Dallas, Texas woman Jennifer Faith has been sentenced to life in prison after she admitted to convincing her boyfriend to murder her husband in 2020.
As detailed by the Department of Justice, Faith was described by U.S. District Judge Jane J. Boyle as “pure evil” and sentenced on Tuesday for her involvement in the killing of James Faith. The 49-year-old widower maintained her innocence until February of this year, when she entered a guilty plea to avoid facing the death penalty.
Faith said she arranged to have her husband shot and killed while walking their dog in October 2020 outside their home in Dallas. Authorities say she pressured and manipulated Darrin Lopez, a man she formerly dated in high school and later reconnected with, to kill James. She used phony email accounts to speak with Lopez, whom she described as her “one and only love,” to convince him James Faith had been physically and sexually abusive.She has since revealed no such abuse ever happened.
“Ms. Faith admitted that she downloaded stock images depicting injuries from the internet and attached them to some of the emails to convince Mr. Lopez that the abuse was actually occurring,” reads the Northern District of Texas statement on the sentencing. Lopez shot Jennifer’s husband seven times and fled in his pickup truck, which featured a “T” decal that Jennifer later told him to remove in texts shown as evidence in court.
Lopez is charged with murder by the state of Texas and with a gun crime on the federal level; he’s pleaded not guilty. Faith said Lopez suffered a “traumatic brain injury” while serving for the U.S. Army, which left him disabled. Throughout their relationship—before and after the murder—she provided him with money and gifts, including two credit cards she later paid off using the money from a GoFundMe launched after her husband’s death.
“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,” said U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham, who noted that Faith appeared on TV in many emotional interviews pleading for more information about her husband’s killer. “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.”
