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Texas Woman Went On TV To Find Husband’s Killer, Now Guilty Of His Murder
Jennifer Lynne Faith, 49, admitted that she convinced her boyfriend, U.S. Army veteran Darrin Lopez, to allegedly gun down her husband, James Faith, in 2020, prosecutors said.
A Texas woman admitted to plotting the "heinous" murder of her husband who was shot dead the morning after after the couple had celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary.
Jennifer Lynne Faith, 49, pleaded guilty on Monday to orchestrating the Oct. 9, 2020 murder of her spouse, James Faith. Faith was originally charged with obstruction of justice and interstate commerce in the commission of murder-for-hire.
Faith is accused of pressuring her Tennessee-based boyfriend, Darrin Lopez, to shoot her husband of more than a decade as the couple walked their dogs nearly a year and a half ago. Prosecutors said that she provided Lopez — who police said had financial problems — with money and gifts before and after the murder, including a flat screen television and two credits cards that she paid off with the $60,000 proceeds she received from a GoFundMe to support her after her husband's murder.
Lopez has pleaded not guilty in the case.
This week, officials announced the obstruction charge had been dismissed in exchange for a guilty plea on the murder-for-hire charges.
“Jennifer Faith’s cold-blooded plot to murder her husband was made all the more heinous by the way she behaved after his death. Even as she wept for her late husband on TV, Ms. Faith was corresponding with his murderer, plotting about how to cover up their crime,” U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham said in a prepared statement.
Jennifer Faith gave an interview about the murder to Dallas-Fort Worth NBC affiliate KXAS on Dec. 4, 2020, asking for the public's assistance in identifying his killer.
Prosecutors described the 49-year-old as “cold-blooded” in prepared remarks this week announcing the Dallas woman’s guilty plea.
Early in the morning of Oct. 9, 2020, the Faiths set out to walk their dog. They were confronted by a masked man — later determined to be Lopez — who shot James Faith seven times with a .45 caliber pistol. James Faith sustained three bullet wounds to his head, three to the chest and one to the groin.
Faith initially told police the unidentified assailant had tied her hands with duct tape and beat her as she laid on the ground after the murder.
Lopez fled the scene in an older model Nissan Titan pickup truck that had a white decal of the letter "T’" on the cab’s back window, according to surveillance footage obtained by authorities. A license plate wasn’t immediately recorded.
Charging documents show that Faith contacted Lopez multiple times advising him to remove the sticker from his truck to shield him from police scrutiny.
“I woke up in a bit of a panic… Something is eating away at me telling me you need to take the sticker out of the back window of the truck,” Faith wrote Lopez in a text on Dec. 3, 2020, according to charging documents. “I don’t normally overreact like this… really think you need to get that sticker off ASAP, like today.”
Investigators said Lopez, who had told Faith that he'd been slowly picking the sticker off his truck's back windshield to avoid questions from his family, took the sticker down the next day.
Lopez was busted by ATF agents on Jan. 11, 2021 in possession of the Smith and Wesson handgun used in James Faith's murder.
In the shooting’s aftermath, Faith appeared on local news stations where she staged tearful pleas for information leading to a suspect’s arrest.
“We walked out the door and we made it to the house right behind you and I heard running behind me and I turned around and shooting just started,” Jennifer Faith then-told a reporter with ABC affiliate WFAA. “The guy kept shooting and shooting. A neighbor said they saw him attempt to shoot me and the gun was empty. I was running up this driveway and he tackled me, started beating on me and taped my hands together.”
Detectives, who described Lopez as an ex-boyfriend of Faith’s, later found text messages on the Texas woman’s phone to a female friend indicating she was having marital issues with her husband and involved with Lopez. In additional messages from April 2020 — months before her husband's murder — Faith also described her relationship with Lopez to a friend as a “full blown emotional affair” and laid out plans for the secret couple’s “five-year plan” to be together.
She told the friend that she and Lopez had dated in high school and college but broken up after he finished basic training and was deployed to Korea while she finished college. Faith said she met the biological father of one of her children after Lopez deployed, and he'd served 26 years before reconnecting with her.
Police say that Jennifer Faith and Lopez exchanged 5,700 text messages or phone calls in the 12 days after he husband's murder, and were in extremely regular contact before and after — sending around 500 messages a day every day for months except for the days police say Lopez was driving from Tennessee to Texas and back again to commit the murder.
The widowed woman also attempted to cash in on her husband's employee life insurance policy totaling $629,000 after she drained the GoFundMe account.
When Faith and Lopez were initially called upon for questioning by detectives, the pair allegedly coordinated corresponding alibis by text messages, plea papers stated.
“If asked about you, you are an old friend going through a divorce,” Faith texted. “We talk every night because I am helping/giving support with the girls. Just in case they pulled phone records and ask.”
“Lies, deceit and ultimately the murder of a loving spouse,” ATF Dallas Field Division Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey C. Boshek II also said. “After attempting to manipulate family, friends and caring citizens, Mrs. Faith has now admitted to her heinous acts.”
James Faith worked as a technology director for American Airlines, according to officials.
Faith’s lead defense attorney Toby L. Shook didn't immediately respond to Oxygen.com’s requests for comments on Tuesday when contacted by telephone and email.
Faith is scheduled to be sentenced on May 26, according to additional court documents.
