Virginia
Man charged with sex trafficking 15-year-old girl at Virginia Beach Oceanfront
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — A man accused of sex trafficking a 15-year-old girl at the Oceanfront in Virginia Beach has been arrested and charged with several crimes.
Johnny Banks, 30, was arrested and remains in jail, accused of sex trafficking the girl and several other related charges, according to federal prosecutors.
In July 2024, Virginia Beach police were notified that the missing teen from Charlotte, N.C. was being held against her will and forced to “sell her body.”
Authorities say she was advertised online and taken to hotels at the Oceanfront and in Suffolk.
After the arrest, prosecutors allege that Banks was heard on a jail call saying the police messed up “my pimpn.”
The indictment alleges that Banks texted the girl, saying, “lol [JANE DOE] if u think u bouta play with me think again” and then texted “I’ll really out smart u and have u floating in a creek.”
The victim reported that Banks assaulted her, strangled her, and threatened to kill her.
Last summer, WTKR interviewed another survivor who said she was also trafficked at the Oceanfront.
“I ended up falling asleep,” the survivor recounted. “I got woke up to a 9-millimeter being pointed on me and her (trafficker) basically telling me you need to get up and you need to take a shower and you need to put some makeup on you’re going to work.”
Samaritan House, a nonprofit that provides support to survivors, says they are the leading resource for housing and services for victims of human trafficking in Southeast Virginia.
They report that 26% of victims are minors and that Virginia ranks 15th in the U.S. for reported cases of human trafficking.
Meredith Williams, Samaritan House Crisis Services supervisor, said tourist areas can attract these kinds of crimes.
Williams emphasizes the need for vigilance, urging people to report any suspicious activity to authorities.
The WTKR News 3 Investigative Team remains committed to exposing the issue of human sex trafficking and raising awareness to help protect the most vulnerable in the community.
We reached out to the lawyer representing Banks and she said she couldn’t comment on the case.
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Virginia
Virginia Election Results 2026
Virginia
Polls open Tuesday for special election to fill open seats in Virginia General Assembly – WTOP News
Voters are heading to the polls Tuesday for a special election in parts of Northern Virginia to fill two open seats in the state’s General Assembly.
Voters are heading to the polls Tuesday for a special election in parts of Northern Virginia to fill two open seats in the state’s General Assembly.
Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. for in-person voting Tuesday in Districts 11 and 23, which include parts of Fairfax, Prince William and Stafford counties, as well as Fairfax City.
Tuesday’s special election was triggered when Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger tapped two current members of the Virginia House of Delegates to join her cabinet.
Del. David Bulova, who represents Fairfax City and portions of Fairfax County, has been asked to lead as Virginia’s next secretary of natural and historic resources.
In nearby District 23, Del. Candi Mundon King is resigning to serve as the secretary of the commonwealth. Her constituents live in parts of Prince William and Stafford counties.
Both exiting lawmakers are Democrats.
Tuesday marks one of several special elections happening this month to fill open seats in Virginia’s General Assembly, including a second contest in another part of Fairfax County. Voters will head to the polls in District 17 next week.
How to vote
The Virginia Department of Elections website has a tool to help voters find their polling location.
Voters who are 65 or older, or those with disabilities, have the option of voting curbside.
Ballots that are cast by mail need to be postmarked on or before Jan. 13 and received by Jan. 16.
Outside of mailing those absentee ballots, voters can also bring them to a drop-off location. Check in with your city or county elections office for information about drop boxes and their locations.
District 11
Voters will see two candidates on the ballot in District 11: Democrat Gretchen Bulova and Republican Adam Wise.
Both candidates hold some name recognition in Fairfax County and Fairfax City.
Gretchen Bulova is married to the longtime Del. David Bulova, who is resigning from his position in the house to serve alongside Spanberger.
Wise challenged the incumbent for his seat in 2025 but lost to David Bulova.
The Republican nominee, Wise, is a native of Fairfax who works as a firearms instructor and self-defense teacher. On his website, he promoted a campaign slogan that seems to advocate for restricting the government’s influence on Virginians, writing “the government which governs least, governs best.”
Gretchen Bulova serves as the Director of the Office of Historic Alexandria, overseeing museums as well as other research-centered programs, according to her website. She’s also the chair of the Fairfax County 250th Commission.
Affordability was the top issue of Gretchen Bulova’s campaign, with the Democrat specifically listing priorities of access to affordable housing, child care, electricity and health care on her website.
District 23
Democrat Margaret Franklin is running against Republican Verndell Robinson for the open seat in District 23.
Franklin represents the Woodbridge District on the Prince William Board of County Supervisors. She was first elected to the board in 2019.
With hopes of maintaining the seat for Democrats, Franklin has campaigned on issues such as affordable housing, health care and the economy.
Robinson is a veteran of the U.S. Navy and currently works as a real estate agent, according to a local GOP committee.
Robinson has been a critic of certain data center developments and pressed for more affordable housing.
Virginia
Au pair affair: Virginia man accused of killing wife, man to stand trial
A man accused of carrying out an elaborate fetish sex plot to kill his wife and a man inside his Northern Virginia home is set to stand trial.
Nine men and seven women were selected to the jury Monday in the trial for Brendan Banfield. Four of those 16 jurors are alternates who will step in if other jurors can’t attend for some reason.
Banfield is charged with aggravated murder in the killings of his wife, 37-year-old Christine Banfield, and a stranger, 39-year-old Joseph Ryan, at the Banfields’ Herndon home on the morning of Feb. 24, 2023.
Prosecutors say Brendan Banfield was having an affair with the family’s au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães, for months before the killings, and that he conspired with his then-4-year-old daughter’s caretaker to get his wife “out of the picture.”
Peres Magalhães told prosecutors Brendan was the mastermind of the alleged plan. She said he created a fake profile on FetLife.com, a kink, BDSM and fantasy dating website, pretending to be Christine. Peres Magalhães said she and Brendan logged onto Christine’s work computer and used the fake FetLife account to solicit a stranger, Ryan, to the house to carry out a rape fantasy involving a knife.
When Ryan showed up to the house and started carrying out the plan, Brendan Banfield and Peres Magalhães burst into the bedroom pretending to save the day, prosecutors said. Banfield allegedly shot Ryan and then stabbed Christine.
Peres Magalhães said in an interview with prosecutors that she also shot Ryan. She pleaded guilty to manslaughter and spoke to prosecutors as part of her plea agreement.
The Fairfax County man accused of murdering his wife and another man in their home will stand trial starting Monday. News4’s Aimee Cho shares what to expect.
Banfield has denied the allegations. Defense attorneys argued in a hearing last summer that investigators have a secret folder of evidence that dismantles the so-called “catfish theory” that Brendan Banfield created the FetLife account.
A Fairfax County detective trained in digital forensics testified that he pulled and analyzed all the digital data on the devices used to access the FetLife profile. It was his professional conclusion that it was Christine on the computer, not Brendan, he said.
He said during a July 10 hearing that police command staff disagreed with his findings because they didn’t support their theory that Brendan Banfield was behind the fetish site profile.
The detective said his supervisors reassigned him off of the case against his will.
Multiple Fairfax County Police Department employees said under oath that the evidence did not support the theory that Brendan Banfield catfished Ryan to the family’s home.
Opening statements are expected to begin Tuesday, and the trial could take about four weeks.
News4 is getting rare, video access inside the courtroom. Watch a daily livestream of the trial and follow updates here and on the NBC4 Washington YouTube.
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