captions paid for by nbc-universal television call her the unreal housewife of palm beach county. diamonds, flashy sports car, pricey condo. she had it all. but she wanted one thing more. >> i am positive. >> suddenly she is at the center of an undercover sting, on trial in a deadly plot. >> she's like poison candy. attractive on the outside, but deadly on the inside. >> was it a heinous crime or a

half baked hoax? >> the plot hoped to capture the attention of someone in reality tv. >> a twisted tale of love gone wrong and a wife gone wild. the ballad of mike and dalia. >> thanks for joining us, i'm lester holt. their lives appeared to be picture perfect. a young couple with flourishing careers, a luxury condo, and a baby on the way. then it all came apart. an investigation would reveal that nothing about this young husband and wife was what it seemed, and the final chapter in this case would take nearly everyone by surprise. here is dennis murphy. ♪ >> palm beach county, florida, can be a bad place to live if you suffer from the "i want me some of that." the cars, the place on the

water, a con speck with us consumption and envy index as high as the humidity. >> it is within touching distance, all of that great, great wealth. >> it is. range rovers in front of you and behind you at the stoplight. wonderful, pricey, luxury hotels. for a person who has a propensity for greed, it is the perfect place for them to live as it tickles their greed or the worst place. >> which brings us to the newlyweds. they had big dreams like anyone in love. aspirations at the least. she had a $20,000 diamond engagement ring. check. he had a porsche in the garage. check. and they lived together in a quarter million dollar condo, not exactly in the right zip code, but a perfectly fine starter place for two up and

comers. their story for public consumption, g-rated version was love at first sight. mike was an internet entrepreneur and dalia he fell for. three months after their first meeting, marriage inevitable. >> susan is a reporter for the palm beach post. >> they had a connection. >> there was a problem. mike was married. lawyers case on brody, josh freedman arranged a quick ee divorce so the ballad of mike and dalia could begin. >> he fell in love with her, thought she was the end all, beat all, this was it, i'm going to have a family with her and we're going to grow old together. >> he thought she was the real deal. >> they hit it off right away. had a lot in common. enjoyed the same. >> dalia was a real estate agent. >> that's what attracted him to her. she was successful on her own

and didn't need him. that played more than everything that went on. >> sexual attraction or more going on? >> sexual attraction, absolutely. >> with the divorce in hand, mike and dalia dashed to the courthouse to marry. fell into routines. morning workouts at the gym. steamy date nights at five star hotels. love notes on the frig.. he seemed to be her dream guy. three months into the marriage, she told her husband she was pregnant. michael was thrilled. life was good. but early one morning, in august, 2009, it all came to an end for the two, with a finality. she was going to her morning workout. >> this is the sergeant from boynton beach police department. i need to talk to you when you get home. it involves your husband. there's been an incident. >> she was instructed to get

home right away. >> when she arrived, police cars were out front, everything that spells disaster just ahead. this is a police videotape of dalia getting the news. >> i am sergeant ramsey. i am the one that called you. thank you for coming. sorry to call you. we have a report of disturbance at your house. >> the officer was direct with her. he said there was an intruder in the house and several shots were fired. >> your husband michael, i'm sorry to tell you, ma'am, he has been killed. it is okay, ma'am. i can't let you see him. >> michael, her husband of six months gunned down in the townhouse. but she wouldn't be allowed inside to see the body. >> if you want to help your husband, you need to go and tell us everything you know about who he knows, who he's connected to. >> the homicide investigation was only minutes old.

the officers told dalia they would need her cooperation in understanding what happened. >> we're going to do everything we can, okay? we need your help. we need to get your husband's killer, ma'am. >> dalia is taken to the police station where she finds out the detectives know more about the crime than they are letting on. this case was about to get very complicated. coming up. >> are you sure you don't know anybody that would want to kill your husband? >> the questions begin. it seems that undercover agents had their eyes and hidden cameras on her. when the ballad of mike and dalia continues. time out. sweet. [ female announcer ] with charmin ultra soft, you can get that cushiony feeling you love while still using less. charmin ultra soft is designed with extra cushions that are soft and more absorbent and you can use four times less

