It Looked Like A Murder-For-Hire Plot. Then The Wife’s Emotional Affair Was Discovered.
By all accounts, Jamie Faith was a fun-loving, nice guy who loved his family and was well-liked by his neighbors.
So, when he was gunned down outside his Dallas home in broad daylight on October 9, 2020, people started to wonder: Who could possibly dislike Jamie?
Jamie was shot three times in the head, three times in the chest, and once in the groin in what seemed like a contract killing. Jamie’s wife, Jennifer, told police that the shooter also attacked her and duct taped her wrists. “Jamie was pronounced dead at the scene,” CBS News reported.
Front door security camera footage from the Faith’s home captured images of the couple leaving the house just before the attack. A neighbor and other surveillance cameras were able to get images of the suspect’s vehicle: A black Nissan with a white “T” decal on the back window. Many believed the “T” referred to the Texas Rangers, but it was actually for the University of Tennessee.
Jennifer went on TV after the killing and begged for the killer to turn themselves in, CBS reported.
“I just hope that at some point, maybe, this person can recognize the gravity of what they’ve done and feel some sort of guilt enough to come forward,” she said.
The couple’s neighbor, Jennifer Svelan, opened a GoFundMe account to help Jennifer and her daughter cover expenses, raising more than $60,000.
Jennifer’s story of the grieving widow began to unravel after police reviewed her phone and discovered she had been speaking to her high school sweetheart, Darrin Lopez, an Army veteran whom Jennifer had planned to marry before she met Jamie. Text messages revealed Jennifer discussing her “full-blown emotional affair” with Lopez, telling a friend that Jamie “knows it.” Jennifer said in the texts that she and Lopez broke up because she was finishing college and he was being deployed to South Korea. She said he served for 26 years, retired, and had recently found her.
“Cell phone records show that they had been in contact with one another thousands of times since reconnecting in March 2020,” CBS reported.
Authorities focused on Lopez, tracking his financial records and conducting aerial surveillance of his home in Tennessee, the outlet reported. There they found a black Nissan truck with a white “T” decal parked on the property. Lopez was arrested in Tennessee on January 11, 2021. A search of his home and one of his vehicles led to the discovery of “the alleged murder weapon, credit cards in Jennifer Faith’s name, and a mask matching the description of the face mask that Jennifer recalled seeing on the shooter,” CBS reported.
After Lopez was charged with the murder, Jennifer continued to stand by him, even reaching out to a third party to try and get a message to him that said: “Please tell him ASAP I will always be his.”
“I need to let Darrin know I am with him, will always be with him, regardless if [sic] whatever happened,” she also said.
Police also discovered fake emails that Jennifer had sent to Lopez posing as her husband, Jamie, and a former coworker. In the emails, the fake coworker told Lopez that Jamie had abused Jennifer, that “he’s been burning her, among other things.”
The emails appeared to be an attempt to provoke Lopez to kill Jamie to stop him from abusing Jennifer.
Authorities also discovered evidence that Jennifer tried to help Lopez cover up the murder, sending him a text message telling him to remove the “T” decal from his back window.
“I think you need to get that sticker off ASAP … like today,” she wrote.
Authorities also determined that Jennifer used the proceeds from the GoFundMe campaign to buy gifts for Lopez after the murder, including a big-screen TV and airline tickets.
For his part, Lopez told police that Jennifer asked him to help kill her husband and that he drove from Tennessee to Dallas to commit the murder. He said he shot Jamie in the groin because of the abuse allegations.
“Despite cooperating with authorities, Darrin Lopez pleaded not guilty to murdering Jamie Faith. His attorney has publicly said that Jennifer took advantage of Lopez who suffered a traumatic brain injury in the Army,” CBS reported.
Jennifer was arrested on February 24, 2021, on a charge of obstruction of justice. A charge of murder for hire was added seven months later. She pleaded guilty on February 7, 2022. She faces life in prison without parole.
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