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

[Weki]

Yet in the long time period between the murders and her arrest he did not marry her. I think he was more motivated by $ than love for JPM.

I did not realize that they had several break ups. It doesn't seem like such a love story to me honestly. That's why I was confused by the state's theory. In most cases involving affairs where the spouse is killed, the affair partners can't wait to be together afterwards. These two were phonies from beginning to end.

 

[Kellygirl2013]

This jury ends today at 4:30 due to a juror having to leave by then and it as announced by the judge earlier in the week.

Didn't jurors used to deliberate into the night?
All the recent trials I've seen have a cut-off time.

Yes, I heard that today as well about the early dismissal of the jury today. As I recall in the jury I was on back in 1992, we got the case around lunchtime on a Friday (ate lunch in the jury room) and they asked us at 5pm if we had made any decisions, and we informed them we’d need until Monday, so they dismissed us for the evening, but then came back Monday and declared we were ready mid-morning that following Monday (I seem to recall at least a few jurors in favor of our plan so as to get an extra day off work). I was in my early 20s and had literally just started a new (what turned out to be my career job with the fed. Govt) just two weeks prior……quite an overwhelming time in my life, to say the least!

 

[Kellygirl2013]

dbm

 

[Megnut]

When BB's attorney was throwing out all of those names to the IRS boss, didn't it seem as though BB was writing these down for him? As if to say, "I did have a meeting scheduled! With all these other people, though." And then his attorney tried to ask another question after the prosecution finished their rebuttal. That had to be BB writing a note.
It's a great example of the grandiosity he displayed throughout his testimony. I'm so important.

I noticed in the defense closing at the end the attorney was reading from a yellow note pad legal sized paper. I feel like all of the last items were BB's words. Especially the 'planting the truth' line. "She was hers!"

Good question. The last minute nature of the boss testifying made it seem like it was new. I guess he was trying to say all these other people were interviewed but presumably none of them denied there was a meeting. Not sure.

Yes, I think this: the Defense was cold-cocked. I think that line of questioning was born of miffedhood. Disbelief. That it hadn't come up. T.PatrickS was his acting supervisor for a short -- and probably none of them knew that BB used a work meeting as an alibi.

Glad TPS came forward when he did!

JMO

 

[Lawnguylander1964]

I was a juror on a murder trial over 30 years ago (also in the DMV area), and while we had made our collective guilty verdict early on (it was also on a Friday I believe when we got the case), we decided to wait till the next day to at least give the appearance that we had been deliberating a lot longer than we actually did. Ì often wonder how common that occurs on juries in what I can best describe as a slam dunk case for the CA.

In our case, a lot of us were working on our phones on the breaks and lunch and at night. We had work piling up, so we didn't want to stretch it into the next day if we didn't have to. I will say the way our foreperson did it, we were very methodical with all the counts (we had 13 counts to discuss), and with all the repeated language ("willful," "deliberate", etc.) you only had to deliberate that part once. A lot of the evidence we relied on was witness testimony, so it was our notes vs physical evidence, which just backed up the testimony of a lot of the eye witnesses.

This jury ends today at 4:30 due to a juror having to leave by then and it as announced by the judge earlier in the week.

Didn't jurors used to deliberate into the night?
All the recent trials I've seen have a cut-off time.

In our case, security leaves at 6 pm so we could not stay in the courthouse past 6 pm. They told us that on day 1. So we never went past 6 pm.

 

[Lawnguylander1964]

Jury questions take a lot of time. In our case we had 2. One the deputy was able to answer (it was about getting copies of the jury instructions for everyone) and the other was about the definition of something, I forget what it the terms was now, but I remember saying at the time that there probably is no definition and that's why it wasn't included. And a note came back from the judge that just said there was no definition it was up to us to decide. At least we didn't have to file into the courtroom to get that non answer ;/

 

[Megnut]

I think this is not a far-fetched idea at all. He stabbed her in the neck 7 times for goodness sake. That's a lot of rage and contempt. For the woman you spent 20 years with and had a child with? To be able to do that is so depraved. So it wouldn't surprise me at all if he wanted her to see Juliana in the room and know what was happening before she died. Sick!

The prosecution has theorized that his motive was to keep Juliana from leaving him since he was so in love with her. It didn't seem like they had been building on that theory until he testified but I may have missed it earlier in the trial as I was in and out. Some have speculated he wanted Juliana's hands dirty in the murder because he wanted to ensure she wouldn't turn on him but I think he wanted to tie her to him more closely (if you believe the state's theory). I think once these killer spouses decide they want their spouse out of the picture they so thoroughly dehumanize them that they just lose touch with reality. It's a form of psychosis.

JMO

I think the volatility in their relationship is that JM didn't want to be a mistress. BB probably kept promising he'd divorce. When JM ran out of patience, he decided how he could win her back -- and she was happy to oblige.

Had LE bought their cockamamie story, they may well have married. They didn't expect to be instant POIs, certainly not arrested. As it was, she got unbroken up quick, moving into CB's bed virtually overnight.

Gross.

JMO

 

[Weki]

Yes, I think this: the Defense was cold-cocked. I think that line of questioning was born of miffedhood. Disbelief. That it hadn't come up. T.PatrickS was his acting supervisor for a short -- and probably none of them knew that BB used a work meeting as an alibi.

Glad TPS came forward when he did!

JMO

I can't imagine that anyone else in the office would lie for the defendant and alibi him if there was no meeting that morning.
I can't believe that he just straight up lied on the stand about something so easily verifiable. Whether there was a big meeting scheduled that morning at work has to be one of the easiest things to verify.
I don't understand how his lawyer didn't fact check that before allowing his client to tell that whopper on the stand.

