Darrin Lopez; Jennifer Faith.Photo:Dallas County Sheriff’s Department
Dallas County Sheriff’s Department
A retired Army Special Forces medic who was found guilty of killing his girlfriend’s husband says he was on a “mission” when he killed the man.
In an exclusive interview withDateline, Darrin Lopez told correspondent Josh Mankiewicz that it was like being on a military mission when he gunned down 49-year-old American Airlines technology directorJamie Faith, the husband of his high school sweetheartJennifer Faith, in 2020.
“I was doing what I had to do to protect Jennifer,” he said in the two-hour episode ofDatelineairing today at 9pm ET/8pm CT on NBC. (An exclusive clip is shown below.)
After shooting Jamie, the gunman tried to take some of Jennifer’s jewelry after duct-taping her hands. He then jumped into ablack Nissan Titan pickup truckwith a distinctive “T” decal on the back window parked on the street and sped away.
“It’s been horrible,” she toldFox 4 News. “Devastating. I teeter between completely heartbroken and completely devastated every day.”
In a plea deal with prosecutors, Jenniferadmittedthat she used two phony email accounts to “correspond with Mr. Lopez, assuming the identities of her own husband and one of her friends to falsely convince Mr. Lopez that her husband was physically and sexually abusing her, the U.S. Attorney said in a statement.
She also said she “downloaded stock images depicting injuries from the internet and attached them to some of the emails to convince Mr. Lopez” that the abuse was taking place, the U.S. Attorney said.
In addition, Jenniferacknowledgedthat she knew Lopez had suffered a traumatic brain injury while serving in the U.S. Army in Iraq, leaving him disabled, and she used that to her advantage, according to the U.S. Attorney.
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“Both before and after the murder, she sent Mr. Lopez money and gifts, and even provided him with two credit cards which she paid off using the proceeds of a “Support Jennifer Faith GoFundMe,” according to the U.S. attorney.
Jennifer was sentenced to life in federal prison in June 2022 for orchestrating the murder.
ATF agents arrested Lopez on a murder charge in Cumberland Furnace on Jan. 11, 2021. He was convicted of Jamie’s murder and received a 62-years sentence in July,FOX4reported.
Dateline’sLosing Faithairs today at 9pm ET/8pm CT on NBC.
source: people.com
