48 Hours - The Plot to Kill Jamie Faith

Episode Date: April 10, 2022

An airline manager is shot dead while walking his dog. Who was the puppet master plotting his murder? "48 Hours" correspondent Peter Van Sant reports.See Privacy Policy at https://a...rt19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Starting point is 00:01:39 ConstantContact.ca All new at 5 o'clock, Dallas police say that they are very concerned about the city's murder numbers, homicides. To say it was a shocking murder would be an understatement. Broad daylight, seven shots, one person killed. We see murders all day. This one looked different. A violent killing in North Oak Cliff involving an American Airlines manager. Jennifer and her husband Jamie were walking their dog. 7 30 in the morning at that time someone approached from behind and simply started shooting. Jamie Faith was shot seven times. They sound one after another.
Starting point is 00:02:26 Wham, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. You knew it was a gunshot. Yeah. You can smell in the air. The gunpowder. The gunpowder all over. We got a phone call from our mutual friend. He started the conversation with,
Starting point is 00:02:42 Jamie's gone. And I'm like, what do you mean Jamie's gone? And he's like, he's dead. What are you talking about? So I started right away digging in, trying to figure out, give me details, give me a scenario, what happened. Three times to the head, three times to the chest, and once to the groin, and then turns to the wife, knocks her down,
Starting point is 00:03:03 takes the time to pull out duct tape and wrap her wrists. Jennifer says that duct tape is used to wrap around her hands, to actually grab her and take her rings. I went to that house Monday morning. I briefly spoke with Jennifer Faith. I asked her, can you tell me what happened? She said it was awful. I briefly spoke with Jennifer Faith. I asked her, can you tell me what happened? She said it was awful.
Starting point is 00:03:27 Here's a guy from small town, McGuanago, Wisconsin, 7.30 in the morning, residential area. A theft? Something's not right. Somebody would have committed a murder to get a ring that may be worth $3,000, $2,000. Does that make sense? Right. This isn't Kim Kardashian, downtown Paris, coming out of a hotel for a photo shoot with a $5 million watch. A stranger police believe may have killed the American Airlines technology
Starting point is 00:03:58 director on that Friday morning. The one thing that entered our mind was because it was during the pandemic, we thought maybe it was a disgruntled employee that he had just laid off. The first time I found out about this case, I heard it on the news. And as soon as I saw it, I thought, that's a hit. A hit as in like a professional hit? A professional hit because it didn't make any sense. I've been practicing criminal law for almost 30 years and none of it made sense.
Starting point is 00:04:25 Who would want him dead? Nobody. I've been practicing criminal law for almost 30 years, and none of it made sense. Who would want him dead? Nobody. Субтитры создавал DimaTorzok I hear the woman screaming for her life. That's terrible. It sounds like a movie. So I hurry up and call the police saying, hurry and come. I think my neighbors just got shot. It was October 9th, 2020 and residents of Oak Cliff were still absorbing the shocking murder of Jamie Faith. Dallas police detectives began going house to house. Detectives need any and all information that might be related to the case. Jamie's own front door security camera captured this haunting photo as he left his house with Jennifer and their dog Maggie. It was taken seconds before Jamie was shot to death, as heard on this audio.
Starting point is 00:06:03 was shot to death, as heard on this audio. Other cameras captured images of the killer's getaway truck leaving the scene. A black Nissan Titan pickup truck. And it had something unique on its back window. What was that? Police initially told us about the T on the back window. Here in Dallas, if you see a T on the back window, it's for the baseball team, the Texas Rangers. Steve Pickett, a reporter for CBS 11 in Dallas-Fort Worth, noted that the cameras did not pick up the truck's license plate. And so the effort begins to find this truck, right?
Starting point is 00:06:43 That's right, absolutely. Who is driving a black Nissan Titan with that T emblem on the back window? For those who knew Jamie Faith, the big question was not only who had committed the murder, but why. Jamie, by all accounts, was a fun-loving guy. Jamie was the sweetest person. And I said, something's not right. Something wasn't right. Shamona Jackson and her wife, Melissa Gonzalez, who lost her hair due to cancer treatments, lived next door to Jamie and Jennifer for years, but moved when the pandemic hit. They needed more space for their seven adopted children.
