VA - Joseph Ryan shot, Christine Banfield stabbed, both deceased, in home - Herndon 24 Feb 2023

[Lawnguylander1964]

When I was on my double murder trial a couple of months ago, we had a 3 day break and I was glad that my work was still waiting for me to do, so I was able to keep busy and easily keep my mind off thinking about the trial. It's hard not to think about it as it creeps in unexpectedly. But you have to be vigilant and chase it away.

I remember panicking at one point during the break, thinking that there was so much evidence, and how was I going to be able to deliberate and how was I going to put all these little pieces of data together.

After the break, we lost 2 jurors. We had many more alternates than usual, so we were okay, but I think that long break broke people because they had time to think.

 

[Luna20]

I've read through the telegram messages. There are some snippets from the messages below that "Anna" typed. To me there are some clues that whoever is communicating as Anna, English may not be their first language. I know that texting is a language all to itself, and that often phrases are abbreviated and there are misspellings. But some of the examples below sound a lot like how JM talks and not typical errors an English speaker might make:
"Never, but I look through some pictures where the......"
"I probably will be a bit panicked"
"are my hand going to be free that I can snap?"
"the is a digital clock next to the bed"
"Oh I forgot to tell you. I do have a dog. She is very nice. But she will be in the
basement"
"Call me what you want from the start until 10:30"

The last two remind me of how JM testified in the courtroom .. i.e. short phrases, unclear meanings, etc Perhaps I am just reading too much into these!

Do you mean Juliana? She is Brazilian and has a steep language barrier. That’s another reason why it would have been harder for her to set this all up.

 

[Tortoise]

I think there are parts of the plan for which Brendan purposely didn't clue-in Juliana. She testified that she didn't understand why he was saying the code to the gun safe, or why he sent her to the gun safe after she'd shot Joe, because he'd already given her a gun to carry in her pocket that morning, and she also testified that she was telling Brendan that Joe was still moving and Brendan didn't react to it.

I've also been confused as to why Brendan only shot Joe one time and left him alive, and then didn't use his own gun to kill him, and didn't have Juliana stay in the basement with his daughter, and lock the internal door to the basement, which would be the natural thing to do and to look more realistic that he was concerned there was an intruder in the home. In fact he should have had them stay outside in Juliana's car.

I think he set Juliana up to have to use her gun and kill Joe, as his insurance that she wouldn't turn him in straight afterwards. They both murdered in his plan. That's why he took her to the shooting range, and that's why he had her go to the gun safe, to cover for already having a gun on her that morning. But she didn't understand those things because he never told her.

MOO

 

[Tortoise]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2016245090008600797

 

[Tortoise]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2016254099680075904

 

[Lawnguylander1964]

The closings are coming in now. Everything that wasn't shoveled is solid ice. I paid 4 young boys to move the ice from just in front of my car and it was a workout for them.

 

[Luna20]

I think there are parts of the plan for which Brendan purposely didn't clue-in Juliana. She testified that she didn't understand why he was saying the code to the gun safe, or why he sent her to the gun safe after she'd shot Joe, because he'd already given her a gun to carry in her pocket that morning, and she also testified that she was telling Brendan that Joe was still moving and Brendan didn't react to it.

I've also been confused as to why Brendan only shot Joe one time and left him alive, and then didn't use his own gun to kill him, and didn't have Juliana stay in the basement with his daughter, and lock the internal door to the basement, which would be the natural thing to do and to look more realistic that he was concerned there was an intruder in the home. In fact he should have had them stay outside in Juliana's car.

I think he set Juliana up to have to use her gun and kill Joe, as his insurance that she wouldn't turn him in straight afterwards. They both murdered in his plan. That's why he took her to the shooting range, and that's why he had her go to the gun safe, to cover for already having a gun on her that morning. But she didn't understand those things because he never told her.

MOO

Agree. It would have been much simpler for her not to be there at all and I’ve wondered why. As you said, it was part of his overall plan. It was a good one but he didn’t think that she would turn against him. I think he underestimated her desperation. He thought that she was too dumb to figure it out.

 

[jeff2034]

Do you mean Juliana? She is Brazilian and has a steep language barrier. That’s another reason why it would have been harder for her to set this all up.

Yes I meant Juliana likely was texting Joe with BB of course looking over her shoulder coaching her. But even with the coaching and probably telling her what to say, there are still some things, in my view at least, that slipped through indicating it was more likely JM texting JR than it was CB. Certainly not definitive proof just an impression. It would've been interesting to compare these texts from Telegram with an exemplar of known CB texts to see how similar or dissimilar they were. Everybody has their own somewhat unique phrases and grammar when they text.

