Crime News

Oak Cliff wife Jennifer Faith gets life in prison for husband's murder-for-hire

Jennifer Faith and the husband whose murder who orchestrated.

GoFundMe

UPDATE 6-21-2022: Jennifer Faith was sentenced to life in prison for the murder for hire in her husband's death. According to a release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Northern District of Texas, at her sentencing hearing, prosecutors introduced a video of Faith describing the killing to a Dallas detective on the morning of the murder, as well as audio of Faith screaming during the attack and video of her crying hysterically afterwards.

"Ms. Faith put on quite a performance in the wake of her husband's murder. She poured out her sob story to reporters and law enforcement, then headed home to orchestrate her coverup," said U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham. "But crocodile tears didn’t stop the feds. We were committed to getting justice for Jamie, and with the Judge’s imposition of a life sentence this afternoon, we’re one step closer."

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Jennifer Lynne Faith, the 49-year-old Oak Cliff woman who persuaded her boyfriend to shoot her husband to death, has pleaded guilty to orchestrating the murder, according to a February 7 release from the office of U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.

Faith pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Jane J. Boyle. She'll be sentenced on May 26, 2022. Since her case was a murder-for-hire, she is eligible for the death penalty. Prosecutors are recommending a sentence of life imprisonment, but sentencing will ultimately be at the discretion of the judge.

Meacham said in a statement that above and beyond the cold-blooded crime, her behavior after the fact made it all the more heinous.

"Even as she wept for her late husband on TV, Ms. Faith was corresponding with his murderer, plotting about how to cover up their crime," Meacham said.

Her husband James Faith was an Information Technology Director for American Airlines. According to plea papers, she admitted that her boyfriend, Darrin Ruben Lopez, 49, gunned him down on October 9, 2020 in front of his home in Oak Cliff.

Lopez has been charged by the state with murder and by federal authorities with a gun crime. He has pleaded not guilty to both charges.

Faith has admitted she created two phony email accounts under the identities of her husband and a friend, which she used to send phony photos to Lopez, to convince him that her husband was physically and sexually abusing her, which was not true.

Lopez suffered a traumatic brain injury while serving in the U.S. Army in Iraq, leaving him disabled. Both before and after the murder, Faith sent him money, gifts, and credit cards which she paid off using the proceeds of a "Support Jennifer Faith" GoFundMe fundraiser launched in the wake of her husband's death.

The murder took place while Faith and her husband walked their dog. Lopez allegedly shot her husband seven times before fleeing in his black Nissan Titan pickup truck, which had a distinctive "T" decal on the back window, which witnesses reported to the police.

After his murder, Jennifer went on TV and pleaded with the public to for help in finding the truck with the decal — then texted Lopez and told him to remove the sticker. Lopez allegedly removed the sticker the following day.

One month after her husband's death, Faith filed a claim with Metropolitan Life Insurance Company seeking approximately $629,000 in death benefits he had through his employer.

The release says that she and Lopez discussed using the money to apply for a residence in her name in Tennessee.

To cover their interactions, she advised Lopez to say he was "an old friend going through a divorce," and the reason they talked every night was because she was supposedly "helping/giving support ... just in case they pulled phone records and ask."

When Lopez was arrested at his home in Tennessee, authorities found the gun used to commit the murder inside his home.

The release also says that, on February 2, 2021, right before she was charged, Faith asked a third party to convey a message to Lopez, who was in custody in Dallas.

"I am with him, will always be with him regardless of whatever has happened," her message said. "I've needed to be cautious because every communication is being monitored. Please tell him ASAP I will always be his."

The investigation was conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives' Dallas Field Division and the Dallas Police Department Homicide Unit, with the assistance of the ATF's Nashville Field Office, the FBI Dallas Field Office, Homeland Security Investigations, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's Aviation Unit, and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Tennessee. NDTX Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rick Calvert and Andrew Briggs are prosecuting the case.

A+ for Plano

Surprising Dallas suburb makes new list of best college towns in U.S.

Southern Methodist University students at a football game

Southern Methodist University/Facebook

Dallas knows how to show out.