Starting point is 00:07:30 The first time I met them, we all introduced ourselves and they were like, do I have kids? And I was like, yeah, we have a lot of kids. Is it true that the Faith house was a really fun place for your kids to go? Yes. Jennifer Faith instantly bonded with Shimona, Melissa, and their adopted children, at least in part because she was also adopted. The Faiths welcomed them like family, inviting them to swim anytime they liked in the Faiths' backyard pool. Oh, they loved to go swimming. Sometimes they'd spend the night over.
Starting point is 00:08:06 She would just leave us the code and we'd come in through the back gate and swim. Give me a sense of what Jennifer Faith was like. She was actually pretty fun. I've never seen her get mad. Would you describe them as a loving couple? Yes. On the morning of the murder, a cousin of Melissa's called her with the dreadful news. They rushed to the Faith home.
Starting point is 00:08:32 Jamie's lifeless body was still on the street. By the way, I noticed the gunshot to the head. But he was laying there just in the street, no covering, no nothing. But he was laying there just in the street, no covering, no nothing. It was heartbreaking because you hear somebody tell you that someone's passed, but to see him there lifeless after we had just seen them, and it was hard to believe. Two states away in Arizona, Teresa and Ross Jensen, who had known Jamie for years, were floored by the news. And the two of us just stared at each other for a little while.
Starting point is 00:09:17 Like what? Teresa Jensen and Jamie Faith hail from the village of McWanago, Wisconsin, and were classmates through high school and college. He later introduced Teresa to her husband, Ross, a close college friend. 16 years later, we said, Jamie literally changed. We never we never would have met. We never would have met. Jamie may have been a successful matchmaker,
Starting point is 00:09:50 but he insisted that serious relationships were not for him. He considered himself a confirmed bachelor. For as long as we knew him, he said, I'm never getting married. Never getting married. Never having kids. I don't want a part of it. But that changed in 2005. And then he met Jennifer. The attraction was instant.
Starting point is 00:10:15 In terms of the commitment and the relationship. That was there. That was there right off the bat. They were two peas in a pod. And that notion about not wanting children, Jamie bonded with Jennifer's then eight-year-old daughter Amber from her first marriage. I remember thinking to myself, it's interesting for a guy that didn't want kids, how he stepped right in there and he would go to the dance recitals and super supportive. The two got married in Las Vegas in 2012, and when Amber turned 18, Jamie legally adopted her. He was working for American Airlines in Arizona and Jennifer worked in health care administration. I believe all of our friends and mutual friends were very accepting of her. Jamie, Jennifer and Amber continued living in Arizona until 2017
Starting point is 00:11:06 when Jamie got a promotion and they moved to Dallas. He seemed very happy yep so did she they got along great and I mean that's all you want for your friends you know be happy. But the good times ended in gunfire that October morning. It was the day after the couple celebrated the 15th anniversary of their first date. In later news reports, Jennifer said she was having a hard time coping with Jamie's murder. I'm not supposed to be widowed at 48, you know. Jennifer told cops that the shooter was wearing a blue mask and a blurry image was captured by that security camera near the back of the Faith House. But the best lead was that black Nissan truck with the distinctive white T on the back window. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing.
Starting point is 00:12:18 The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military and when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal.
Starting point is 00:12:58 There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reached the age of 10 that would still a virgin. It just happens to all of us i'm journalist luke jones and for almost two years i've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from pit can when there's nobody watching nobody going to report it people will get away with what they can get away with in the pit can trials i'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island
Starting point is 00:13:30 to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. fine. I have three dogs that I walk three, four times a day. What seemed like was a completely random act, it could have been any of us.ennifer sthielen and jenna wilson live in the same oak cliff neighborhood where jamie faith was gunned down a man they could relate to learned that he was in i.t at a major airline my husband is in i.t at a major airline they were walking their dog a few blocks from us. I was just going, oh my gosh, this could have been us. Though many neighbors didn't know the Faiths personally, they immediately stepped up to support Jennifer and her daughter Amber.
