{"id":18498,"date":"2023-09-30T04:40:49","date_gmt":"2023-09-30T09:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=18498"},"modified":"2023-09-30T04:40:53","modified_gmt":"2023-09-30T09:40:53","slug":"a-love-triangle-and-a-deadly-dog-walk-convicted-killer-says-he-got-played-by-girlfriend-and-now-he-wants-texas-gov-abbotts-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=18498","title":{"rendered":"A love triangle and a deadly dog walk: Convicted killer says he got played by girlfriend \u2014 and now he wants Texas Gov. Abbott’s help"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A decorated U.S. Special Forces medic who killed his girlfriend\u2019s husband<\/a> wants Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to intervene and shorten his six-decade prison sentence, saying that he deserves leniency because he helped put his girlfriend behind bars once he knew she had lied about being abused and \u201cused\u201d him in an elaborate murder-for-hire plot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I became her weapon,” Darrin Lopez, 51, exclusively told NBC\u2019s “Dateline” in his first interview since being sentenced to 62 years in prison for murder. \u201cI understand that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The true criminal is in jail for life,\u201d Lopez said from the Dallas County Jail before he was moved to a prison east of Waco. \u201cI helped put her there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lopez, 51, shot Jamie Faith, 49, while Faith was walking his dog on Oct. 9, 2020, outside his Dallas home with his wife, Jennifer Faith.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lopez <\/strong>was convicted and sentenced in July. The previous year, in February 2022, Jennifer Faith pleaded guilty to using interstate commerce in the commission of murder-for-hire, admitting to prosecutors that she falsely convinced Lopez that her husband was physically and sexually abusing her. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In reality, Jamie Faith never hurt his wife and the allegations were fabricated, Assistant U.S. Attorney Rick Calvert of Texas’ Northern District told \u201cDateline.\u201d But Jennifer Faith used fake email accounts and photos of previous injuries \u2014 as well as a picture of a bloody lip she got from a stock photography company \u2014 to convince Lopez otherwise, Calvert said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Calvert called Faith\u2019s lies, which included violent sexual assaults by multiple people, \u201csome of the most sadistic things you can possibly dream up.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jennifer Faith, a speech therapist, and her husband, an IT director with American Airlines, had been together for 15 years and had a teenage daughter when he was fatally shot. During her marriage, Jennifer Faith reconnected with Lopez, who she dated in high school. The pair had a seven-month \u201cemotional affair,\u201d Dallas County prosecutors said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lopez retired from the Army after six deployments to Iraq, said Andrew Cheramie, a supervisory special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms who investigated the case. Lopez had earned a purple heart and a bronze star and suffered a traumatic brain injury in combat, Cheramie told \u201cDateline.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lopez and his wife separated in 2018, and he\u2019d become increasingly isolated while living on a large, rural property outside Nashville, Tenn., with two of his daughters during the pandemic, his lawyer, Juan Sanchez, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“So he\u2019s sitting in this farm on his computer,\u201d Sanchez told \u201cDateline.\u201d \u201cAnd he says, you know what, I\u2019m going to try to reconnect with her. And he found her on LinkedIn and sent her an email. That\u2019s how it all started.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tens of thousands of messages<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After reconnecting in March 2020, Lopez and Jennifer Faith talked often, trading tens of thousands of messages and phone calls in the months that followed, said Eric Barnes, a Dallas detective who investigated the case. Jennifer Faith called Lopez her \u201csoulmate\u201d and they came up with a five-year plan to be together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lopez said he had no intention of breaking up Jennifer Faith\u2019s marriage. When she told him there was no intimacy between her and her husband, Lopez said, he pushed her to be honest with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By April, Jennifer Faith told Lopez that her husband had discovered their relationship \u2014 and had begun abusing her. At one point, Lopez later told Calvert, she said her husband had sexually assaulted her and she\u2019d awoken to him performing CPR on her, according to a transcript of the interview obtained by \u201cDateline.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Email correspondence between Jennifer Faith and Lopez showed that he wanted to alert American Airlines to the alleged abuse and pushed her to go to the police. But Jennifer Faith refused, telling Lopez that she didn\u2019t want her daughter to lose her father and feared doing so would only make the abuse worse, Calvert said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe also told me that she would say nothing\u2019s happening\u201d if he told authorities, Lopez told \u201cDateline.\u201d \u201cShe would deny everything to the police.’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘If I didn\u2019t do something, she was going to die’<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As the Faiths’ anniversary approached on Oct. 8, 2020, Lopez said he received text messages that appeared to be from Jamie Faith that threatened the sexual assault and possible drowning of Jennifer Faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So he drove 10 hours to Texas, convinced that \u201cif I didn\u2019t do something, she was going to die,\u201d he told \u201cDateline.\u201d \u201cI made that commitment right there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Oct. 9, moments after the Faiths left their home to walk their dog, an armed Lopez approached Jamie Faith and squeezed the trigger nine times. Three bullets struck him in the head, Calvert said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To make the killing look like a robbery, Lopez removed Jamie Faith\u2019s wedding ring, punched Jennifer Faith and bound her hands, Lopez later told Calvert, according to a transcript of the interview obtained by \u201cDateline.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then Lopez fled in his pickup. Somewhere in Arkansas, he told Calvert, he tossed Jamie Faith\u2019s ring out the window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pleading for help<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the killing\u2019s aftermath, Jennifer Faith portrayed herself as a grieving widow and pleaded for help finding her husband\u2019s killer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 “My hope is that someday perhaps the person will realize the gravity of what they\u2019ve done, what they\u2019ve taken from myself and my daughter,\u201d she told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lopez was arrested the following January after authorities tracked his pickup \u2014 a black Nissan with a distinctive \u201cT\u201d sticker \u2014 to his Tennessee home. Although he claimed that Jennifer Faith had deceived him, the local prosecutor\u2019s office said, \u201cevidence shows Mr. Lopez took no logical steps to confirm the abuse or to otherwise secure Jennifer Faith\u2019s safety.