Jennifer Lynne Faith, the Oak Cliff woman whose boyfriend allegedly shot her husband to death, has been charged with orchestrating the murder, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Prerak Shah announced today.
Ms. Faith, 49, was charged Tuesday via superseding indictment with use of interstate commerce in the commission of murder-for-hire, a charge that carries a potential death penalty. She was previously charged with obstruction of justice, to which she entered a plea of not guilty.
Ms. Faith’s boyfriend, Darrin Ruben Lopez, 49, allegedly gunned down her husband, American Airlines technology director Jamie Faith, on Oct. 9, 2020 in front of his home in Oak Cliff. Mr. Lopez was previously charged by the state with murder and by the feds with a gun crime, to which he also entered a plea of not guilty.
Court documents unsealed today allege that Ms. Faith used two phony email accounts to correspond with Mr. Lopez, assuming the identities of her own husband and one of her friends in order to falsely convince Mr. Lopez that her husband was physically and sexually abusing her.
“Ms. Faith’s alleged murder-for-hire scheme was depraved and calculated. She preyed on her boyfriend’s protective instinct and his pocketbook in order to convince him to execute her husband,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Prerak Shah. “Jamie Faith’s brutal murder was a tragedy. His death has been a double blow to his family and friends, who had just begun to absorb the news of his murder when they were confronted with evidence of his wife’s alleged involvement. We are committed to getting justice for Jamie – and to holding both Ms. Faith and Mr. Lopez accountable for their alleged crimes.”
“Although the indictment of Ms. Faith is a win for law enforcement, I can’t help but think of the pain associated with so many others in this investigation. ATF is grateful to the Dallas Police Department for their dogged efforts in bringing this case to justice. ATF will not waver in its fight against violent crime in North Texas and beyond,” stated ATF Dallas Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey C. Boshek II.
According to the superseding indictment, Ms. Faith allegedly created the fake Gmail account in her husband’s name on April 9, 2020. Posing as Mr. Faith, Ms. Faith emailed Mr. Lopez multiple times during the spring and summer of 2020, taunting Mr. Lopez with details of extreme physical and sexual abuse that had never actually occurred. (Investigators have found absolutely no evidence of domestic or sexual violence by Jamie Faith.) Ms. Faith repeatedly attached fake photos of injuries as bogus proof of the abuse.
“I am telling you to stay away from my family,” she wrote in an email to Mr. Lopez on April 10 while posing as Mr. Faith.
“Enjoy knowing you can’t do a [expletive] thing about it,” she wrote in another email to Mr. Lopez on May 9, attaching close-up photos of purported injuries.
Ms. Faith allegedly created the fake Gmail account in her friend’s name on May 13. Posing as that friend, Ms. Faith sent multiple emails to Mr. Lopez’s personal email account falsely claiming that Mr. Faith was physically and sexually abusing her. Ms. Faith downloaded stock images of injuries from the internet and attached those images to her emails.
“Jamie slapped Jen … then he sent the pic of him choking her,” she wrote in an email to Mr. Lopez on May 13 while posing as her friend. “I am asking if you are willing to get involved and help Jen get out of this situation.”
“Jamie is abusing Jen today,” she wrote in another email to Mr. Lopez. “Any ideas how we can help her?”
“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,” Mr. Lopez replied by email on May 20.
“I am also very concerned and if it were up to me, I would tell you to go for it with your idea --- lol; I’ll give you an alibi,” Ms. Faith responded, still posing as her friend.
“Darrin, I talked to Jenn – he’s burning her, among other things,” she continued in another email sent to Mr. Lopez on July 26.
On Oct. 8, Mr. Lopez allegedly drove from his home in Cumberland Furnace, Tennessee, to the Faiths’ home in Dallas, where he laid in wait until the early morning hours of Oct. 9. When Mr. and Ms. Faith emerged from their home to walk the family dog, Mr. Lopez allegedly approached Mr. Faith from behind and shot him seven times – three times in the head, three times in the torso, and one time in the groin – before fleeing the scene in his black Nissan Titan pickup truck with a distinctive “T” decal on the back window.
In the days following the murder, the pair exchanged multiple text messages about removing the decal from Mr. Lopez’s truck – messages they later attempted to delete.
On Oct. 10, an associate of Ms. Faith created a GoFundMe account to raise money for the deceased’s family. Ms. Faith allegedly withdrew approximately $58,000 from the fund, which she used to pay for purchases made on two credit cards she gave to Mr. Lopez. She also used the credit cards to pay for expenses for Mr. Lopez and his family, purchase airline tickets for Mr. Lopez and his daughters, and pay FedEx to ship Mr. Lopez a large screen television.
On Nov. 11, Ms. Faith initiated a life insurance claim seeking approximately $629,000 in death benefits from Met Life. She repeatedly updated Mr. Lopez as to the status of the claim:
“Ok, so life insurance. They aren’t processing the claim yet because when they spoke to Det Walton in November, he told them I couldn’t be ruled out as a suspect,” she texted Mr. Lopez (as herself) on Dec. 29.
“Oh no,” Mr. Lopez texted back.
On Jan. 10, 2021, law enforcement agents asked Ms. Faith to come in for an interview. She immediately texted Mr. Lopez in Tennessee:
“Detective called. He wants me in for an interview tomorrow. He said he wants to go over the investigation and go through some things to start moving things forward. I’m a ball of nerves now,” she wrote.
“You don’t need to be,” Mr. Lopez responded. “Just keep saying what you have been … you will be fine.”
“If asked about you, you are an old friend going through a divorce,” Ms. Faith replied. “Don’t text me Monday, I am going to factory reset my phone on Sunday night after deleting texts. Just thinking in case they pulled phone records and ask.”
On Jan. 11, Mr. Lopez was arrested in Cumberland Furnace, Tennessee. Law enforcement agents located the .45 caliber handgun used to kill Jamie Faith inside a satchel in Mr. Lopez’s residence. Jamie Faith’s blood was recovered on the firearm.
The following week, Ms. Faith allegedly transferred a total of $118,00 from her checking account into an account belonging to a third party. A few days later, she asked another individual to transmit a message to Mr. Lopez:
“I’ve just needed to be cautious because every communication is being monitored,” she said. “Please tell him ASAP that I will always be his.”
“Please stay strong for US,” Mr. Lopez, who was in custody, responded via the individual. “Your knight always.”
Indictments are merely allegations of criminal conduct, not evidence. Like all defendants, both Ms. Faith and Mr. Lopez are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
If convicted, Ms. Faith faces up to life in federal prison, and could be subject to the death penalty. Mr. Lopez faces up to 10 years in federal prison on the firearm charge and up to life in a state penitentiary on the Dallas County murder charge.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives’ Dallas Field Division and the Dallas Police Department’s Homicide Unit conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Field Office, Homeland Security Investigations, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee. NDTX Assistant U.S. Attorney Rick Calvert, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Briggs and Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian McKay are prosecuting the case.
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