Starting point is 00:14:35 We have a really amazing community in Oak Cliff. The day after the murder, Jenna reached out to Jennifer and began coordinating a meal train to provide vegan meals as Jennifer requested. How many different families were contributing food, would you estimate? Goodness, got to be over 50. Oh, definitely. If you know what happened, I need that foreclosure. As Jennifer Faith appealed to the public for information, money was pouring into a GoFundMe account set up by Jennifer Sveelen.
Starting point is 00:15:10 It came in fast. It was shocking to see how much people were contributing. How much money was raised for the GoFundMe? Over $60,000. Father, we thank you for the gift of this amazing man. Jennifer held two funerals for Jamie, one in Dallas and one in Phoenix. Each was meticulously planned. They had all the displays out, little matchbooks for people to take, cards for people to take, coasters. More than anything I've ever seen at any other funeral.
Starting point is 00:15:42 While she was mourning, Jennifer kept pressing the public for more information about the murder of her husband. Truck is absolutely critical. Somebody has got to know whose truck this is. It's a black Nissan Titan extended cab. It had a Texas Rangers sticker in the back window. As they do with every homicide investigation, detectives looked into Jennifer's background. They asked for her cell phone and found that in April 2020, six months before the October shooting, Jennifer had texted a friend to say she had gotten back in touch with an ex-boyfriend named Darren. Law enforcement goes through the phone and they look in their phone book and they find the name Darren Lopez. Jim Holland is a retired Texas Ranger and a CBS News consultant. They're going through and they're finding out every single thing they can about both these
Starting point is 00:16:36 people, really discovering them. Darren Lopez and Jennifer had dated in high school and reconnected in early 2020. Lopez had a family of his own and was a special forces army veteran who earned a Purple Heart and suffered a brain injury from a roadside bomb in Iraq that killed 19 soldiers in his unit. He is a military veteran going through a divorce himself, living in an isolated part of Tennessee, raising his daughters. Authorities learned Lopez owned this 20-acre property in Cumberland Furnace, Tennessee. And there was something else. Darren Lopez owns a Nissan Titan pickup that just so happens to be black in color. A Nissan Titan, the same make and model as the gunman's getaway truck in Jamie Faith's murder.
Starting point is 00:17:38 Texas authorities reached out to law enforcement in Tennessee. And they actually conducted aerial surveillance of Darren's house. Christy Jack is a prominent Texas defense attorney. We asked to review this case. And lo and behold, there's this truck with the T on the back window. The white T. The white T. All this time we thought Texas.
Starting point is 00:18:01 Indeed, it was for the University of Tennessee. But authorities didn't arrest Lopez after finding his truck. They continued to investigate and build their case, digging into his phone records. What they find is this enormous amount of communication between Jennifer Faith and Darren Lopez. Sometimes they're communicating more than 500 times a day. But starting the afternoon of October 8th, the day before Jamie was killed, Darren and Jennifer stopped talking for approximately 28 hours. That same day, Lopez told his daughters he was going out of town on a hunting trip for a few days.
Starting point is 00:18:42 According to debit card records, he filled up at a gas station near his home, set his GPS for the face house, and headed west for the 10-hour drive to Dallas. He doesn't realize it, but he's bringing law enforcement along with the ride with all the evidence he's leaving behind. He's leaving this trail. And in some points, it's, you know, giant markers and signs. And in others, it's little breadcrumbs. They can actually document where Darren Lopez was. They've seen security video of him at a convenience or a gas station. Surveillance photos from an Arkansas gas station show Lopez wearing a blue mask, the same color mask Jennifer Faith told police the killer wore.
Starting point is 00:19:31 At 2.19 a.m. the next morning, GPS data shows he arrived at the Faith home. A security camera captured those grainy images of him at the vacant house next door. It would make you wonder a lot of different things, you know, the level of patience that someone has to, you know, be able to stage five hours early and sit there and wait for this murder to transpire. At 7.30 a.m., when the Faiths came out to walk their dog Maggie, cops say he ambushed them, killing Jamie. Investigators say he then drove 650 miles back home to Tennessee. Law enforcement has to figure out, why did he do it? Did he do it because of his own motives, because of his love for Jennifer Faith, or did someone else ask him to do it?
