The Plot to Kill Jamie Faith | Full Episode

foreign [Music] 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 sounded one after another bum you know it was a gunshot yeah you can it's a male in the air the gunpowder they don't bother all over we got a phone call from our mutual friend he started the conversation with Jamie's gone and I'm like what do you mean Jamie's Khan 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 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 here's a guy from small town Mukwonago Wisconsin 7 30 in the morning residential area theft something's not right somebody would have committed a murder to get a ring that may be worth three thousand two thousand dollars does that make sense right this isn't Kim Kardashian downtown Paris coming out of a hotel for a photo shoot with a five million dollar watch a stranger police believe may have killed the American Airlines technology 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 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 who would want him dead nobody [Music] foreign [Music] I think my neighbors just got shot it was October 9 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 Jaime 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 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 Shimona 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 the first time I met him 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 face welcomed them like family inviting them to swim anytime they liked in the Faith's backyard pool oh they love to go swimming that sometimes they spend the night over she would just leave us the code and we'd come in through the back gate swim give me a sense of what Jennifer Faith was like she was actually pretty fun [Music] 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 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 breaking you that someone's past but to see him they're lifeless after we had just seen them and uh 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 [Music] Teresa Jensen and Jamie Faith hail from the village of Mukwonago Wisconsin and where classmates through high school and college he later introduced Teresa to her husband Ross a close college friend 16 years later yeah we said Jamie literally changed we never we never would have met yep Jamie may have been a successful Matchmaker 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 in terms of the commitment and the relationship and that was there that was there right off the bat there 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 Jaime 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. when Jaime got a promotion and they moved to Dallas you 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 [Music] 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 tee on the back window I have three dogs that I walked three four times a day what seemed like was a completely random act it could have been any of us Jennifer spielen 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 go 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 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 I need that for closer as Jennifer Faith appealed to the public for information money was pouring into a GoFundMe account set up by Jennifer thielen it came in fast it was shocking to see how much people were contributing how much money was raised for the Gopher over sixty thousand dollars foreign 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 Match books for people to take cards for people to take coasters more than anything I've ever seen at any other funeral 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 Ranger 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 her 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 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 [Applause] [Music] 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 Jimmy Faith's murder 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 tee the white tea all this time we thought Texas 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 Jaime 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 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 in some points it's you know giant markers and signs and others it's little bread crumbs they can actually document where Darren Lopez was they've seen security video of him at a convenience store 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 War 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 face came out to walk their dog Maggie cops say he ambushed them killing Jaime 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 you know his love for Jennifer Faith or did someone else ask him to do it [Music] 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 you know happily married to Jamie and she's carrying out this you know 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 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 this morning an arrest made 3 three months after an American Airlines employee was gunned down while walking his dog in Dallas Police say Darren 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 the same color as the one Jennifer had told police the gunman War 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 we saved 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 why the heck would Nick throw that gun away you know I don't I know 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 one million dollars bail 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 uh to ensure that Jennifer doesn't know that Darren's been arrested 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 and recovered text messages where Jennifer and Lopez even discussed deleting texts or 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 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 because investigators now knew that Jennifer later woke up panicked that the T 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 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 the connection between those two individuals who are working together to ensure they cover their tracks 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 got shot we asked her why didn't he shoot 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 thousand dollar life insurance policy Jennifer texted Lopez they aren't processing the claim yet because detective Walton told them 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 Jaime 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 Jaime'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 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 Amex 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 go inside the case at 48hours.com 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 now now 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 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 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 Jaime's friend Ross Jensen and I said that wasn't the charge that I was expecting I 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 and authorities may have been glad they did in Jennifer's house they found computers containing a cache of emails 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 and there was more the emails were addressed to Darren Lopez revealing 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 seem 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 goading him as investigators looked more closely at the emails they discovered that some were coming from a second email address 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 Jaime had done to Jennifer pictures that showed injuries pictures that showed injuries and claiming these 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 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 daring 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 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 is better than Fiction at times and this in this case for sure 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 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 [Music] [Music] 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 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 she wanted more people always want more they always want more than what they have they always think having more having it 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 erlab 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 where Jennifer spun an ugly story of how she'd been abused by her first husband physical mental emotional sexual gists it was shocking it definitely came to a point where I want to kill him and that lasted for a long time but then he says Jennifer changed her mind and 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 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 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 yeah this is a guy you know is going to get the mission done shortly after the murder for higher 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 7 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 in exchange for the guilty plea 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 you 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 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 that's hard not to feel that way what kind of person would do that a monster yeah a monster 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 six thousand five hundred dollars what's more court records also show Jennifer has asked that two hundred thousand dollars 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 I 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 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 Jaime 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 romance is very unusual romance one in which apparently they physically were never together they were never physically together at that time time but memories are powerful 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 Jaime'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 [Music] those who knew and loved Jaime like former neighbor Melissa Gonzalez are still coping with his death he cared about people it didn't matter what your race religion he didn't care about any of that he was just an easy going 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 all around wonderful guy 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 [Music] 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 48 hours Saturday on CBS [Music]

Channel: 48 Hours

Views: 4,614,366

Keywords: 48 hours, cbs news, jamie faith 48 hours, jennifer faith trial, shooting death, digital footprint, darrin lopez, murder plot, gofundme, true crime, full episode, 48 hours mystery, mystery

Id: B9KdSqi5J7o

Length: 41min 38sec (2498 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 28 2023