Fairfax County Double Murder

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did Brendan cut his hand? How about Joe? I watched a documentary once and the detective was saying that it’s almost impossible to stab someone and not get yourself hurt too due to the blood. It makes the knife slippery.

The defense introduced evidence that Joe's hand, perhaps the thumb, was injured. This was done to imply that Joe was the person who attacked CB...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did Brendan cut his hand? How about Joe? I watched a documentary once and the detective was saying that it’s almost impossible to stab someone and not get yourself hurt too due to the blood. It makes the knife slippery.

It seems like Brendan did not have noticeable “slippage” wounds. The ME testified that Christine’s wounds were a mixture of stabbing and cutting wounds, with the definition of those being length versus depth and there can be a combination, but the deepest was around 2in in this case. It seems like more of a combination/cutting motion may have been used if I understand her testimony. The knife was not a knife you would typically use to stab someone. It looks like a kitchen butcher knife. So these things might explain why Brendan managed to do it without cutting himself.

Throughout this thread we’ve speculated that he could have been wearing gloves because it was winter (and just used that as an excuse) but it seems like he wasn’t. He had blood on his bare hands and he washed his hands prior to swabs being taken (officer testified about this and the blood on the hands is on the bodycam). But I think any injuries to his hands like that would have been immediately noted by officers that day. Based on testimony we heard there was concern or suspicion at least among some FCPD people from day one. So I think they would have been looking closely and nothing seems documented about that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Never, ever allow another woman to move into your home. Look what happened to Maria Schwarzenegger. He had sex with the ugly housekeeper and she had his illegitimate son.
OK victim blamer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Never, ever allow another woman to move into your home. Look what happened to Maria Schwarzenegger. He had sex with the ugly housekeeper and she had his illegitimate son.

Never ever have a man live in your home regardless of who else lives there. If a man can’t control himself, he has a lot bigger problems than an au pair living in his house. You are sick you are a victim blamer and you need to check yourself. Christine had no reason to believe that her husband would have sex with the nanny and plot to kill her. Psycho.

[Anonymous]

Websleuths has some good content on this case if anyone is interested in further discussion.

[Anonymous]

What are the chances that court will be open on Tuesday with the weather?

[Anonymous]

Juliana also knew, per Brendan, which neighbors had cameras and which didn’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are the chances that court will be open on Tuesday with the weather?

Zero.

[Anonymous]

Sorry if I missed it but did the blood spatter expert for the prosecution ever talk about blood from the shooting of Joe? If he was on top of Christine when he was shot the first time, the blood would be on the wall in one way, but if he was down on his knees it would be different. This is a distinction for self-defense as well, if the suspect is down at gunpoint, you no longer have the right to claim self-defense if you shoot him in the head.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry if I missed it but did the blood spatter expert for the prosecution ever talk about blood from the shooting of Joe? If he was on top of Christine when he was shot the first time, the blood would be on the wall in one way, but if he was down on his knees it would be different. This is a distinction for self-defense as well, if the suspect is down at gunpoint, you no longer have the right to claim self-defense if you shoot him in the head.

but but he was welding a knife!

[Anonymous]

If the prosecutor is hinging their case on just the blood spatter, then they are going to lose. They need more.

https://features.propublica.org/blood-spatter-analysis/herbert-macdonell-forensic-evidence-judges-and-courts/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the prosecutor is hinging their case on just the blood spatter, then they are going to lose. They need more.

https://features.propublica.org/blood-spatter-analysis/herbert-macdonell-forensic-evidence-judges-and-courts/

The blood splatter PLUS an eye witness who has solid evidence to back her claims, no matter how badly she has communicated her story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the prosecutor is hinging their case on just the blood spatter, then they are going to lose. They need more.

https://features.propublica.org/blood-spatter-analysis/herbert-macdonell-forensic-evidence-judges-and-courts/

The blood splatter PLUS an eye witness who has solid evidence to back her claims, no matter how badly she has communicated her story.

Plus the digital forensics. I’ll bet that at this point the biggest takeaway on those for the jury is that going back many years, Christine never visited any kind of dating site or even looked at pornography, much less anything like FetLife. The defense can fuss and fight about some of the analysis (not that they’ve done a good job) but they can’t get away from that.

[Anonymous]

Why doesn’t the prosecutor have a supervisor of Brendan Banfield’s testify about what he did in his job: ie, what kind of investigations did he do, what kind of training he had undergone?

Also, it would be interesting to ask his supervisor whether it is typical for someone in that job to carry a loaded weapon, magazines, and handcuffs on a daily basis?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why doesn’t the prosecutor have a supervisor of Brendan Banfield’s testify about what he did in his job: ie, what kind of investigations did he do, what kind of training he had undergone?

Also, it would be interesting to ask his supervisor whether it is typical for someone in that job to carry a loaded weapon, magazines, and handcuffs on a daily basis?

The prosecution has rested, so I believe, this ship has sailed. I think it was wise for the prosecution not to ask these questions because the questions seem to dilute the case.

I'm not aware of what investigations Brendan did. He was a baby agent that was likely working developmental cases. The training for a IRS-CI special agent is about 6 months long. The first three months are general law enforcement training (CITP). Most federal law enforcement job series 1811 attend this training. The second portion of the training for IRS-CI trainees is focused on the IRS specific cases (SABT).

Your question about whether Brendan carried the service weapon, two magazines, handcuffs, and belt badge on a daily basis is a good one. I find it unusual and a bit suspicious. I'm confident the detectives investigating the case would have noted the amount of gear he was carrying that day. I think the CW did a decent job of streamlining the case. (save for the testimony about the nanny's wet spot).