Friday, June 24, 2022 – A Texas woman, who once tearfully pleaded on TV for help finding her husband’s killer, has been sentenced to life in prison for convincing her boyfriend to carry out the brutal murder.
Jennifer Lynne Faith, 49, was handed down the sentence Tuesday, June 21, in a federal courtroom after pleading guilty in February to use of interstate commerce in the commission of murder-for-hire in the death of her husband Jamie Faith.
Jamie Faith, an American Airlines executive was gunned down during a walk outside his Oak Cliff home on Oct. 9, 2020, according to a statement from the Northern District of Texas U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“Ms. Faith put on quite a performance in the wake of her husband’s murder. She poured out her sob story to reporters and law enforcement, then headed home to orchestrate her coverup,” U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham said after the sentencing.
“But crocodile tears didn’t stop the feds. We were committed to getting justice for Jamie, and with the Judge’s imposition of a life sentence this afternoon, we’re one step closer.”
Jennifer—who had been with her husband at the time of the killing—described the murder to Dallas Homicide Det. Chris Walton during an interrogation that morning.
She said: “I turned around and I just saw this person shoot and shoot. I couldn’t believe—I didn’t know him. Like, why?”
She added: “A lot of shots, five, six, maybe, I feel like. And he just kept going, and I’m like, stop it!”
Jennifer went on to describe the killer as having “dark eyes” and claimed the man had tried to tackle her to the ground after she started to scream.
“He was trying to attack me the whole time I was screaming,” she said.
Jennifer later went on the local media to plead with the public for help to find her husband’s killer.
“Oh my God! If you know what happened I need that for closure,” she told KDFW through tears. “I need to make sense of this.”
But authorities now say that the alleged killer was a man Jennifer knew very well and even once referred to her as “one and only love.”
Jennifer admitted in plea documents to convincing her boyfriend Darrin Ruben Lopez—a disabled U.S. Army veteran who suffered a traumatic brain injury—to shoot her husband in a calculated plot to take him out.
Lopez, who had been living in Tennessee at the time of the killing, is facing murder charges in the case, but his trial is still pending.
Prosecutors said Jennifer plied Lopez with “money and gifts” and even used funds from a GoFundMe account set up for her after the murder to pay off his credit cards.
Authorities said Jennifer was able to convince her boyfriend of seven months to carry out the murder after making him believe that she was being physically and sexually abused by her husband.
She created fake email accounts, including one where she posed as her husband that taunted Lopez with “details of extreme physical and sexual abuse that never actually occurred,” according to an indictment in the case obtained by WFAA.
To make the abuse seem more realistic, authorities said she admitted to sending Lopez stock images of abuse she had downloaded online, pretending they depicted her own injuries.
The couple, who dreamed of starting a new life together in Tennessee, made a plan to get rid of Jamie the day after Jennifer and Jamie had celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary, authorities said.
Lopez allegedly “laid in wait” at a neighbor’s house until Jennifer and Jamie came outside to walk their dog.
He’s accused of opening fire, striking Jamie seven times before he took off in a black Nissan Titan pickup truck.
Investigators discovered the weapon used to kill Jamie inside Lopez’s Cumberland Furnace, Tennessee home and found evidence suggesting Jennifer had reached out to Lopez after investigators began to apply pressure to craft a cover story.
Lopez was arrested in January of 2021.
Jennifer was arrested the following month.
Investigators believe Jennifer may have been motivated to carry out the murder by a $629,000 life insurance policy on Jamie, which she planned to use to start her new life without him.
The 49-year-old will now spend the rest of her life behind bars.
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