Darrin Reuben Lopez (Law&Crime), Jennifer Faith (Dallas County Sheriff’s Office), and James Faith (KDFW screenshot)
A 51-year-old disabled Army veteran from Tennessee will likely spend the rest of his days behind bars after being convicted of driving down to Texas where he ambushed and killed his long-distance girlfriend’s husband as part of a murder-for-hire plot spearheaded by the victim’s now-jailed wife.
Dallas County District Court Judge Brandon Birmingham on Friday ordered Darrin Reuben Lopez to serve a sentence of 62 years in a state correctional facility for the 2020 slaying of 49-year-old James Faith, authorities confirmed to Law&Crime.
A Dallas County jury on Friday found Lopez guilty on one count of murder after deliberating for less than an hour, the Oak Cliff Advocate reported.
The woman at the center of the tragic love triangle, 50-year-old Jennifer Lynne Faith, last year pleaded guilty to a federal charge of using interstate commerce in the commission of a murder-for-hire. As previously reported by Law&Crime, she accepted a plea agreement in which she implicated Lopez as the shooter and was sentenced to life in prison.
Prosecutors said Lopez made the 600 mile drive from Tennessee to Texas to carry out the shooting, and that Jennifer Faith, his high school sweetheart with whom he had recently reconnected, manipulated him into doing it. Lopez and Jennifer Faith had begun speaking again during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was James and Jennifer Faith’s 15th wedding anniversary back on the morning of Oct. 9 2020 when Lopez shot James Faith seven times, killing him. The Faiths were walking their dog when the victim suffered three gunshot wounds to the head, three blows to the torso and one in the groin.
Jennifer Faith concocted a story for authorities, telling them that an unknown assailant pulled up to her and James Faith in a black pickup truck and opened fire. She further told investigators that the attacker then tried to abduct her, claiming he had duct tape and attempted to bind her wrists, CBS News reported.
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During the trial, prosecutors were reportedly not permitted to discuss the fact that Jennifer Faith had already pleaded guilty to hiring Lopez to kill her husband, but they did show jurors evidence indicating that she went to great lengths to convince Lopez that she was being abused and that her life was in danger, none of which was true.
Lopez’s defense attorneys reportedly tried to argue that Lopez, who suffers from PTSD, was only trying to protect a woman that he loved from harm he believed to be imminent.
“He was duped, and when someone is duped, it means someone didn’t know what they were reading wasn’t real. She created all the information,” Lopez’s defense attorney said in his closing argument, Dallas Fox affiliate KDFW reported.
However, prosecutors argued that even if Lopez believed that Jennifer Faith’s life was in danger, he still did not have the right to kill her husband, per the Oak Cliff Advocate. In fact, prosecutors reportedly told the court that Lopez’s military and special forces training should have made him particularly well-equipped to assess the situation and “consider all of the possible responses.”
“We are talking about the taking of a human life being justified by a high standard,” prosecutors said in closing arguments, per KDFW. “It has to be your only option. Ladies and gentlemen, Lopez had so many options he did not take.”
After finding Lopez guilty, jurors heard from family members and friends of James Faith before deciding on the 62-year prison sentence. He was facing a maximum sentence of life in prison.
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