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go ahead. cheat on butter. called home from the gym to be told by police out front an intruder murdered her husband, michael. >> is your husband michael? okay. i'm sorry to tell you, ma'am, he has been killed. he has been killed, ma'am. >> dalia is rushed to the boynton beach police department for the start of interviews.

dalia begins by telling the detectives that michael, her deceased husband, wasn't exactly squeaky clean. >> he has been trying to get off probation. and it's just been nothing but problems the whole time that he's been trying to get off. >> mike dippolito she said was a convicted felon, a swindler that sold them phony currency securities. >> it was for taking money. it was like he had some kind of boiler room where they would take money from people. >> in other words, her murdered husband was a guy with enemies. when he was released from prison after seven months, he was still looking at more than 25 years of probation. he had been ordered to make restitution to the victims he fleeced, an outstanding iou of $191,000. >> people weren't happy he was getting off probation because it's a lot of money he has to

payback. >> find out who he owed and you'll find the killer, suggested dalia. the cops listened but changed the focus to the couple themselves, dalia and michael, newlywe newlyweds. >> you sure you don't know anyone that would want to kill your husband? you wouldn't want to kill him? >> no. >> no problems between you guys, no financial problems, i mean, with your family, you and him? >> no, there's nothing. i mean, we've, you know, we're going through his business has slowed down like anything. >> but the police officers knew much more at that moment, so much more. nonetheless, the grieving widow was taxing their patience. >> okay. the game's over with. okay? there's no more games with you and i. now we're gonna get down to serious business. >> the inter gay tors hadn't let on that hers wasn't a fresh name to them. in fact, this moment in the police interview room was the culmination of an investigation

already a week old. in what would become a sensational case, for a brief while as popular as piano playing cats on youtube, began when a man walked into the police station and said he had a strange story to tell. a married lover of his was shopping for a hit man. detective alex moreno didn't know what to make of the walk in. >> at first when he's giving this information, you don't know what to think. here is a guy claiming he is sleeping with a guy's wife, now she's trying to get somebody to kill him. >> pretty juicy story. >> exactly. >> detective moreno had the tipster run-down the story from the top. the man was named muhammad, said he was a part time actor that worked at a convenience store. as he told it, he had been friends with benefits with the woman for years. they met for the occasional casual sex. then she asked him for help finding a hit man to kill her husband. >> he says you know what, i am sleeping with this guy's wife, but at the same time, i didn't want this guy to be killed, and

that was his concern. he couldn't sleep with that whole idea that this guy was going to get killed. >> but the detective wondered if he was being sold a calk and bull story since mu ham he did didn't know much about the woman he claimed to be sleeping with. the detective challenged him. >> all the information he had was her first name. didn't know where she lived. didn't even know who her husband was. >> while they debated whether or not the tipster story was credible, they knew a life may be on the line. so the detectives took it to the next level. they enlisted him as a confidential informant and gave him a story to tell his part time lover. that he found her a hit man that could pull off the job. >> two things could happen. either the guy was lying, or he was true. we hadn't validated the information until he makes contact. >> mohommed the tipster set up a meeting the next day. the car that he drove to the gas station meeting point had been

rigged by police technicians for pictures and sound. undercover agents nearby would be watching the whole time to find out who the woman was, where she lived, who her husband was, and just what the heck was going on. >> she came down the street, came into the gas station, immediately we picked up the car, and not only are we watching her, we're hearing what's going on in the informant's car, live. >> hey, what's up. i love you too. >> yeah, you love me, too. >> running down license plates and registration yielded the name of 27-year-old dalia dippolito. police officers didn't have to wait long before the story was confirmed. the woman in the car was definitely in the market for a trigger man. >> less than a minute or so, she begins talking about hiring someone to kill her husband. it shocked us. >> honestly, you think it's worth it for that money?