Starting point is 00:20:48 In January 2021, three months after Jamie Faith was murdered, Dallas detectives had discovered evidence, including thousands of texts, that suggested Jennifer and Darren Lopez had a profound connection, bordering on obsession, despite not having seen each other for decades. You have Jennifer, who's happily married to Jamie, and she's carrying out this tremendous amount of communication with her former boyfriend. There's no bigger motive for murder than love or wanting to be with someone else. And the texts weren't the only evidence against Lopez. Detectives also had that cell phone data placing him near the crime scene
Starting point is 00:21:28 and GPS coordinates that showed his exact route. They could track him from Tennessee to Dallas and back to Tennessee. To the authorities, it all added up to a murder charge. Now, new this morning, an arrest made three months after an American Airlines employee was gunned down while walking his dog in Dallas. Police say Darren Lopez... Sergeant Joseph Calhoun was there when police pulled Lopez over on January 11, 2021, in Dixon, Tennessee, not far from his home. He appeared to be nervous, but at the same time he was very quiet. Inside the vehicle, agents say they found a face mask,
Starting point is 00:22:10 the same color as the one Jennifer had told police the gunman wore. She says that the man had black eyes and was wearing a blue mask. As Sergeant Calhoun transported Lopez to the local jail, the investigative team headed for his house. Their authorities say they found this.45 caliber handgun. We know that Jamie was shot with a.45 caliber handgun round. Authorities say ballistics tests later matched the gun found in Lopez's house to shell casings found at the murder scene. Even more damning, authorities say that traces of Jamie's blood were found on the gun.
Starting point is 00:22:54 Why the heck would Nick throw that gun away? You know, I don't know if it wasn't some kind of memento, some kind of symbol of his love for her or what he was willing to do to have her. And on the day that he is arrested, what is he charged with? What he's charged with is a gun crime, a federal gun crime, and at the state level, he's charged with murder. He pleaded not guilty to both charges and was transferred to the Dallas County Jail, where he was held on $1 million bail.
Starting point is 00:23:25 At this point, police had become increasingly suspicious of Jennifer. Was she involved in the murder plot or covering up for Lopez after the fact? On the day of Lopez's arrest, Dallas detectives brought her in for more questioning. Is that just a coincidence? No, law enforcement would have timed that exactly. I mean, everything is coordinated to ensure that Jennifer doesn't know that Darren's been arrested.
Starting point is 00:23:53 Detectives say Jennifer denied ever having a sexual relationship with Darren Lopez, but admitted the two communicated every day. And the volume was astounding. In the six months leading up to Darren Lopez's arrest, cops say the two texted each other 116,000 times. When did they have time to sleep? When did they have time to eat? It was constant. They made sure that they communicated with each other all day long. Homeland Security agents dug into Lopez's phone
Starting point is 00:24:28 and recovered text messages where Jennifer and Lopez even discussed deleting texts. Where they're talking to one another about factory resetting their phone. After Lopez texted Jennifer that he had deleted texts, she wrote, Big smile over here at that. Lopez's phone contained a lot of sexting between the two and many words of love. Darren wrote, I love you with all of my heart.
Starting point is 00:25:01 And Jennifer responded, Sleep my angel, holding you tight. I mean, it goes so far that they're both telling each other good night and talking about, you know, eating chips and salsa. But Jennifer Faith was not arrested. From the start, she had played the grieving widow. Remember that TV interview where Jennifer pleaded for help in finding the getaway truck? Truck is absolutely critical. Somebody has got to know whose truck this is. Investigators now knew that Jennifer later woke up panicked that the tea was still on Lopez's truck. She wrote, something is eating away at me, telling me you need to take the sticker out of the back window of the truck. At some point, he responds to that text message. It says, sticker done.
Starting point is 00:25:47 Meaning it's been removed. He's taken it off. Jennifer was euphoric. Oh, yay, she texted. And then hours later, I feel so much better. It looks like conspiracy. It looks like a connection between those two individuals who are working together to ensure they cover their tracks.
