Responding Sergeant Testifies Blood at Scene Already Appeared to Be Drying and Clotting

The blood on that carpet was already drying when police arrived. That's what the scene sergeant just told the jury. Lieutenant Michael Gibbons was the squad sergeant who responded to the Banfield home on February 24, 2023. He applied a chest seal to Christine Banfield, spoke with Brendan Banfield in the bathroom, and made one observation that could matter for the defense: the blood appeared to have "been there a while."

Defense attorney John Carroll is building a case that the investigation decided on a theory first and made the evidence fit. A sergeant testifying that blood was drying and clotting before investigators arrived raises questions about the prosecution's timeline. Brendan Banfield maintains his innocence.

⏰ KEY MOMENTS

00:00 - Lt. Gibbons takes the stand
02:36 - First view of the bedroom scene
03:46 - Exchange with defendant in bathroom
04:39 - Defendant asks "Is she going to be okay?"
06:13 - Body camera footage begins
12:28 - Blood observation: "appeared to have been there a while"
13:08 - Cross-examination begins

📖 From The Desk of Justice:
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CASE BACKGROUND REPORT:
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📖 CASE BACKGROUND

On February 24, 2023, Christine Banfield was stabbed to death in her Herndon, Virginia home. Joseph Ryan was found shot dead beside her. Brendan Banfield and au pair Juliana Peres Magalhães initially claimed self-defense, saying they discovered Ryan attacking Christine and fired to stop him.

That story held for 570 days.

Police found no forced entry. They found communications on FetLife between Ryan and an account in Christine's name, planning a sexual encounter involving a knife for the morning she was killed. They found a framed photo of Brendan and the au pair on his nightstand eight months later.

Magalhães was arrested in October 2023. She pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in October 2024. Under her deal, she gets time served if she testifies against Banfield, then deportation to Brazil. She's the State's star witness.

Banfield was indicted in September 2024 after an investigation marked by internal conflict. The digital forensics examiner concluded Christine controlled her own accounts and was transferred out of the unit. The lead detective testified he was pressured to support the catfishing theory and was moved after the arrest.

Christine Banfield was 37, a forensic nurse who spent her career helping sexual assault survivors. She left behind a four-year-old daughter who was in the house when her mother was killed.

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⚖️ ABOUT JUSTICE IS A PROCESS

This channel continues the work of Steven M. Askin, a criminal defense attorney disbarred in 1998 for refusing to violate attorney-client privilege, then criminally convicted in 2010 for teaching people their constitutional rights from a coffee shop in West Virginia. He passed away in February 2024, but not before we started this channel together.

I am Steven M. Askin II. I am not an attorney. I am a watchdog. I cover trials to educate the public about due process, presumption of innocence, and constitutional protections. Every video is part of building the machine the system feared my father would create: a public trained to watch, question, and demand accountability.

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