>> like it's not even about the money. we'll spend it like in the blink of an eye. >> the meeting was all business. dalia produced photos of her husband for muhammad to give the hit man. >> just give me one picture. >> i don't want to carry too much paper. >> dalia brought something else the hit man requested, cash. >> i brought 1200. he is asking for 1200? >> yeah. >> when are you going to give him the money? >> today. he's coming by the store. >> she turns the money over. >> yes. >> is that a crime, detective? >> that's not enough. we want to get a little further with the case. >> the police were about to see how determined she was to have her new husband killed. coming up. >> you definitely want to do this? >> i'm positive, like 5,000% sure. >> another undercover sting and plan set in motion for a deadly house call, when "dateline

wnchts the help of an informant, they confirmed dalia dippolito wanted to hire a hit man to kill her husband. it was all caught on tape. >> it is like a solid. >> this guy is a professional. it is not bull [bleep]. get it done. >> all right, good. >> so the police instructed the informant, a man named muhammad to set up another meeting for dalia. this time with the hit man who would be, of course, an undercover boyne ton police detective. same drill. meeting outside a store, and a car wired for video and audio. >> hey. >> we're staying in here, right? >> all right, yeah, yeah. >> okay. man, you look good. >> thank you. >> in that meeting, they begin making plans. she also tells our hit man where

they live. she provides a schedule where her husband goes and comes and goes in the morning, where he's going to be the next day. >> that shows what, her state of mind, resolution? >> shows her intent, and the fact that here she is, meeting with a complete stranger she believes is a hit man, she goes as far saying hey, i would rather if it happened here. >> how are we gonna do it successfully at the house, like how do we -- how soon could you do it? >> she just wants it done, and the sooner the better. >> does your agent give her a door out at this point? >> yes. he asked her more than once if she was sure if this is what she wanted done. she laughs about it, says yeah. once i set my mind to do something, i do it. >> you definitely want to do this? >> i am positive, like 5,000% sure. >> he said he would use a gun. >> he gets two in the head. that's it. you know? >> he tells her hey, i am going to put two in his head, meaning two shots to the head.

doesn't even phase her. no remorse. >> dalia and the hit man who is really a cop agree he will kill her husband in two days. he tells her to be prepared to go to the gym early that morning. >> by the time you get back from the gym, you're gonna find two things. a dead body in the house, all right, or nothing. the night before he calls dalia with further in strukss. >> tomorrow morning, be out by 6. >> undercover agent says i need you out by 6:00 in the morning. she agrees, doesn't hesitate, change her mind, none of that. she says okay. that's it. >> the next morning, everything is going according to plan. dalia leaves for the gym, undercover cops tailing her. >> one of our sergeants makes a phone call while she's at the gym, they inform her something happened at the house and she needs to get to the house fast. >> no details. just knows something happened, get home quickly. >> yes. she shows up at the house, makes contact with the sergeant, and

is informed of her husband's death, that he has been killed. >> sorry to tell you, ma'am, he has been killed. >> no, dear god. >> you look at the video, she begins to react before she's told the whole story. according to the sergeant making contact with her, he didn't see any tears. >> when they bring her to the police station, investigators are curious to see how far dalia will push her scenario, blaming the murder on one of her husband's former enemies. the detectives are carefully watching her interview on a tv monitor in a nearby room. >> people weren't happy that he was getting off probation because it's a lot of money he's got to payback. >> she mentioned he has enemies, was on probation. she didn't bother to ask how it happened. >> to their experienced eyes and ears, dalia is making a few mistakes in how she tells her theory of the crime. they want to push her more, see if she can confess to the murder plot then and there. would she be obviously rattled