Starting point is 00:26:07 My gut was screaming at me. I said, hey, things aren't adding up. If you're going to kill someone, you're going to kill the witness. We wondered why Jennifer hadn't gotten shot. We asked her, why didn't he shoot you? And she said, I think he didn't have any more bullets. Investigators also learned what Jennifer had been saying to Lopez in December 2020, after she failed to collect Jamie's $629,000 life insurance policy. Jennifer texted Lopez, they aren't processing the claim yet because Detective Walton told them,
Starting point is 00:26:46 I couldn't be ruled out as a suspect. So I called him and basically said, what the F? She had the audacity, the boldness to contact the police and be righteously indignant as to why she didn't know what was going on with the investigation and why she had not already been cleared as a suspect. Jennifer was nothing if not bold. After Jamie died, she began showering Lopez, who was in financial distress, with cash and gifts. She got some of that money from the GoFundMe account set up to help her deal with Jamie's loss. She drained that money within two months of people donating that sum. Records show that Jennifer paid Lopez cash through a Venmo account, bought airline tickets for him and his daughters, and allowed Lopez to use her credit cards. In an email, she wrote,
Starting point is 00:27:45 please don't hesitate to use them for whatever you need. This email is Jennifer directly to Darren. Here's both of my major credit cards. MX has no limit, and I think the Visa has like $35,000 limit. I pay them both off every month, so you never need to worry about them being declined. There's no limit here to do what she wants him to do. Jennifer seemingly was doing anything she could to keep Lopez in her corner, even after he was arrested. She sent a message to him, and she sent through a third party, and she was telling him that she would always love him, that she would always be there for him no matter what happened. But was it love or loyalty Jennifer was after? She wants to make sure that he does not talk.
Starting point is 00:28:41 Go inside the case at 48hours.com. behind the bathroom mirror murder, wherever you get your podcasts. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing The Best Idea Yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with
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Starting point is 00:29:54 The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just the best idea yet. In early 2021, Darren Lopez was behind bars in the Dallas County Jail and authorities felt they had a solid murder case against him. But Jennifer Faith remained free, not charged with any crime. After Darren Lopez is arrested, does he turn on Jennifer? No, no, in no way, shape or form. He's being the good soldier. Right, yeah, he's the knight. He has a sense of duty and this honor towards her. Prosecutors went ahead and built their case against Jennifer without Lopez's cooperation.
Starting point is 00:30:46 And on February 24th, 2021. 48-year-old Jennifer Faith is now facing obstruction of justice charges related to the murder investigation of her husband. Jennifer Faith was arrested, but she was not charged with homicide. She was charged with obstruction of justice. An in-house camera shows her being booked at the Dallas County Jail. The obstruction of justice means if you're tampering with or you're destroying evidence to prevent its availability in a later trial or to to prevent it being available at all, which is what she was doing in destroying or deleting
Starting point is 00:31:22 text messages on her phone. Or asking Lopez to take that T-sticker off his truck's window. The obstruction charge wasn't enough for Jamie's friend, Ross Jensen. And I said, that wasn't the charge that I was expecting. And they said, well, that's it. That's what the charge is. Jennifer later pleaded not guilty. I think the police were being very thorough in their investigation, and they wanted to bring her into custody. Then she doesn't have another opportunity to destroy any further evidence.
Starting point is 00:31:56 And authorities may have been glad they did. In Jennifer's house, they found computers containing a cache of e-mails that took the investigation in a whole different direction. You know, the emails get absolutely bizarre. The strangest and most disturbing emails came from an account in Jamie Faith's name. And on the surface, it appeared as though Jamie sent these messages. Most of the emails are too explicit to show on television. And they contain explosive claims that Jamie was physically and sexually abusing Jennifer.