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were \u201cother avenues Darrin could take besides driving across multiple states and murdering someone in cold blood,\u201d Calvert said. \u201cBut that\u2019s the option that he chose.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jennifer Faith was arrested in February 2021 as investigators began untangling the plot to kill Jamie Faith. She was charged with obstruction of justice after authorities discovered that she\u2019d told Lopez to remove the \u201cT\u201d sticker from his truck, Calvert said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seven months later, Jennifer Faith was charged with murder-for-hire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lopez\u2019s lawyer, Juan Sanchez, said it took him six months to convince Lopez that Jennifer had fabricated the allegations. Once he came around, Lopez said, he was devastated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When I got arrested, I went to jail truly believing I saved Jennifer\u201d and her daughter, he told \u201cDateline.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That thought never registered in my mind that she could use me this way. I believe she loved me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lopez apologized to the Faiths\u2019 daughter and said he couldn\u2019t forgive himself for what he\u2019d done. But he could help by working with prosecutors to \u201cput her away,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cooperating with officials <\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In October 2021, the month after Jennifer Faith was charged with murder-for-hire, Lopez spent two hours walking Calvert and other officials through the case. He told them about how they\u2019d agreed to make the killing look like a robbery and how he\u2019d come up with a code word \u2014 575, the number of his Special Forces team \u2014 for her to use in text messages after she began claiming her husband was abusing her, according to the transcript.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four months later, Jennifer Faith pleaded guilty. She was later sentenced to life in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lopez told \u201cDateline\u201d his cooperation with prosecutors was instrumental.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It was because of me that they were able to go to her and, ‘Say hey, Darrin\u2019s going to testify against you,\u2019\u201d he said. But when Lopez went to trial in July, prosecutors in Dallas County allowed the jury to hear few of these details, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The jury did not know how much help I gave,\u201d Lopez said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for Texas\u2019 Northern District declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the Dallas County District Attorney\u2019s Office did not respond to a request for comment, nor did lawyers for Jennifer Faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In court, Lopez\u2019s lawyer argued that his client believed Jennifer Faith was facing immediate harm when he fatally shot her husband \u2014 a use of self-defense that can be considered justified under Texas law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But a jury convicted Lopez and sentenced him to 62 years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How the jury saw it<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In an interview with NBC News, a juror in Lopez\u2019s case recalled that it took little time for the jury to reach a verdict. The juror, who asked not to be identified because he didn\u2019t want to be publicly associated with the case, said the group didn\u2019t find the self-defense argument persuasive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There were far too many other options,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the jury\u2019s deliberations over how much time Lopez should serve took several hours, he said. Lopez faced five years to life in prison, and part of the group believed he should never step outside a cell again, the juror recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For them, the juror said, the case was simple: \u201cThis very innocent person is dead because of your decision.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But others, at least initially, believed Lopez should spend far fewer years behind bars, including one who thought he should serve the minimum sentence, the juror said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the interview, the juror said he didn\u2019t view Lopez as an ongoing danger and believed the convicted killer had been manipulated \u2014 though he faulted Lopez for not \u201casking bigger questions and pushing back more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The panel eventually decided on 62 years \u2014 a number the juror said he was comfortable with after reviewing text messages that seemed to contradict Lopez\u2019s contention that he had no alternative but to fatally shoot Jamie Faith, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The juror said Lopez\u2019s cooperation with authorities was briefly mentioned in court but not described in detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, Lopez said, he hopes Abbott will consider that assistance, along with his self-defense claim, and show him leniency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Citing Abbott\u2019s promise to pardon Daniel Perry<\/a>, a U.S. Army sergeant convicted of killing a protester in Austin in 2020, Lopez said he wasn\u2019t looking for a pardon, but for a reduction to his sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lopez\u2019s lawyer, Juan Sanchez, said he has not filed a request for clemency. The lawyer handling Lopez\u2019s appeal did not respond to a request for comment, nor did a spokeswoman for the governor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A decorated U.S. Special Forces medic who killed his girlfriend\u2019s husband wants Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to intervene and shorten his six-decade prison sentence, saying that he deserves leniency because he helped put his girlfriend behind bars once he knew she had lied about being abused and \u201cused\u201d him in an elaborate murder-for-hire plot. “I became her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":18499,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[4301,1519,22913,22912,2136],"class_list":["post-18498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-imprisonment","tag-killings","tag-masterminds","tag-murder-for-hire","tag-veterans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18498"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18500,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18498\/revisions\/18500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}