DALLAS — The Dallas woman who pleaded guilty to coordinating her husband's 2020 murder-for-hire with her ex-boyfriend was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday.
Jennifer Lynne Faith, of Oak Cliff, pleaded guilty to the murder-for-hire charge in February. She had faced charges of obstruction of justice and use of interstate commerce in the commission of murder-for-hire. In return for her plea, prosecutors agreed to drop the obstruction charge and to recommend a sentence of life imprisonment.
Tuesday, Jennifer appeared in front of the judge wearing an orange and white jumpsuit. She didn't address the court after her life sentence was read.
The judge also ordered her to pay a $250,000 fine and 6,500 in restitution to Jamie Faith's family for funeral expenses.
Jamie Faith was killed Oct. 9, 2020 while he and Jennifer walked their dog near their Oak Cliff home. After the shooting, police released a description of the suspect’s truck.
“Somebody has got to know whose truck this is,” Faith told WFAA in an emotional on-camera interview in December 2020. “It’s a black Nissan Titan extended cab. It had a Texas Rangers sticker in the back window. So it was very distinctive from that point.”
But two days after our interview, court documents say Jennifer texted her ex saying, "I woke up in a little bit of a panic….something is eating away at me telling me you need to take the sticker out of the back window the truck."
Prosecutors said Faith's boyfriend, Darrin Ruben Lopez, shot Jaime Faith seven times from his black Nissan Titan pickup truck, which had a distinctive "T" decal on the back window.
Then, in September 2021, federal authorities discovered that before the murder, Faith encouraged Lopez to commit the crime by posing under fake email accounts.
An indictment filed in Dallas federal court said that Faith created a Gmail account under her husband's name on April 9, 2020. With the account, she emailed Lopez, posing as her husband, and "taunting Mr. Lopez with details of extreme physical and sexual abuse that never actually occurred."
Meanwhile, roughly one month after her husband’s death, prosecutors said Faith admitted she initiated an insurance claim seeking nearly $629,000 in death benefits through her husband's employer. Through the process, prosecutors said Faith would text Lopez on the status of the claim and even discussed using the money to apply for a residence in her name in Tennessee.
Lopez has been charged by the state with murder and by the feds with a gun crime. He has pleaded not guilty to both charges.
Jennifer Faith's sentencing will ultimately be at the discretion of the judge. The hearing is set for 2 p.m. Tuesday.