Starting point is 00:32:34 And there was more. The emails were addressed to Darren Lopez, revealing an apparent connection between the two men in Jennifer's life. an apparent connection between the two men in Jennifer's life. It's Jamie Faith sending messages to Darren that he is going to harm his wife. He's going to sexually abuse his wife, and he wants Darren Lopez to see it. He writes, I am finally going to get what I want from her this weekend. He was wanting Darren to believe that he was going to sexually assault her in all sorts of ways. The highly charged emails
Starting point is 00:33:11 seemed designed to taunt Lopez, to challenge him to action. Enjoy knowing you can't do an effing thing about it. He was provoking him. He was provoking him. He was goading him. As investigators looked more closely at the emails, they discovered that some were coming from a second email address
Starting point is 00:33:32 in the name of one of Jennifer's male friends. That friend's emails corroborated the claims of abuse. Some even had photos attached supposedly depicting what Jamie had done to Jennifer. Pictures that showed injuries. Pictures that showed injuries. And claiming this is my body. Right. This is what he's doing to me. Right. And there were messages from the friend asking Lopez for help in getting Jennifer away from Jamie. Jim Holland, now a retired Texas Ranger, says the emails clearly made Lopez fear for Jennifer's safety. Lopez wrote to the friend's account,
Starting point is 00:34:14 I know I won't feel better about her situation until she is away from him or she lets me put a bullet in Jamie's head. I keep offering and she keeps telling me no. Laugh out loud. It's really pushing Darren into this protective mode where he has to help her, he has to be the hero, he has to save her. Holland says one of Jamie's wounds suggests the emails
Starting point is 00:34:41 had their desired effect on Darren Lopez. That gunshot to the groin. I would guess that there's some type of sexual background or connotation to the murder based on the shot to the groin. You know, we sometimes use the phrase that, you know, you couldn't sell this if you were a screenwriter in Hollywood. It's like a psychological thriller. Do you agree? Yeah, I mean, this is stuff that I don't think anyone could really make up. There's so many layers to the onion. You know, fact is better than fiction at times. In this case, for sure.
Starting point is 00:35:16 Prosecutors weighed the emails, along with all the other evidence they were collecting against Jennifer, including her payments and gifts to Lopez. And in September 2021, seven months after she was charged with obstruction, Jennifer was charged a second time. Jennifer Faith is now charged with murder for hire, a federal offense. A Dallas woman accused of orchestrating her husband's murder could face the death penalty. I said, that's the right charge. That's what I was waiting for.
Starting point is 00:35:55 In their indictment, prosecutors laid out the murder for hire case against Jennifer, revealing details of the vile email sent to Darren Lopez and a shocking secret about who sent them. It was not Jamie at all that was sending these messages. Someone else was? Someone else. Posing as Jamie? Pretending to be Jamie. It was Jennifer all along.
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Starting point is 00:37:16 Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. When Jennifer Faith was finally charged with murder for hire, prosecutors delivered that bombshell. Jennifer was the one who wrote all those horrible emails to Darren Lopez. There is no question that Jennifer Faith was the puppet master and Darren Lopez was her puppet. Pulling the strings and orchestrating her husband Jamie's murder. It is mind-boggling the wherewithal you have to have to help cultivate fake people, fake emails,
Starting point is 00:38:11 pretending to be your husband to try to manipulate Darren Lopez. I haven't seen anything like that in a very, very long time. Just my mouth on the ground. Couldn't believe what she had done. The mystery is why. What drove Jennifer to want Jamie dead? She seemingly had it all. A husband and daughter who loved her, financial security, and a happy home. I think the grass is always greener and there were a million reasons why on top of it. If you combine his life insurance and his 401k, that's more than a million dollars.