when they let in a familiar face, the person she believes is the hit man. >> bring this guy in here. get over here, get over here. you know who this guy is? >> no. >> you've never seen him before? >> i've never seen him before, ever. >> the man, the undercover policeman, is presented as someone they nabbed for the killing of her husband. >> do you know her? >> put your head up and look at him. >> i've never seen him. >> the detectives put their cards on the table. they tell dalia they know this is the supposed hit man and that the meeting where they planned to kill him was caught on tape. >> that's an undercover police officer. we filmed everything you did, recorded everything you did. you're going to jail for solicitation of first degree murder on your husband. >> i didn't do anything. >> did you hear what i told you. >> i heard -- >> listen to me. everything has been recorded.

you were photographed in the convertible that you sat in his car in the front of cvs. what are you going to do? >> oh, my god. >> rock steady to all appearances, dalia swore up and down she had nothing to do with the death of her husband. but the police have another surprise for her, truly a humdinger. they were about to walk a ghost to the interview room. coming up. >> oh, my god. >> someone is back from the grave. when the ballad of mike and dalia continues. we know a place where tossing and turning have given way to sleeping. where sleepless nights yield to restful sleep. and lunesta can help you get there, like it has for so many people before. when taking lunesta, don't drive or operate machinery until you feel fully awake. walking, eating, driving, or engaging in other activities while asleep, without remembering it the next day, have been reported.

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♪ . imagine for a minute, you're dalia dippolito. homicide detectives in a police interrogation room accuse you of plotting your husband's murder, and just like that, hello. >> oh, my god. >> he's alive. >> come in here, please. come here. >> dalia's husband, michael dippolito was indeed very much alive. and now face to face with the woman that wanted him dead, his wife of six months. >> i am thinking in my head i'm lucky, i'm lucky, but i'm

thinking i'm so screwed now, the worst day in the world. >> before waking up that day, michael dippolito believed he and dalia began a loving new chapter together. they were about to start a family. she told him he was pregnant. but he had no idea the woman he loved wanted him dead. clueless his new bride hired a hit man to do the job. his wife was already at the gym when he learned about it with an early morning knock on the door of his townhouse, the police. >> they said listen, this is what we're doing, conducting an investigation. he said your wife is going to have you killed today. you have to come with us. i just looked at him. i'm like, i mean, it hit me. >> you don't hear those words every day. >> no. >> the officers told michael he had to come with them right away to boynton beach police station before his wife got back from the gym. >> grab your stuff, we are getting out of here. >> yes. >> the police were stage dressing a phony murder scene,

to trick dalia into thinking the hit man she hired successfully completed the yob. >> we had report of disturbance at your house. >> at the station, they cued up the saws and showed the husband dalia's meeting as she shopped for a hit man. >> i am 5,000% sure. >> then they allowed him to watch the real time police interrogation going on in another room. dalia who had no idea her husband was alive, told the interviewer she had nothing to do with whatever happened to him, even after they brought in the undercover cop that posed as a hit man. >> put your head up. >> i've never seen him. >> i'm watching. i'm watching, waiting for her to give it up. you know what, the girl never gave it up. >> dalia is arrested and handcuffed. then the police walk a much alive michael to the doorway of the interview room. >> oh, my god. >> he is alive. >> they say you know this guy? i am standing there probably from twice the distance of us. >> come here, please, come here.

>> can't. >> why not? >> i heard you. >> mike, come here, please, come here. >> that's when she says come here, i love you, i love you, said look, i can't. you can't fix this. >> now it was michael's turn to tell the police his story. correcting for the record that love at first sight fairy tale. dalia he said was an escort that responded to his itch one afternoon when he was at work. he ordered up dalia the way you call for pizza. >> was she an escort girl that you made a phone call to and she came over? >> i can tell you, i didn't meet her in church. >> she's actually an escort. that's how i met her. she came into my office one day. >> michael claims even now there was a mutual attraction that went far beyond the initial transaction. >> when i met dalia, we seemed to connect instantly. everything about it, we clicked, be it our sex life, just our