 

[Luna20]

Yes I meant Juliana likely was texting Joe with BB of course looking over her shoulder coaching her. But even with the coaching and probably telling her what to say, there are still some things, in my view at least, that slipped through indicating it was more likely JM texting JR than it was CB. Certainly not definitive proof just an impression. It would've been interesting to compare these texts from Telegram with an exemplar of known CB texts to see how similar or dissimilar they were. Everybody has their own somewhat unique phrases and grammar when they text.

He probably closely coached her through every detail. I feel like the state didn’t go into enough detail to make that clear. To my knowledge I don’t know if they spoke enough about how BB set JK up.

As @Tortoise mentioned above and I agree with, is that BB strategically had JK involved, thinking that she wouldn’t flip on him. He underestimated the fact that prisoners flip when it comes down to getting out of jail.

 

[Izzylizzy]

Defense attorney failed to have this current witness state her name for the record until the state objected. LOL

Here's Sally Fayez's testimony.
She's the Director of Victim Services for Fairfax County Police.

It was so noticeable even to trial watchers that John Carroll jumped right in w/o asking her to identify herself.
imo

 

[LifeIsAMystery]

Agree. It would have been much simpler for her not to be there at all and I’ve wondered why. As you said, it was part of his overall plan. It was a good one but he didn’t think that she would turn against him. I think he underestimated her desperation. He thought that she was too dumb to figure it out.

I think he saw her as another potential fall guy, thus had her shoot to kill JR for example.

 

[LifeIsAMystery]

Here's Sally Fayez's testimony.
She's the Director of Victim Services for Fairfax County Police.

It was so noticeable even to trial watchers that John Carroll jumped right in w/o asking her to identify herself.
imo

32:46 on was very helpful to the prosecution imho.

 

[Megnut]

I think BB needed a second person to carry out what he thought would be the perfect crime. Otherwise he would have done it all be himself. Fact: he couldn't be in two places at once so, having a coconspirator IMO made it possible for him to manipulate multiple devices.

There's that saying about the absence of evidence --

IMO it's because of his profession, he was aware of what an investigation would look for... so he disguised, concealed, buried his actions... but the very fact that the first place LE looked didn't implicate him implicates him.

Rather sophisticated maneuvers to make it look like CB solicitated JR...

I still wish the data witness had been asked how a person could manipulate another person's phone where it appears the one person was in possession of her phone and using it continuously.

I bet they could replicate what he did.

JMO

 

[LetsSolvIt]

The site is Fetlife.

No one has alleged that JR did this for money. Maybe some do. Most do it because it is their fetish and the website is one way to connect with people interested in the same. You can see the Telegram messages on the court website, Joe made it clear he did not normally do knife play and wasn’t personally interested. The exhibits also show that others they contacted through Fetlife would not agree without an in person prior meeting. Jmooo.

High-Profile Cases | Circuit Court

Fairfax County, Virginia - Orders from high-profile Circuit Court cases.

www.fairfaxcounty.gov

I think there are also clubs and meet up type groups for those interested in such things but that would not have worked to try to order a patsy to the door imho.

I’m just wondering what in the world would have incentivized this poor man to go to their house since this pretend violence wasn’t something he was interested in? What could have been promised that would have caused him to agree to such a date, and without meeting first? Oh gosh, I wish he hadn’t given in. He was totally innocent, as was Christine! OMO.

 

[LetsSolvIt]

I'm in the next county over and it was a really long storm timewise, and while courts may be on the priority list, it was more about the jurors being able to get out. Hospitals, skilled nursing, main arteries took a lot of time to clear, so jurors streets are most likely still not passable. My HOA's snow people are out this morning cleaning up the parking lots/streets again this morning. They have not touched our sidewalks yet.

Yes, Fairfax County has a lot of suburban neighborhoods that drift into one and other — and even some rural areas — ploughing is very time consuming and isn’t easy with such extensive residential development. Some older neighborhoods have narrow streets. This was a very debilitating storm by Washington/NoVa standards.

Then factor in that so many people in the DC area panic in snow (Fairfax is a suburb of Washington, DC) — they just shut down, everything is cancelled, even for a few inches of snow — Washingtonians don’t know how to drive on snowy roads, some just abandon their cars wherever, (as opposed to New England or Michinana) — I used to live there and it’s actually something people joke about.