Texas woman admitted to having boyfriend kill her husband, now faces decades in prison

A Texas woman admitted to convincing her boyfriend to shoot and kill her husband. Now, the 49 year-old killer faces years in prison.

Jennifer Lynne Faith, 49, admitted her boyfriend, Darrin Ruben Lopez, 49, gunned down her husband, Jamie Faith, in front of his home in Oak Cliff, Texas, in October 2020, according to federal prosecutors.

Jennifer Faith said she knew Lopez and called him her “one and only love,” officials said.

Lopez suffered a traumatic brain injury while serving in the U.S. Army in Iraq, which left him disabled. Before and after the murder, Jennifer Faith sent money and gifts to Lopez and even gave him two credit cards to use, which she paid off using the proceeds of a GoFundMe fundraiser that was launched in the wake of her husband’s death.

Before the murder, Jennifer Faith used two phony email accounts to talk with Lopez, as she assumed the identity of her husband and one of her friends. She was trying to falsely convince Lopez that her husband was physically and sexually abusing her, authorities said. No such abuse took place, but she was using stock images from the internet to send to Lopez to convince him of the abuse.

Seven months after starting a relationship with Lopez, Jennifer Faith left her home with her husband to take the dog for a walk. One minute into their walk, Lopez arrived at the Faiths home in Dallas after traveling from Tennessee.

After laying in wait at a neighbor’s house, Lopez allegedly shot Jamie Faith seven times before he left the scene in his black Nissan Titan truck.

One month after her husband’s death, Jennifer Faith started a claim with Metropolitan Life Insurance Company seeking about $629,000 in death benefits her husband had through his employer. She periodically updated Lopez on the status of the claim in text messages and they planned on using the money to apply for a residence in her name.

In January 2021, she was asked to come in for questioning by investigators and afterward, she reached out to Lopez to coordinate their stories, police said.

On Jan. 11, 2021, Lopez was arrested on murder charges, officials said. The firearm used to kill Jamie Faith was found inside Lopez’s home.

In February 2021, Jennifer was charged with obstruction of justice. In September 2021, police said they added a charge of interstate commerce in the commission of murder-for-hire. Jennifer pleaded guilty to the murder-for-hire charges and in return for her plea, prosecutors agreed to drop the obstruction.

“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. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office, ATF, DPD, and our law enforcement partners remain committed to getting justice for Jamie. We are proud to hold Ms. Faith accountable for her crimes, and look forward to proving our case against her boyfriend, Mr. Lopez, in court. Truth will prevail in the end.”

Jennifer Faith is slated to be sentenced on May 26, officials said.

Lopez was charged by the state with murder and by the feds with a gun crime and pleaded not guilty to both charges, authorities said.