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A seemingly distraught widow, she helped set up a GoFundMe page for her family’s benefit after her husband was gunned down by an assailant as the couple walked their dog in north Oak Cliff.
Jennifer Faith, 49, pleaded with the public for any tips that could lead to the killer’s arrest. But the feds say she secretly orchestrated the murder almost one year ago of James “Jamie” Faith, a 49-year-old American Airlines technology director, with help from a former lover with whom she was having an affair.
Her indictment was updated Tuesday to include a count of use of interstate commerce in the commission of murder-for-hire, which carries a possible punishment of life in prison and the death penalty, federal authorities said.
Faith was arrested in February on a federal charge of obstruction of justice. Investigators said at the time that text messages from her phone after the shooting revealed that she had been in an “emotional affair” with Darrin Ruben Lopez, 48, a Tennessee man she had dated in high school and college.
But emails she wrote from two fake Gmail accounts revealed the level of her involvement in the murder-for-hire plot, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
The emails show that Faith manipulated Lopez into driving from his Tennessee home to shoot Jamie Faith on Oct. 9, 2020, in front of his home, the feds say. Lopez remains in the Dallas County jail on a state murder charge. He also is charged with a federal gun crime. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
“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,” Acting U.S. Attorney Prerak Shah said in a statement. “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.”
Faith’s attorney, Toby Shook, said in an email that he is reviewing new evidence he recently received in the case and had no further comment “at this time.”
Faith used the two fake Gmail accounts to write to Lopez while posing as her husband as well as one of her friends, the indictment says. She did so to convince Lopez that her husband was physically and sexually abusing her, which was untrue, according to the indictment.
Faith emailed Lopez while pretending to be her husband multiple times last year, taunting him with “details of extreme physical and sexual abuse that had never actually occurred,” authorities said. She allegedly attached fake photos of injuries to help convince Lopez.
The following email exchanges are alleged in the updated indictment:
“I am telling you to stay away from my family,” she wrote Lopez in April 2020 while posing as Jamie Faith.
“Enjoy knowing you can’t do a [expletive] thing about it,” she wrote in a May 2020 email to Lopez, posing as Jamie and attaching photos of alleged injuries.
Jennifer Faith allegedly sent more emails to Lopez that month while posing as her friend, to relay more false allegations of physical and sexual abuse. She attached stock images of injuries she found online, authorities said.
One of those emails allegedly said: “Jamie slapped Jen…then he sent the pic of him choking her. I am asking if you are willing to get involved and help Jen get out of this situation.”
Lopez allegedly responded: “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.”
Faith, still posing as her friend, responded: “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,” according to the indictment.
And in a July 2020 email, she allegedly told Lopez that Jamie was “burning” his wife, “among other things.”
Lopez drove to the couple’s home on Oct. 8 to prepare for an ambush early the next morning, the indictment says.
Five hours before the murder, a motion-activated security camera in the couple’s yard captured video of a man resembling Lopez in the backyard of the vacant home next door, according to a law enforcement affidavit.
The couple, who had celebrated their 15th anniversary the previous night, emerged from their home with their dog, Maggie. Lopez, wearing a mask, walked up behind Jamie Faith and shot him three times in the head, three times in the torso and once in the groin, the feds say. He fled in a black Nissan Titan pickup with a distinctive decal on the back window, court records show.
Days after the murder, the two exchanged multiple text messages about removing the decal from Lopez’s truck, officials claim, and then tried to delete them.
Faith withdrew about $58,000 from the GoFundMe account that was set up the day after the murder by an associate, authorities said.
She used the money to pay Lopez’s expenses; to buy airline tickets for him and his daughters; and to ship him a large-screen television, the feds say.
And Faith filed a life insurance claim in November, seeking about $629,000 in death benefits, records show. She allegedly texted Lopez in December to inform him that the claim was on hold because police had told her insurance provider that she “couldn’t be ruled out as a suspect.”
“Oh no,” Lopez allegedly responded.
When agents asked to interview her in January, Faith immediately texted Lopez: “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,” according to court records.
“You don’t need to be,” Lopez allegedly 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,” Faith reportedly 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.”
Lopez was arrested Jan. 11 in Tennessee by agents who found the murder weapon, a .45 caliber handgun, in his home, authorities said. Jamie Faith’s blood was on the gun, agents say.
A week later, Jennifer Faith transferred $118,000 from her checking account to an account belonging to a “third party,” authorities said.
A few days after that, she asked someone else to relay a message to Lopez: “I’ve just needed to be cautious because every communication is being monitored,” she allegedly said. “Please tell him ASAP that I will always be his.”
Authorities say Lopez responded via the same person: “Please stay strong for US,” he said. “Your knight always.”