Man accused of driving from Tennessee to Dallas to kill ex-girlfriend’s husband set for trial

DALLAS – It’s been nearly three years since James “Jamie” Faith was shot and killed in front of his wife and dog.

Detectives discovered Jennifer Faith came up with the plot to kill her husband to get more than $600,000 in life insurance and live happily ever after with her high school boyfriend, Darrin Lopez.

Next week, Lopez is set to go on trial for murder.

“Oh my God, if you know what happened, I need that for closure. I need to make some sense out of this,” Jennifer said back in October 2020 when Trackdown covered the murder of her husband.

Jamie was shot seven times from behind as the couple walked their dog, Maggie.

It turned out that Jennifer was the mastermind of the murder of her husband.

She convinced Darrin Lopez, a high school boyfriend, through a sophisticated scheme that her husband was physically and sexually abusing her.

She admitted guilt and is serving life in federal prison.

Lopez, a former soldier who suffered a traumatic brain injury in Iraq, drove from Nashville to Dallas.

Jennifer testified that he shot her husband.

Lopez has entered a not guilty plea in his case.

Jury selection begins Monday in Judge Brandon Birmingham’s court.

“He traveled, he certainly had a lot of time to give this some thought to change his mind,” said George Milner, who is a defense attorney not connected to the case.

This case is bringing intense media attention.

“I’ve been through it several times. It can be very difficult,” Milner said. “It really becomes difficult because there’s so much attention and you’ve got to tune it out, but you can do it.”

The national media tuning in seemingly shows society’s fascination with real life crime stories like this.

“Human curiosity is always incredibly pointed towards crime and to stories that are unexplainable,” Tarleton State University criminologist Dr. Alex Del Carmen said. “In this particular story, you see that someone that we thought was a victim, we cried with her for a few days.” 

But it turned out she was the manipulative villain.

Many people will be watching this trial.

“Special emphasis is placed on stories about individuals or couples where there are, you know, one or two twists to the story that people are not even expecting or would never think that that is even possible,” Del Carmen added.

Now, a man duped by love and lies will be on trial for murder.

The judge expects a jury to be picked Monday, with opening statements and testimony starting Tuesday.