The trial for a man accused of driving to Dallas to kill his high school girlfriend's husband in a murder-for-hire plot began Tuesday.
According to police, 49-year-old Darrin Ruben Lopez, gunned down Jennifer Faith's husband outside their home on Waverly Drive on Oct. 9, 2020.
Faith, a 49-year-old Oak Cliff woman, said she was having a "full-blown emotional affair" with her high school boyfriend who investigators said drove from Tennessee to Dallas to kill her husband, James Faith, as the couple walked their dog a day after their 15th wedding anniversary.
Faith has already pled guilty to helping find her husband's killer as well as planning his death.
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Prosecutors said Faith sent Lopez money and gifts, both before and after her husband's murder, and even provided him with two credit cards which she paid off using the proceeds of a “Support Jennifer Faith” GoFundMe fundraiser launched after his death.
Faith, prosecutors said, "used two phony email accounts to correspond with Mr. Lopez, assuming the identities of her own husband and one of her friends in order to falsely convince Mr. Lopez that her husband was physically and sexually abusing her." In her plea papers, Faith said that no such abuse ever occurred and that she used stock images depicting injuries to convince Lopez she was being abused.
Lopez, who owned a truck with a distinctive sticker seen at the scene of the murder, was arrested in Tennessee in January 2021 and was charged by the state with murdering Jamie Faith and by federal investigators with a gun charge. Prosecutors said the gun used to kill Jamie Faith was found at Lopez's home.
Lopez has pleaded not guilty to both charges.
A month after Lopez's arrest, in February 2021, Jennifer Faith was charged with obstruction of justice after police said she deleted texts between herself and Lopez in an attempt to hinder their investigation. Seven months later investigators also charged her with murder-for-hire, an offense that could end with her on death row.
Day 1 of the trial wrapped up just after 4 p.m. Tuesday. Judge Brandon Birmingham, Texas 292nd District Court, said the trial would resume at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