Starting point is 00:38:52 She wanted more. People always want more. They always want more than what they have. They always think having more, having different, having a different person, having someone exciting is going to be better than what they have. And 48 Hours found that incredibly, it wasn't the first time Jennifer went down this path. She did the exact same thing to me. We tracked down this man, Rick Erlob, who was married to her in the early 2000s. She's just the most evil person I've ever come in contact with. He says shortly after they began dating, they took a trip to Disneyland, the so-called happiest place on earth,
Starting point is 00:39:36 where Jennifer spun an ugly story of how she'd been abused by her first husband. been abused by her first husband. Physical, mental, emotional, sexual, just, it was shocking. It definitely came to a point where I wanted to kill him. And that lasted for a long time. But then he says Jennifer changed her mind. It was like, oh, you can't do this to my daughter's dad. There is no evidence of any abuse. Rick says Jennifer wouldn't go to the police. We reached out to her first husband, but got no response. What is it about Jennifer Faith that was so irresistible to men, do you think? Well, there's something about her personality
Starting point is 00:40:29 that really drew men in. She had a way about her of portraying herself as a victim of something. And Rick admits he fell for it. Was he just the dry run? Yeah, I think so. I think ultimately where her failure was in Rick is this wasn't a guy who's capable of killing someone. Now, is Darren a person that
Starting point is 00:40:54 you would look at and think he's capable of killing someone? A U.S. Special Forces operative for more than 20 years in the military who's been in combat. this is a guy you know is going to get the mission done shortly after the murder for hire charge holland says self-preservation kicked in and jennifer finally revealed the details of her intricate manipulative plot to have her husband killed jennifer faith decides to accept a plea agreement. She will cooperate with authorities. On February 7th, 2022, with attorney Toby Shook by her side, Jennifer appeared in a Dallas courtroom and pleaded guilty to one count of use of interstate commerce in the commission of murder for hire. Commission of Murder for Hire. In exchange for the guilty plea,
Starting point is 00:41:49 prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table and recommend a life sentence. Jim Holland says even the guilty plea was vintage Jennifer. She can't allow herself to face the death penalty because she's incapable of killing herself. Because at the end of the day, that's the only person she really loves. There was one important detail that authorities insisted be part of that plea. She has to admit to the fact that her husband never abused her physically or sexually. And as for those photos she'd sent showing injuries, she sent images that we know are stock images, fake images. They're not real.
Starting point is 00:42:29 Jennifer also came clean about how she'd spent the GoFundMe money. Her supporters were devastated. It's heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking. Do you feel that you were taken advantage of? It's hard not to feel that way. Do you feel betrayed? It's hard not to feel that way. Do you feel betrayed? It's hard not to feel that way. What kind of person would do that? A monster. Yeah, a monster.
Starting point is 00:43:03 She may have used the GoFundMe account to pay Darren Lopez, but court records show that Jennifer did not pay for Jamie's funeral expenses and to this day owes $6,500. What's more, court records also show Jennifer has asked that $200,000 from Jamie's estate be put into her prison commissary account. It's a case of greed, manipulation. It's a tragedy all the way around. She robbed the community of someone that they respected. She robbed her daughter of a father. It was a very selfish act on so many levels. Jamie's parents and sister did not attend the hearing.
Starting point is 00:43:44 The family home was sold, and Amber moved out of Texas with their dog Maggie. She still speaks to her mother twice a week. I mean, in the end, Jennifer Faith is the only mother she'll ever know. After Jennifer signed her plea deal, Lopez also agreed to answer questions and admitted killing Jamie. He told investigators he reconnected with Jennifer because he was in a very dark place and initially never intended to reunite romantically or break up her family. It's difficult to say which came first, whether it's the chicken or the egg, whether their romance was rekindled at the same time as her realization that he's the perfect pawn. Now, when you say romances, very unusual romance, one in which apparently they physically were never together. They were never physically
Starting point is 00:44:35 together at that time, but memories are powerful. Lopez, who hasn't changed his not guilty plea, Lopez, who hasn't changed his not guilty plea, also told authorities the murder was Jennifer's idea. His attorney has said publicly that Jennifer took advantage of Lopez, who suffered that traumatic brain injury in the Army. I almost feel that Jennifer is more responsible for Jamie's death than Darren. Because Darren was, in my opinion, was just preyed upon by her, and she manipulated him to do what she wanted done. Those who knew and loved Jamie, like former neighbor Melissa Gonzalez, are still coping with his death.
Starting point is 00:45:27 He cared about people. It didn't matter what your race, religion, he didn't care about any of that. He was just an easygoing guy. He was the guy for our kids. That meant a lot. The kind of guy that he was, you can't just get that anywhere. Friends Teresa and Ross Jensen are grieving too. He was just an all-around wonderful guy.
Starting point is 00:45:57 I was blessed to know him. I hope that Amber carries some of Jamie forward. I hope she really does something unique and special with his memory. Who do you think is more responsible for Jamie Faith's death? A popular dentist and his wife on an African hunting safari. The shotgun blast killed her almost instantly. He said she was packing her gun. It boggles the mind that two experienced hunters for this to have been an accident. Was there a motive? What happened on the safari?
Starting point is 00:46:50 48 hours, Saturday on CBS. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.

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