Dallas' spirited neighbor Plano has entered the spotlight as the No. 16 best midsize college town in the U.S., while Dallas ranks among the best largest college towns, a new study by WalletHub has proclaimed.

While Plano might not be thought of as a "college town," it is home to primary campuses of Collin College (Spring Creek Campus and the Courtyard Center); Collin College has an annual enrollment of over 60,000 students. To qualify for the study, a city must have a university or college population of at least 7,500 students.

To determine the best college towns, WalletHub analyzed 415 cities based on their "wallet-friendliness," social environment, and academic and economic opportunities for college graduates. Cities are ranked overall and are sorted into one of three population categories: large, midsize, and small cities.

Several North Texas cities were represented across the three rankings by population, but none ranked higher than Plano. This Dallas suburb ranked as the 54th best college town in the nation overall, and ranks as the third-best college town in Texas.

Out of the three key dimensions, Plano ranked highest for its academic and economic opportunities – landing 25th nationally. This category analyzed Plano's quality of higher education, the earning potential for college graduates, unemployment rates, job growth rates, the share of part-time jobs and median income of part-time workers, and more.

In the remaining two categories for its "social environment" and "wallet friendliness," Plano respectively ranked 223rd and 271st nationwide. The social environment ranking compared the number of students per capita, the share of single people, crime rates, and the number of cafés, breweries, festivals, and shopping centers per capita, among others; the wallet-friendliness category examined local housing costs, student loan debt per person, the adjusted cost of living for young people, and other financial factors.

"As student living expenses can reach over $39,000 per year, it’s important to find the most bang for your buck," the report's author wrote. "Therefore, it’s best to live in a city with a reasonable cost of living, along with good academic and work opportunities. The ideal city should also provide a fun social environment to help students deal with the stress of college."

Dallas ranked as the 35th best large college town in the U.S., and it ranked 108th overall regardless of city size.

This is how the rest of North Texas fared in the report:

Denton – No. 77 overall, No. 23 among midsize cities
Fort Worth – No. 100 overall, No. 31 among large cities
McKinney – No. 110 overall, No. 31 among midsize cities
Richardson – No. 139 overall, No. 57 among small cities
Irving – No. 141 overall, No. 39 among midsize cities
Carrollton – No. 150 overall, No. 42 among midsize cities
Arlington – No. 189 overall, No. 53 among large cities
Grand Prairie – No. 230 overall, No. 71 among midsize cities
Garland – No. 265 overall, No. 83 among midsize cities
Mesquite – No. 317 overall, No. 111 among midsize cities

Other top college towns in Texas
Austin once again topped the list as the No. 1 best college town in America, boosted by the city's wealth of local colleges and universities and the local economy. The Capital City has outshone obvious contenders like Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, for five years in a row, and it also tops the large cities list.

According to the report's findings, Austin has the 15th best academic and economic opportunities for college students and graduates, and the 16th best social environment. WalletHub commends Austin for having one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation and the "34th-best annual job growth rate," while also offering students ample ways to "de-stress after class."

"On top of that, Austin ranks 22nd in the nation for the quality of higher education among more than 400 cities in our study," the report said. "It also has the 112th-cheapest in-state tuition (including room and board), at $34,651 per year."

Four other cities in the Lone Star State appeared on the overall list of America's best college towns: College Station (No. 37), San Antonio (No. 72), Houston (No. 73), and Lubbock (No. 83).

In the rankings by city size, San Antonio ranked as the No. 2 best large college town in Texas and 23rd in the U.S., with Houston right behind as the third-best statewide and 24th nationwide.

San Marcos, a college town between Austin and San Antonio, ranked as the No. 2 best small college town in Texas, and 54th best among the small colleges nationally. In the overall list regardless of city size, San Marcos ranked 132nd nationally.

The top 10 best college towns in America for 2027 are:

No. 1 – Austin
No. 2 – Ann Arbor, Michigan
No. 3 – Charlottesville, Virginia
No. 4 – Raleigh, North Carolina
No. 5 – Atlanta
No. 6 – Tampa, Florida
No. 7 – San Diego
No. 8 – Scottsdale, Arizona
No. 9 – Orlando
No. 10 – Charleston, South Carolina

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