DALLAS — A jury has convicted a man of murder in the shooting death of his ex-girlfriend's husband in Dallas.
Darrin Lopez is the ex-boyfriend of Jennifer Faith, the wife of James "Jamie" Faith. Officials said she and Lopez rekindled a long-distance emotional affair.
On the morning of Oct. 9, 2020, James and Jennifer Faith were on their routine walk in their Oak Cliff neighborhood when Lopez allegedly shot James seven times, killing him.
Jennifer Faith is already serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to a murder-for-hire charge in federal court.
After two full days of hearing from the prosecution, the defense presented its case, claiming that Lopez was manipulated into killing James Faith.
Lopez takes the stand
On Thursday morning, Juan Sanchez, Lopez's attorney, told the judge that his client will testify. Lopez was sworn in by the judge. This happened before the jury was brought in the room.
The state rested shortly after the jury sat down, and the defense began to make their case.
Jordan Oexman, digital forensics investigator with Blackfish Intelligence, was called as the first witness for the defense. A strangulation photo and phone calls were discussed.
Next, Keith Duncan testified via video call from Arizona. He went to high school with Lopez and Jennifer Faith. He dated Jennifer Faith for around two years starting when he was a junior and she was a sophomore around 1988.
Duncan said, “Almost immediately within our relationship, she started telling me stories about how her ex-boyfriend would rape, molest, abuse her. It wasn’t just a one-time situation. It was an ongoing narrative story.”
Duncan said Faith would later admit she lied about it.
The defense then brought Lopez to the stand.
“I met Jennifer in 1987,” said Lopez. They were both 15. They started dating the summer between junior and senior year of high school when they traveled to Europe for a band trip.
“Our first kiss was the Eiffel Tower, very memorable to me. It’s something that I’ll remember forever,” said Lopez.
A photo from their senior prom was admitted into evidence. Lopez laughed, “That was senior prom picture.”
They also went to college together and continued dating. “I had a calling to start with the military,” he said, around 1993. They broke up and started dating and eventually marrying other people.
When he was deployed overseas, Lopez said he had to fill out a card with memories. He picked his story with Jennifer Faith when they traveled to Europe.
“These memories have to be something that is engrained in me. […] They have to be very specific and very meaningful to me to make sure that I remember,” said Lopez.
Lopez goes on to talk about his injury during war. “I was blown up twice by two truck bombs within thirty seconds of each other.” He testified that both trucks were filled with ammonium nitrate.
Lopez said he served five deployments before he was diagnosed with a brain injury. He returned back to the U.S., where his marriage ended.
In March 2020, Lopez said he reconnected with Jennifer Faith in order to thank her. He said, “When I reached out to her, I wanted to thank her and let her know what she did for me for all these years for the 10 years that I was in combat, what she meant with me, and how she helped me through it.”
Lopez said through text messages, phone calls and emails that Jennifer told him that she was being abused by James and “gang raped” by her husband and others. They were lies.
Lopez testified, “Jennifer finally told me, ‘Darrin, if you call the cops, I’m going to deny everything so don’t get them involved and I really don’t want [my daughter] to know anything about this.'”
“It made me sick. I was losing my mind,” said Lopez. “I wasn’t sleeping. It would keep me up.”
Lopez said he believed everything Jennifer was telling him.
Lopez said he made the decision on Oct. 8, 2020, to drive from his home in Tennessee to the Faiths' home Dallas. Jennifer Faith told him the abuse was worse on eventful days, and Oct. 9 marked the Faith’s anniversary.
Lopez testified that he got lost on his way to their house, so he had to turn on his tablet for directions. He stated, “I told her she was not going through another bad weekend ever again. I promised her. So I knew as soon as I hit that 'on' button, most likely, I was going to be caught.”
He described hearing the couple leave their house on Oct. 9, 2020. He recalled, “I fired a total of eight shots. It seemed like only seven hit.”
Lopez admitted in trial that he shot and killed James.
Lopez said, “Jennifer turned me into the monster.”
After more than two hours, the state began their cross-examination on Lopez. “So you’re the victim here is what you’re saying?” asked prosecutor Brandi Mitchell.
“No, I was duped in there, part of it,” responded Lopez. “But I’m not going to say I’m just a total victim. No, ma’am. That would be disrespectful to Mr. Faith.”
The state believes this was all a violent fantasy of Lopez and Jennifer’s affair, as presented during their case. But, the defense is claiming he was manipulated by Jennifer.
On Thursday, after Lopez’s testimony, the defense called Dr. John Fabian, a clinical psychologist, to testify. He discussed Lopez’s post-traumatic stress disorder and Lopez’s actions in relation to his time in the military.
“He was in a bad place,” said Dr. Fabian. He said Lopez latched onto the memories of his high school relationship with Jennifer as a coping mechanism to bring fulfillment.
“He’s not functioning normally,” said Dr. Fabian. “He’s a man on a mission, like he was trained.”
On Friday, July 28, after about an hour and 15 minutes of deliberation the jury found Lopez guilty of Jamie Faith's murder and immediately went into sentencing deliberations.