Jennifer and James Faith.
The emotional affair seemed to begin in March 2020, shortly after the former high school and college sweethearts reconnected on social media.
“I love and miss you so much,” Darrin Lopez, 49, wrote in an email toJennifer Faithon April 6. “Keep dreaming of our life together. Keep planning our lives together.”
In the same email, Lopez, then referring to Jennifer’s husband James “Jamie” Faith of nearly 10 years, wrote: “Nothing he can do to stop my love for you,” he said. “He cannot destroy us no matter how hard he tries.”
Just over six months later, Jamie Faith, a well-liked American Airlines technology director, was dead, gunned down outside the Dallas home he shared with Jennifer, 49. He was killed one day after celebrating the 15th anniversary of the day he and Jennifer met.
Darrin Lopez.
Federal authorities are calling Jennifer’s role in the alleged murder-for-hire scheme “depraved and calculated,” alleging she not only romanced her old flame, but set up fake email accounts in which she pretended to be Jamie himself to falsely convince Lopez that her husband was physically and sexually abusing her, which was untrue.
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In one such email, Jennifer, who was pretending to be Jamie, wrote to Lopez about how he was inflicting emotional and sexual abuse on his wife. “Look up any rough gang bang triple penetration with breath control porn and that’s what we’ll be doing to her,” it reads.
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In another post with attached photos of a bruised Jennifer, the email read: “Good stuff. Enjoy knowing you can’t do a f—ing thing about it.”
Jennifer later allegedly created another fake account, this one purportedly from an unidentified friend who had knowledge of Jamie’s physical and sexual abuse of Jennifer.
In an email to that friend, Lopez wrote: “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. I keep offering and she keeps telling me no…LOL.”
Jennifer, allegedly posing as the friend, responded: “Thanks for the update. 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.”
On Oct. 8, Lopez told his daughters he was going out of town “on a hunting trip with a friend,” the indictment states.
On the same day, federal authorities say Lopez used a Google navigation app on his cell phone to get directions to the Faith’s Dallas home, 650 miles away.
Around 7:33 a.m., Jamie and Jennifer walked out of their home to take their dog, Maggie, for a walk. One minute later, a masked armed gunman quickly approached the couple, shooting Jamie seven times — three times in the head, three times in the torso, and one time in the groin — with a .45 caliber handgun before fleeing the scene in his black Nissan Titan pickup truck with a distinctive “T” decal on the back window.
A witness took a picture of Lopez’s truck fleeing the scene.
About two months after the slaying, federal investigators say Jennifer sent Lopez a text message stating: “If for some reason the detective ever questioned you and asked you about my relationship with Jamie, you would tell them it was good as far as you know, right? Just want to make sure you would never say anything that would stick out.”
Lopez responded: “Exactly … nope won’t say anything contrary to that.”
On Jan. 10, Jennifer texted Lopez after authorities asked her to come in for an interview.
“Detective called,” Jennifer wrote. “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.”
“You don’t need to be,” Lopez said. “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 responded. “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 the following day, on Jan. 11, after authorities tracked the black pickup truck from the scene of the shooting to his home in Cumberland Furnace, Tenn. They also discovered the gun with Jamie’s blood on it in a satchel inside his home as well as a trove of communications between him and Jennifer in Lopez’s phone, according to the indictment, including 261 voice calls and 116,171 text messages, a few of which discuss Jamie’s life insurance and retirement account.
Lopez has pleaded not guilty to a gun charge and is expected to enter a plea to the murder charge soon.
“I really do think he was taken advantage of,” he tells PEOPLE. “He has verified PTSD, he has a brain injury that he suffered serving on Special Forces overseas … Now that we look back at it, she lied to him the whole time, pushing him to come down and save her, and I think he went into his military training and he thought it was a mission to come down and protect her, not knowing that he was being lied to the whole time.”
Jennifer was charged Sept. 28 with use of interstate commerce in the commission of murder-for-hire. She was previously charged with obstruction of justice. She has yet to enter a plea on the murder for hire scheme.
Jennifer’s attorney could not be reached for comment.
Her trial is scheduled for Feb. 28.
source: people.com