spare time, be it the things we liked, all that, and it just happened. >> three months after they met, michael divorced his first wife and married dalia that same week. >> i just purchased a home, we're going to start a life together. we talked about traveling, doing things, and we had a future planned. >> but there was a hitch to michael's future. the terms of his probation prevented him leaving south florida, so the couple consulted a lawyer, and his advice was pay off that $191,000 you owe in restitution and you have a fair chance of getting probation lifted. >> that was your ticket to freedom. >> payback the money, yeah, and get my freedom. dalia said she would help me with some of the money, about 90,000. i am like absolutely, let's do it. >> dalia and michael agreed they would pool their money to pay off dippolito's debt. >> this is great. she's pushing me forward, too, i thought okay, i am going to get off probation, very exciting for me. >> then the plan to get michael

out of hock changed again. according to michael, another lawyer said you own the townhouse free and clear, why not turn over the deed to dalia and she can do things for you. no problem. he gave her the deed to the townhouse and $100,000 cash, his part of the payback of the restitution debt. the money was supposed to go to his attorney, but never got there. >> i tell you where it unravelled. as soon as i got dalia that 100,000 is where it went downhill. >> after she got that nice size chunk of change, michael dippolito says he started to have a string of run-ins with the police, including one night for dinner out with dalia. they left the restaurant to find the police swarming michael's vehicle. after a search, they found cocaine stashed beneath a spare tire. >> i cried to the cop. i said look, man, i haven't done anything in five nar years. i don't know how, why, what happened. they let me go, i couldn't believe it. >> you would have gone back to

prison for violating probation. >> yeah. absolutely. >> he didn't want to think the light of his life could be behind something as nefarious as getting him thrown back in prison, but the idea was there. maybe dalia. >> i said to her, only when i am with you. my life isn't this exciting. five and a half years on probation, i didn't have one probation problem. six months, and the whole police department knows me. i might as well glow fluorescent. >> you're looking at her sideways. >> i am doing the best i can to be a good husband. give her a chance. >> no reason to think she's faking. >> she may have been a bad actress the day they caught her on camera, with me, she was an academy award winner. >> oscar also for playing that expectant mother. >> never was a baby. >> no. >> another thing was the formal charge. solicitation to commit first degree murder with a firearm.

but even after her arrest, dalia phoned michael from jail, pleading with him to get her an attorney, claiming the cops had gotten it all wrong. >> this is not true. >> you said you wanted to have me killed. >> that's not true. >> how is that not true? they're charging your ass. don't you get it? >> i didn't do anything. >> she won't give it up. i didn't do it. i didn't do it. why aren't you helping me. i love you, over and over. i am like are you kidding? i said what do you want me to do. >> i need an attorney so i can talk to you. >> this is strange. dalia begging with the guy she's accused of trying to kill to help her find a lawyer to beat the charge. michael saw the phone cal as an opportunity to play let's make a deal. >> i said get me my house back, less the problems and legal bills, and i'll get you a lawyer. >> listen, sign my property back to me, and i'll help you, okay?

>> i am not signing it. >> then i can't help you. >> because of florida's strong open records law, her jail house phone calls and all the police surveillance tapes by the boynton beach cops would be public. they were out there viral on youtube. those images of dalia boo hooing online would be seen by thousands of viewers that lambasted her in the comments section. the people with the only opinion that matters weren't convened on youtube, they were in a west palm beach courtroom. what would a jury of her peers make of dalia and michael? coming up. the case heads into court. and out come more secrets. >> it was like something out of a movie, unreal. >> dalia's defense seemed unreal, too. was the whole thing a hoax? >> the plot was never real. mike hoped to capture the attention of someone in reality