 

[Weki]

I think the volatility in their relationship is that JM didn't want to be a mistress. BB probably kept promising he'd divorce. When JM ran out of patience, he decided how he could win her back -- and she was happy to oblige.

Had LE bought their cockamamie story, they may well have married. They didn't expect to be instant POIs, certainly not arrested. As it was, she got unbroken up quick, moving into CB's bed virtually overnight.

Gross.

JMO

Did I miss something or did the state fail to explain this motive throughout the trial?

 

[Megnut]

I think this is not a far-fetched idea at all. He stabbed her in the neck 7 times for goodness sake. That's a lot of rage and contempt. For the woman you spent 20 years with and had a child with? To be able to do that is so depraved. So it wouldn't surprise me at all if he wanted her to see Juliana in the room and know what was happening before she died. Sick!

The prosecution has theorized that his motive was to keep Juliana from leaving him since he was so in love with her. It didn't seem like they had been building on that theory until he testified but I may have missed it earlier in the trial as I was in and out. Some have speculated he wanted Juliana's hands dirty in the murder because he wanted to ensure she wouldn't turn on him but I think he wanted to tie her to him more closely (if you believe the state's theory). I think once these killer spouses decide they want their spouse out of the picture they so thoroughly dehumanize them that they just lose touch with reality. It's a form of psychosis.

JMO

I doubt seven stabs was part of any plan. But he didn't factor for human behavior. Guessing his plan descended into utter chaos fast.

And here we are.

JMO

 

[Weki]

I doubt seven stabs was part of any plan. But he didn't factor for human behavior. Guessing his plan descended into utter chaos fast.

And here we are.

JMO

Yeah as the prosecutor said he didn't expect Ryan to bring a small kitchen knife. smh.

 

[Weki]

They're only deliberating until 4:30 today since they weren't even supposed to have court today but only did so due to defense delay tactics. One of the jurors has to leave by 4:30. So it's unlikely we will have verdict today, I guess.

 

[Inthedetails]

I think the volatility in their relationship is that JM didn't want to be a mistress. BB probably kept promising he'd divorce. When JM ran out of patience, he decided how he could win her back -- and she was happy to oblige.

Had LE bought their cockamamie story, they may well have married. They didn't expect to be instant POIs, certainly not arrested. As it was, she got unbroken up quick, moving into CB's bed virtually overnight.

Gross.

JMO

I have a hunch this was all a dirty game to JM. I don't think she actually would want to marry BB and be a step mom at her age. Not a fact, just my assessment. And, if she did marry him, she would end up unhappy with an unfaithful husband she could never trust, plus a step kid to raise. I don't think that was her goal.

jmopinion

 

[Tortoise]

https://x.com/cathyrusson

https://twitter.com/x/status/2017350386005442845

 

[Weki]

I have a hunch this was all a dirty game to JM. I don't think she actually would want to marry BB and be a step mom at her age. Not a fact, just my assessment. And, if she did marry him, she would end up unhappy with an unfaithful husband she could never trust, plus a step kid to raise. I don't think that was her goal.

jmopinion

Greencard?

What 40 yo with a child is attractive to a 21 yo? I was 21 once and at that age 40 feels "old" to you. Plus he's not all that attractive imo.

 

[mickey2942]

Greencard?

What 40 yo with a child is attractive to a 21 yo? I was 21 once and at that age 40 feels "old" to you. Plus he's not all that attractive imo.

Really makes me wonder what he thought sitting there, looking at her testifying. Mustache and all. That's your girlfriend!

 

[Megnut]

Did I miss something or did the state fail to explain this motive throughout the trial?

They did.

My point was that that-they-didn't-get-married doesn't mean a long-term relationship wasn't part of the motive. Being arrested interrupted their gross love story.

She may have been starry-eyed by his salary and occupation, blinding her to his lack of character, fidelity, etc.

She willingly participated in murdering her competition so IMO she very much expected to have a future with this idiot.

Would have been all long hot love puddles until he cheated on her with the next available girl.

Disgusting, both of them.

JMO

 

[Megnut]

BB saying he and CB both cheated -- because, you know, he wanted sex more than she did.

No evidence that she cheated.

I'm give him this -- she probably want all that keen on intimacy with him. He disdained her by cheating on her throughout their marriage, culminating in ordering up an unwittingly rape and murdering his wife to advance his own pants.

May prison be a picnic compared to what awaits him in the afterlife.

And until then, may it be a stark, tense, miserable picnic.

He's earned it.

JMO

 

[iamshadow21]

Greencard?

What 40 yo with a child is attractive to a 21 yo? I was 21 once and at that age 40 feels "old" to you. Plus he's not all that attractive imo.

Some people don't want an age peer, they want a 'daddy'. It's a known thing. An older partner can often come with a degree of financial and social security an age peer hasn't attained yet. That's important to some people. Not just for basic material wealth, but for the comfort of essentially going from a family home (where daddy might be providing) to a home with your partner with all of those comforts (and a new 'daddy').

MOO

 

[Megnut]

Some people don't want an age peer, they want a 'daddy'. It's a known thing. An older partner can often come with a degree of financial and social security an age peer hasn't attained yet. That's important to some people. Not just for basic material wealth, but for the comfort of essentially going from a family home (where daddy might be providing) to a home with your partner with all of those comforts (and a new 'daddy').

MOO

Yes, and imagining them to be oh, so mature, unlike (the perceived lack of it in) dates in their own age range.

She's not without fault but he had an absolute duty of care -- they're called boundaries.

He didn't have any so he gets steel bars.

I hope he hates it every minute of every day.

JMO