Woman in 'Fear Every Day' Since Surviving Love Rival's Murder-for-Hire Plot
New Jersey woman never imagined that her boyfriend's ex would try to kill her.
May 30, 2014— -- A New Jersey woman, who survived a hit put on her life by her boyfriend’s ex, says she still lives in fear.
"Everywhere I go, I have to be worried or concerned that somebody is going to drive me off the road, or somebody is going to come to my door with a silencer, as she said she wanted to," Jennifer told ABC News' "20/20" exclusively. "I'm scared every day."
Jennifer said she had always been wary of Nicole Faccenda, 45, of Lyndhurst, New Jersey. But Jennifer never imagined that Faccenda, her boyfriend Howie’s ex-girlfriend, would try to have her killed.
"I thought maybe it would just be a flat tire, or you know, a broken window at the house," Jennifer said.
Faccenda met with a man she believed was a hit man in a supermarket parking lot in 2011 to plot Jennifer’s murder. But the hit man she thought she was hiring, was actually an undercover officer with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Their meetings and numerous phone calls were recorded and monitored by the ATF.
In a car with hidden cameras recording, Faccenda told the undercover officer that she and Howie had an easy life together until he cheated on her with Jennifer. She said that she wanted Jennifer dead, but to keep Howie alive so that he could suffer.
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When it came to Jennifer’s children, Faccenda showed less concern. “If something happened and one of the kids got killed,” she told the undercover officer, “Oh well, I'm sorry.”
"I never thought that she would go to the extent as she did... to try to find somebody to murder me and my family," Jennifer said.
The morning she was schedule to die, Jennifer was on her way to work when she was pulled over by ATF agents.
“He shows me the badge, and he says to me, ‘Jennifer there’s been a hit for your life.’ And immediately I said to him, ‘Nicole Faccenda,’” Jennifer recalled. “And he said, ‘Yes.’”
The agents took Jennifer into protective custody and took away her phone, cutting her off from the rest of the world so that they could make Faccenda believe that the murder had been committed.
Faccenda was arrested after the week-long ATF operation. She later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years in prison in December 2013.
“I would like to apologize to the victim and her family. I am not — and have never been — a violent person,” Faccenda told “20/20" in an email from prison in March. “I was a woman destroyed by emotions, and I am paying for it dearly.”
“Every day I live in fear because of her, and that’s not the way I wanted to live,” Jennifer said. “She chose that for me.”
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Her relationship with Howie is also on the rocks. “We are working through things for our children, for us, for our families,” said Jennifer.
Howie told “20/20” in a phone call that he still loves Jennifer “immensely” and wants to stay with her forever, “100 percent.”
Though she remains haunted by Faccenda’s threats, Jennifer said Faccenda never got the best of her.
“I’m too strong for that,” said Jennifer. “And that’s what I really think made her go to this extent of trying to murder me, because she knew that was the only way that I would surrender.”
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