todos contra todos.

En la Conferencia Oeste es un compañero de LeBron James el que lideró la votación: Luka Doncic. El esloveno está en su primera campaña completa con los Lakers de Los Ángeles y es, sin lugar a dudas, la gran figura de los angelinos. Es el máximo anotador de toda la liga, con un promedio de 33,6 puntos por juego, y el segundo máximo asistidor, con 8,8 asistencias por encuentro, solo por detrás de Cade Cunningham, de los Pistons (9,8).

Junto a Doncic fueron seleccionados el pívot Nicola Jokic, de los Denver Nuggets, el base Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, del Oklahoma City Thunder, el pívot Victor Wembanyama, de los San Antonio Spurs, y el base Stephen Curry, de los Golden State Warriors.

Los reservas del Oeste serán Deni Avoija (Portland Trail Blazers), Devin Booker (Phoenix Suns), Kevin Durant (Houston Rockets), Anthony Edwards (Minnesota Timberwolves), Chet Holmgren (Oklahoma City Thunder), LeBron James (Los Angeles Lakers) y Jamal Murray (Denver Nuggets).

La edición de 2026 puede traer un caso curioso: el líder de la votación de la Conferencia Este podría llegar al Juego de las Estrellas jugando en la Conferencia Oeste.

Giannis Antetokounmpo volvió a ser el jugador más votado, justo cuando los Milwaukee Bucks, su equipo, están más dispuestos que nunca a escuchar ofertas por él. La franquicia de Wisconsin está en plena crisis, hoy fuera de los puestos de clasificación a la postemporada e incluso fuera del play-in (una suerte de repechaje).

El alero griego, que fue campeón en 2021, ve con buenos ojos una salida, y los que, según medios especializados, han picado en punta en las últimas horas, son los Golden State Warriors, que juegan en la otra conferencia.

Los de California ya perdieron a Jimmy Butler por lesión para toda la temporada y parecen estar dispuestos a poner jugadores y rondas de draft sobre la mesa para juntar a Giannis con Curry, en un movimiento que podría sacudir la NBA. La fecha límite para cerrar el acuerdo es este viernes 6 de febrero.

Junto al griego fueron seleccionados como titulares el alero Jaylen Brown, de los Boston Celtics, el base Tyrese Maxey, de los Philadelphia 76ers, el base Jalen Brunson, de los New York Knicks, y el base Cade C

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Homeland Security officers in Minneapolis will be issued body cameras, Noem says

Kraig Pakulski 0 25 Article rating: No rating

By Holmes Lybrand, CNN

(CNN) — All Homeland Security officers on the ground in Minneapolis will be issued body cameras, Secretary Kristi Noem announced Monday.

“Effective immediately we are deploying body cameras to every officer in the field in Minneapolis,” Noem wrote in a social media post. “As funding is available, the body camera program will be expanded nationwide. We will rapidly acquire and deploy body cameras to DHS law enforcement across the country.”

Advocates and critics of the administration’s immigration operations have long called for Department of Homeland Security officers — including from ICE and Customs and Border Protection — to wear body cameras. DHS officers themselves have resorted, at times, to filming tense interactions with protestors on their own personal devices.

One of the most well-known instances was when the officer who shot and killed Renee Good filmed the incident on his cellphone.

After two officers shot and killed Alex Pretti in late January, investigators began reviewing over 30 body cameras worn by officers that day to piece together what had taken place in the moments before his death.

Customs and Border Protection’s internal investigation found in it’s initial report, which included a review of the body worn camera footage, that only the two officers had fired their own weapons.

CNN’s Alayna Treene pressed White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt last week on why the administration had not required DHS officers to wear body cameras in the wake of the shooting of Pretti, an ICU nurse.

Leavitt said conversations were ongoing. “I’ll leave it to them and the president to make that decision,” she added.

Noem’s announcement also comes after Senate Democrats and Trump brokered a deal to temporarily extend DHS funding for two weeks as Republicans and Democrats negotiations over demands on the left to rein in ICE tactics continue.

The funding bill has cleared the Senate, with pressure now on House Republicans.

As Democrats continue to outline their demands on reforming or curbing the tactics of DHS immigration officers, some Republicans — even staunch backers of the administration’s immigration enforcement — have voiced support for mandating body worn cameras.

“I don’t have a problem with that personally,” Republican Senator and member of the Senate’s homeland security committee Ron Johnson told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday.

Johnson said he opposes other efforts by Democrats, including to mandate judicial warrants in immigration cases.

“We have got millions of cases backlogged,” he said. “So demanding judicial warrants is their sneaky way of basically neutering our ability to enforce any immigration laws.”

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