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what started as a tentative police sting operation was now being argued in front of a jury in the west palm beach, florida courthouse. 28-year-old dalia dippolito was accused of trying to get her husband killed. in legalese, solicitation to commit murder in the first degree, could get her 30 years in prison. the prosecuting attorney had photographs, audio recordings and videos, including the sting in which dalia tells an undercover cop posing as a hit man that she wanted her husband, mike dippolito dead, asap. >> i am positive, like 5,000% sure. >> it was unreal, like something out of a movie. >> dalia already spent almost two years under house arrest in her mother's home by the time the trial began in april of 2011. >> she thought she could get away with having him murdered. >> the prosecutor would call her

like a dalia from the bible. >> she seems to be conniving, manipulative, pure evil in everything that she did, but she played such a good game that people didn't know that was the true dalia. >> they say love is blind. in this case, love was blind, deaf, and dumb. >> the jury would hear the prosecution argue the six month marriage of michael and dalia was a fraud. only the convicted scam artist husband didn't realize he was the one being shnookered. >> he never wanted to believe his wife, the person he loved more than anything, wanted to have him killed. >> prosecutors are in the story telling business, and this case needed a lot of that, the back story in particular. >> first question i had was why. why did she want to have this

done. i knew if i had that question, certainly the jury was going to have that question also. >> what is the motivation? jurors, here is why this happened. >> greed. she wouldn't have to be married any more, she would have all of these assets, and live a good life without him. >> the delicate bit was to get the jury to feel sorry for michael dippolito. the state's argument went sure, he scammed people for money, but he was still a loving money bam booze he willed by a can iefing wife to the tune of $100,000. >> because he is a convicted felon doesn't mean he can't be a victim of a crime. >> they put on the husband as the first witness. dippolito tried to explain the a attempt to payback the victims. >> dalia said i will help you with the money. you put up 100, i'll put up 91,000. >> but dalia never turned over her $91,000 share. she gave excuses when michael pressed her. what was up. >> coming up with the money is here, it is coming, this

happened, i have a closing, i will replace it with this money. >> that was another part of the deception, house closings. as the prosecution told it, dalia may have had a real estate license, but the only property she ever actually sold was the condo she and michael lived in. all along, michael thought dalia had her own walk away from the table money and he liked that about her. but her bank accounts told another story. >> she never had $91,000 to give him to begin with. her bank account was very low. in fact, overdrawn most months. >> and $100,000 cash he gave her went up in smoke. >> she spent much of it on luxury items for herself. >> and all the while, mike was trying to be good, reformed, keeping his nose clean with an internet venture, dalia was running around on him. prosecutors said she was juggling two lovers on the side and trying to enlist each of them in getting her husband bumped off. >> she's playing all these guys. they're all thinking they're the one, and the only person she

cared about was herself. >> detective alex moreno read back text messages dalia wrote about her husband to her lovers. >> i really hate him and want to see him rot. >> so she's getting the picture, i'll be there in a moment, meanwhile, texting her lover, plotting against the guy in the other room? >> right. >> just want my life wu, let's get this [bleep] arrested. >> to the prosecution, her scheme was apparent. plant drugs on michael, tip the cops, get him busted back to prison on a parole violation. >> she tried for months to have him arrested. >> i think i have seen this cartoon. this is the coyote trying to get beep beep, never does it. gist eludes again and again. >> she did everything she could, but she didn't succeed. >> dalia like wiley coyote never gives up. she comes up with a new plan of attack. >> i thought of a way to get him to sign the house to me.

