The ‘grieving widow’ spent thousands of dollars raised via online fundraising platform to buy gifts for her former high school lover, who is now accused of murdering her husband. The woman would often use the money from the fundraising page to spoil her boyfriend with expensive gifts like a large screen TV and airlines tickets for him and his daughters. She even gave him access to her credit cards and asked him to use it whenever and however he pleases.
In Oct. 2020, 49-year-old James Faith was reportedly shot seven times right in front of his wife. The 49-year-old woman, Jennifer Faith, who claimed to have witnessed the traumatizing ambush, told police how a masked man came out of nowhere and fired multiple rounds at her partner.
During an interview with investigators, the woman from Texas reportedly said that the shooter duct-taped her hands and forced her to the ground to prevent her from running away. While people sympathized with the woman’s horrifying story, they soon realized that she wasn’t quite telling the truth. And after a months-long investigation, the detective arrested the widow for plotting and hiring someone to kill her husband.
According to CBS News, the 49-year-old woman ultimately pleaded guilty to planning and carrying out her husband’s murder in February 2022 but now more disturbing details have come to light. The ‘grieving’ widow reportedly planned the murder plot with the help of her former high school lover, Darrin Lopez, after they reconnected at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. She even admitted to one of her friends that she had been having an emotional affair with Darrin.
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/dmn/OZFHR7EXRJEP7I5NOHHDGRUMUY.jpeg){kind=link}
According to reports, Lopez also happens to be the hitman who shot and killed Jamie. Jennifer was extremely calculating as she knew Darrin, who had suffered a traumatic brain injury in the past while serving in Iraq, would be vulnerable to her lies. To win him over, she lied about being abused by her husband, when in reality investigator never found any evidence to prove this claim.
Darrin reportedly drove from Tennessee to Texas to kill James as the couple walked their dog a day after their 15th wedding anniversary.
Investigators believe the 49-year-old woman also created fake email accounts to send Darrin messages. She reportedly pretended to be Jamie ‘who bragged about abusing her.’ To convince him, she sent him many pictures of her alleged injuries which were later discovered to be a blend of stock photos and images from her 2012 car accident.
When a frustrated Darrin confessed to wanting to put a bullet in Jamie’s head for his actions, Jennifer allegedly said, “If it were up to me I would tell you to go for it with your idea — lol. I’ll give you an alibi.”
Jennifer even fooled trusting, generous people in the community after her neighbor, Jennifer Svelan, created a fundraising page in Jamie’s memory.
The GoFundMe Page raised over $60,000, but it became a pay-off account for her husband’s killer. The woman would often use the money from the GoFundMe page to spoil Darrin with expensive gifts like a large screen Samsung TV and airlines tickets for him and his daughters. She even gave him access to her credit cards and asked him to use it whenever and however he pleases, the CBS News reports.
There were other ways in which Jennifer blew out the GoFundMe fund clean in just two months leaving the contributors shocked to learn that she did not even pay $6500 to the funeral home that put her husband to rest.
Both lovers are now facing life sentences. While a murder-for-hire charge carries the death penalty in Texaas, prosecutors agreed to recommend life in prison instead. Jennifer is currently in custody waiting for the court’s decision and Darrin is in prison awaiting his trial.