What's wrong with the girl?
Shayna Hubers, from Kentucky, the US, who shot her ex-boyfriend Ryan Poston six years ago, was convicted of murder, but the case was re-examined last week because one of the jurors was found to have a criminal record.
Click to Gallery
Ryan Poston on the left and Audrey Bolte on the right (Video screencap)
Video screencap
The 27-year-old Hubers was accused of killing his ex-boyfriend in October 2012. She learned that Poston and former Miss Ohio, Audrey Bolte were on a date and she went to Bolte's apartment to fire six shots to kill Poston, with one shot on his face.
Ryan Poston on the left and Audrey Bolte on the right (Video screencap)
Although Hubers insisted she killed her boyfriend in self-defense, the CCTV in the police investigation room recorded her singing and dancing in the room for several hours after the murder. She sang "I did it, I did it."
Video screencap
In the video, Hubers kept waving his hands and dancing in the interrogation room, and even she could be heard sing "I did it, I did it, I can't believe I did it." It seems the killing was not like what she said: self-defense. As a result, the jury spent five hours in the debate and announced that Hubers was convicted of murder.
The case was first tried in 2015. The psychologist said that Hubers had a narcissistic tendency and could not accept any rejections. The judge sentenced her to 40 years in jail, but one of the jurors was found to have a criminal record, so the case arranged for reconsideration in last week.
Video screencap
Hubers once again reiterated that she was in self-defense to murder, but her three prisoners proved that she had admitted jealousy led her a murderer. She even claimed to be laughing when shooting. Plus the CCTV footage to prove her confession broke.
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — A Virginia man who had a relationship with a Brazilian au pair is going to trial Monday in what prosecutors say was an elaborate double-murder scheme to frame another man in the stabbing of his wife.
Brendan Banfield is charged with aggravated murder in the February 2023 killings of Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan at the Banfields' home in northern Virginia. He has pleaded not guilty in the case.
Banfield and Juliana Peres Magalhães, the family’s au pair, were with the wife and Ryan on the morning the victims were killed in the primary bedroom of the Banfield home, court records say. Authorities have said on that day, Banfield and Magalhães told officials they saw Ryan, a stranger, stabbing the wife after he entered the house. Then they each shot the intruder, Banfield and Magalhães said at the time.
Prosecutors have painted a different picture, arguing that Brendan Banfield and Magalhães lured Ryan to the house and staged it to look like he and the au pair shot a predator in defense. Officials have said Banfield and Magalhães had a romantic affair beginning the year before the killings.
Both the au pair and husband were arrested between 2023 and 2024 and initially handed murder charges in the case. In 2024, Magalhães pleaded guilty to a downgraded manslaughter charge after giving a statement to officials confirming parts of their theory.
In that statement, Magalhães said she and Brendan Banfield created an account in his wife’s name on a social media platform for people interested in sexual fetishes. There, Ryan connected with the account in Christine Banfield’s name, and the users made plans to meet on the morning of Feb. 24, 2023, for a sexual encounter that would involve a knife, authorities said based on the statement from Magalhães.
Prosecutor Eric Clingan said last year that the au pair's statement helped the state solidify its theory ahead of trial.
“With 12 different homicide detectives, there were 24 different theories,” Clingan said. “Now, one theory.”
Not all officials investigating the case have believed Banfield and Magalhães catfished Ryan.
Brendan Miller, a former digital forensic examiner with the Fairfax County Police Department, testified last year that he analyzed dozens of devices and concluded Christine Banfield had connected with Ryan herself through the social networking platform.
An evidence analysis team at the University of Alabama peer-reviewed and affirmed Miller’s digital forensic findings, according to evidence submitted to the court.
Miller was transferred out of the department’s digital forensics unit in late 2024, though a former Fairfax County commander testified the reassignment was not punitive or disciplinary.
John Carroll, Banfield's attorney, argued that Millers' transfer was directly tethered to the case. He also said in court that Fairfax County police reassigned the case’s lead detective after that man had pushed back on the top brass’ catfishing theory.
“It is a theory in search of facts rather than a series of facts supporting a theory,” Carroll said.
Banfield, whose daughter was at the house on the morning of the killings, is also charged with child abuse and felony child cruelty in connection with the case. He will also face those charges during the aggravated murder trial.
FILE - This image provided by the Fairfax County Police Department and taken on Oct. 13, 2023, was submitted as evidence in the murder case against Brendan Banfield shows a framed photo of Banfield and Juliana Peres Magalhães on his bedside table in Herndon, Va. (Fairfax County Police Department via AP, File)
