Man gunned down by his wife's high school sweetheart while walking their dog
After two failed marriages, Jennifer Faith found love again when she met her third husband, James Faith, on a blind date in 2005. They clicked straightaway and seven years later they married in Las Vegas and James adopted Faith’s daughter.
When James was promoted to IT director at America Airlines, the family moved to Dallas County, Texas. Faith worked as a healthcare administrator and the couple settled into the upscale neighbourhood of Oak Cliff. They lived an ordinary life until the morning of 9 October 2020, when tragedy struck.
At around 7.30am, Faith, then 48, and James, 49, left their home to walk their dog, Maggie. Minutes later, neighbours heard a woman screaming and they called 911. Emergency responders found James lying on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds.
Faith was hysterical and told police that a stranger in a pick-up truck, wearing a hoodie and a blue mask, had pulled up and opened fire. She described how the attacker had then wrapped duct tape around her wrists, tried to steal her jewellery and even attempted to abduct her – but he’d apparently given up and sped away.
“I turned around and I just saw this person shoot and shoot. I couldn’t believe – I didn’t know him. Like, why?” she was recorded saying, between sobs.
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James had been shot three times in the head, three times in the chest and once in the groin. He was declared dead at the scene. Seven shots had been fired, in broad daylight, in what appeared to be a “hit”.
Security footage showed the getaway truck leaving the scene. It was a black Nissan Titan pick-up truck. While the registration number couldn’t be seen, there was a distinctive “T” sticker in the back window.
The killing shocked the community and Faith tearfully appealed to the public for information. “I’m not supposed to be a widow at 48, you know?” she told the press. Local families pulled together to help Faith. They cooked meals and set up a GoFundMe account, which quickly received more than $60,000 in donations.
Friends reunited
An investigation was launched, and as part of procedure, police looked at the mobile phone records of Faith and James. They discovered that Faith had a secret. In March 2020, Faith had reconnected with her high-school sweetheart. His name was Darrin Lopez and he lived in Tennessee. It appeared from their messaging that, while they hadn’t seen each other in more than two decades, they had started an emotional affair.
Jennifer Faith and James FaithFaith and Lopez had exchanged thousands of calls and text messages – sometimes 500 times a day. While they didn’t meet in person, one message described their five-year plan and how they would “be together”.
Lopez was a Special Forces Army veteran who had suffered a brain injury from a roadside bomb in Iraq that killed 19 soldiers in his unit. Now he was a divorced dad – with what appeared to be an obsession with Faith. Had Lopez killed James so he could be with Faith?
Police discovered that Lopez owned a black Nissan Titan pick-up – the same as the getaway vehicle seen speeding away from the murder scene. There was also a “T” sticker in the back – for the University of Tennessee. All the evidence indicated that Lopez had driven from Tennessee to Texas. On the afternoon of 8 October, unusually, Faith and Lopez stopped messaging for 28 hours.
Lopez told his daughters he was going on a hunting trip for a few days. He set his GPS for Faith’s home and drove for 10 hours. CCTV captured him along the way at petrol stations, and GPS put him at Faith’s home at 2am. He lay in wait until Faith and James left the house at 7.30am. Then he drove the 650 miles back. At his home, police found a 45-calibre handgun that matched the murder weapon – which also tested positive for James’ blood.
On 11 January 2021, Lopez was arrested and charged with murder. He pleaded not guilty. Police suspected Faith was involved. Had she known about the plot to kill James or was she covering for Lopez after the fact? Faith denied having a sexual relationship with Lopez, but admitted they talked every day. In the six months leading up to Lopez’s arrest, they had texted each other 116,000 times.
Police also discovered that after the murder, Faith started showering Lopez with cash and gifts. She used some of the money from the GoFundMe account to buy him a large-screen television and bought airline tickets for him and his daughters. Faith gave him access to her credit cards and insisted, “Please don’t hesitate to use them for whatever you need.”
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She complained to Lopez that she couldn’t collect her husband’s life insurance, worth $629,000, because she couldn’t be ruled out as a suspect. She drained the GoFundMe account in a matter of weeks yet left James’ $6,500 funeral bill unpaid. Was Faith trying to buy Lopez’s silence?
Faith had tried to delete messages and had even tried to tell Lopez to remove the “T” from his vehicle. Consequently, in February 2021,
she was charged with obstruction of justice. Police uncovered that Lopez had been receiving emails from accounts that appeared to belong to James and a former co-worker of Faith. The sender said Faith was in a physically and sexually abusive relationship and even had photographs attached to show the injuries. Lopez was clearly upset. He replied to one of the emails saying, “I know I won’t feel better about her situation until she is out of the house away from him or she lets me put a bullet in Jamie’s head. I keep offering and she keeps telling me no.”
But further investigation revealed the emails had come from fake accounts. They were all lies and they had been sent by Faith. Seven months after the first charge, Faith was charged with murder for hire. In February 2022, Faith pleaded guilty to murder for hire in exchange for avoiding the death penalty. As part of her plea, she had to admit that her late husband had never abused her and that the injury photos sent with emails were stock images. Faith also had to admit that she had spent the GoFundMe money, which devastated her former supporters.
Life behind bars
Faith was sentenced to life in prison and the judge called her “pure evil”. After the deal was made, Lopez admitted to killing James. He said it was Faith’s idea and his lawyers said he’d been manipulated to kill. He continued to plead not guilty.
At the trial this year, the defence said Lopez, who suffered with a brain injury, PTSD and emotional trauma, had been convinced that Faith was in danger and had acted. They said Faith had made it happen. “She created a monster and then sent Darrin, a disabled soldier, to do her bidding. He pulled the trigger, but she pulled him,” they told the court.
The prosecution said that his military service didn’t excuse his actions – in fact his training made him more equipped to correctly assess threats. He’d driven hundreds of miles and killed a man. “We are talking about the taking of a human life being justified by a high standard. It has to be your only option. Ladies and gentlemen, Lopez had so many options he did not take,” the prosecution said.
Lopez took the stand and said he thought he was on a rescue mission to save Faith. “I shot his chest. He started to turn and then
I continued to put in his side,” he told jurors. “At the time, I was thinking I was a noble soldier that did my job. I did what I was trained to do. I protected people. I kept them from a monster.” Lopez, 51, was found guilty and sentenced to 62 years in prison.
James wasn’t the monster. Faith had been a cruel puppet master and Lopez had willingly acted as her assassin.
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