DALLAS — It’s a love triangle that ended in the death of James Faith. Nearly three years later, a Dallas County jury has found the suspect, Darrin Lopez, guilty of murder, and sentenced him to serve 62 years in prison.
The jury also issued a $10,000 fine against Lopez.
On Friday, July 28, after about an hour and 15 minutes of deliberations, the jury unanimously found Lopez guilty for the murder of 49-year-old Jamie Faith, the husband of his high school sweetheart Jennifer Faith.
The jury began deliberating his sentence at around 1 p.m. on Friday. After roughly five hours of deliberation, the decision came down: 62 years in prison.
Shortly after Lopez was sentenced, his defense attorney, Juan Sanchez, shared his reaction.
"Obviously we’re disappointed with the verdict, my client is hanging in there," Sanchez said.
Sanchez told WFAA Lopez plans to appeal his sentence.
On Thursday, Lopez took the stand in his trial, beginning testimony around 12:30 p.m.
Officials said Lopez and Jennifer Faith rekindled a long-distance emotional affair.
On Oct. 9, 2020 around 7:30 a.m., Jennifer and James Faith went for their routine walk with their dog. Near the Faith home on Waverly Drive in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas, 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.
"The whole case is sad. A person who died and I believe a person was manipulated in causing this to happen. Nobody wins," Sanchez said.
A criminal jury listened to three days of testimony. The state argued that Jennifer Faith and Lopez were long-lost lovers with violent fantasies, which resulted in the death of James. The defense argued that Jennifer Faith manipulated Lopez, who suffers from a traumatic brain injury and PTSD, and convinced him to kill her husband.
DAY 1
After opening statements on Tuesday, the state began to call witnesses.
Jason Schneider, a friend of James, testified first. He called the victim "Jamie." He said his friend was an American Airlines IT director, who moved to Dallas for a career promotion.
Schneider described, “He’s just a great guy, funny, smart, very intelligent, genuine.” The victim was a Packers fan, a gamer, a traveler and a foodie. His friend said James loved to be with family.
On the morning of Oct. 9, 2020, Schneider said, “Jennifer called me that morning. […] She was hysterical.”
He believed her emotional act. He felt betrayed by Jennifer. “I had no idea she was capable of any of the things I found out,” said Schneider.
A neighbor, Emery Wilson, who lived five doors down from the Faiths, testified that he heard gunshots and screaming. He said he ran outside and saw the alleged shooter, Lopez, wearing a mask and hoodie while holding a gun. The following day, Wilson said Jennifer asked him to accompany her on her morning walks. While he was uneasy about walking after the incident, he said he did his neighborly duty and joined her.
Within two weeks, Wilson testified that he stopped the walks because he felt something wasn’t right. “I was having a lot of mixed feelings,” said Wilson. He said he told Jennifer that he saw the shooter, and her reaction was concerning. “I was quite surprised that she was not remorseful nor showed any form of sadness that I had seen the [shooter], but I couldn’t give any more details.”
Wilson, like Schneider, later discovered Jennifer Faith plotted the death of her husband. He said, “Disappointed that I pretty much wasted my time trying to help someone that was using me.” He continues, “I think more or less, she just used everybody.”
During Wilson’s testimony, surveillance video was shown of the Faiths leaving their house. Another camera captured the sound of multiple gunshots and loud screaming.
Several members of the Dallas Police Department also were called to testify, including homicide detective Chris Walton.
A piece of evidence that was brought up multiple times on Tuesday was the duct tape used to tie Jennifer Faith’s hands together during the shooting. It was staged to make it seem like a robbery, but detectives found it suspicious from the beginning. “The size of the duct tape,” said Walton. “How could this small piece of duct tape tie her down? That was my initial reaction.”
Text messages and other evidence led police to Jennifer Faith and Lopez. Some were shown in the courtroom on the first day of trial, and explained by cell phone experts. An FBI special agent and ATF special agent also took the stand, among other law enforcement officials.
DAY 2
Day 2 of Darrin Lopez’s murder trial began with testimony from two employees with the Dallas County Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences. They went over specifics of the firearms and DNA testing.
Dr. Jessica Dwyer with the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office also testified. She confirmed that Jamie Faith was shot seven times. He suffered three bullets to the head, three to the chest, and one to the groin.
In opening statements from Day 1, the defense attorney said Lopez shot Jamie Faith in the groin as retaliation after thinking he was abusing his wife, Jennifer Faith.
Dallas Police Department Homicide Detective Eric Barnes spent majority of the day on the stand. During this time, hundreds of messages between Jennifer Faith and Darrin Lopez were read. It showed that Lopez initiated the affair, and it escalated quickly.
Messages from Lopez read, “I look forward to rekindling our friendship” or “I know my heart and you still possess it. I love you.” or “I don’t mind sharing you with Jamie.”
Prosecutors say Jennifer Faith pretended to be her husband in emails to Lopez, falsifying abuse and rape. However, Barnes confirms that never happened.
Although there were conversations about sexual assault, other conversations read in court showed Jennifer Faith and Darrin Lopez sent erotic stories and rules to each other.
“He believed earlier in the morning she was being tortured, and later on that afternoon, he is advertising chokers for her," Barnes said.
The defense was able to cross-examine Barnes.
“She didn’t pull the trigger though. Darrin pulled the trigger," Barnes said. “There was 650 miles and 10 hours. That’s plenty of time for him to call the police, have second thoughts. […] His first reaction as to kill him.”
“She’s controlling her side of it. Darrin in control of his own actions,” said Barnes.
DAY 3
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.”
DAY 4
The state and defense rested and closed their cases first thing Friday morning, which marked the fourth day of Darrin Lopez’s murder trial. Around 10:15 a.m., the jury began their deliberations. An hour and 15 minutes later, they came back with a guilty verdict.
The punishment phase of the trial then began. The state brought two friends of Jamie Faith to testify about his character, reminding the jury an innocent man was killed.
“He really loved life. He loved to travel. And he loved [his daughter],” said Melanie Blackburn, a friend of Jamie Faith.
He was her former boss and mentor. She said, “He was very goofy. He didn’t like a silent room so if we were in a meeting and there as a lull, he would always have something funny or witty to say.”
Prosecutor Brandi Mitchell stated that many former coworkers of Jamie reached out to speak on his behalf.
Jason Schneider, a close friend of Jamie, who testified on the first day of trial, also spoke during the victim impact statements. He said they had plans to celebrate Jamie’s 50th birthday in the Dominican Republic. He said Jamie was a career man who oversaw hundreds of employees at American Airlines.
Schneider told WFAA, “He was a great guy, a great friend, a great husband, funny, intelligent, just compassionate.”
He was glad the jury found Lopez guilty and hoped for the maximum punishment as he waited during the deliberation.
Lopez’s defense attorney brought three combat veterans to speak about Lopez. Greg Underwood served with Lopez in Iraq when they were injured in September 2005. He testified that Lopez saved his life.
“I owe that man my life 10 times over,” said Underwood.
The defense also brought Lopez’s step-daughter, Summer Nelson, to speak about her concerns for her father. Throughout the trial, his attorneys put focus on his traumatic brain injury and PTSD diagnosis as a reason behind his decision to kill Jamie.
“I was very concerned for my father,” said Nelson.
She said she informed him that Jennifer was lying to him.
“He was devastated,” she said. “He basically said that he took the equivalent of him for me away from Amber.”
The jury began deliberating Lopez’s punishment at 2:37 pm.
Stay with WFAA for more updates on the trial this week.