>> remember when she said there was an attorney that advised mike to put the title of the quarter million dollar condo in his wife's name? turned out he wasn't an attorney at all, one of dalia's lovers playing the part. >> at dalia's direction, he said listen, if you have any assets in your name, you should get them out of your name, since you're on probation and owe restitution, you should sign your assets to your wife. >> give her the assets. >> the condo is then signed over to her name. >> she discovered the roose wasn't a perfect plan. she couldn't unload it without him. >> the lawyer told both of them it doesn't change things because you're married. it doesn't mean you can do anything with the house, since it is still a marital asset, michael would have to give you permission to do anything with the house. >> so that wasn't so good for her. >> not so good for her. >> that's the moment the prosecutor says dalia settled on the fatal solution to her money problems. she simply would have michael killed, so everything would be

hers, no joint signature required. >> sure you want to kill this dude? there were all those tapes of dalia plotting a murder, pretending to be unglued when she hears about the murder. then there was the problem about the victim. maybe the jury couldn't care less about michael dippolito about to be put on trial as a white collar criminal and low life, predictable courtroom strategy. what no one would have predicted was the other line dalia's defense took. jurors, you've got it all wrong. this wasn't a crime. this was an audition for a reality show. dalia as the white house party crashers, michael as balloon boy. the people versus jersey shore was about to begin. coming up. >> mick dippolito's hoax to orchestrate his own murder to achieve fame and fortune was a

bad prank. >> murder for hire? or audition for television? a cliff hanger of an episode is coming up. when "the ballad of mike and cdaa"lition ti

so there's the defendant, your client, and the prosecution has shown the jury surveillance video of her hiring a hit man to kill her husband. if you're her lawyer, what do you do? you fight video with video spin. bring on the snooki effects. >> you live in a world where people seeking their 15 minutes of fame lose all sense of judgment and common sense. >> dalia's defense attorney said the husband, michael dippolito,

was a reality show wannabe, that he was behind the fake murder, its master mind so he could be known beyond boynton beach. >> mike dippolito's hoax to orchestrate his own murder to achieve fame and fortune was a bad prank. it was never anyone's intention to harm anyone. >> did the balloon boy family hoax mean ill will? did the white house party crashers have malicious intent? no. and neither did the dippolitos. it was just a dumb idea. >> evidence will show the plot for the contract killing of mike dippolito was never real. mike dippolito hoped to capture the attention of someone in reality tv. >> the defense attorney argued dalia was in on the reality show idea the whole time. that scenario outside of dalia wailing, acting said the

defense. >> dalia knew mike wasn't harmed. hers is a fake reaction to a fake event. >> the defense put on a forensic expert to testify the couple's computers revealed searches for reality show casting calls in the weeks before she met with the hit man. >> there were google searches done, one was for casting reality tv in florida. >> another witness, a professor that wrote a thesis on reality tv chimed in that for some people, the idea of instant celebrity is so intoxicating that they would do almost anything to get on the shows. auditioning is one way. >> it is a way to get famous to get on reality television. >> the defense pushed michael dippolito hard on cross examination, accusing him of dragging dalia down with the stupid idea of being a tv star. >> the whole reality thing was actually orchestrated by you, wasn't it? >> i don't know what you're talking about. >> the silliest thing i've ever

heard. i mean, completely made up. >> you two never talked about becoming the balloon boy couple. >> no. >> or the white house crashers? >> no, not at all. i don't think they could bring the cameras back into prison if i landed myself back in there. i didn't have that in my play book. >> if the jury needed more from the defense on michael dippolito's character, the lawyer threw in his rap sheet. prison, a guy that owed $191,000 to his victims, but before paying them back, bought himself a porsche and a quarter million dollar condo. >> you had to keep telling the people their investment, the money they hoped to get back wasn't coming in. is that correct? >> yes. >> the money was going in your pocket, wasn't it? >> you're portrayed as le lex luther. >> how did you take it.

>> wasn't easy. >> it came down to the husband and his appetite for fame. the defendant he said was the true victim here. >> you can't scam a scammer. and mike is a convicted felon scam artist. that's his talent. >> in her close, the prosecutor took it back to what she saw as the bed rock of the case. the murder for hire plot was real and dalia dippolito was calling the shots. >> she's shameless the way she uses her sexual power to get what she wants. she's like poison candy, attractive on the outside, but deadly on the inside. >> now it was up to the six member jury to decide the fate of dalia dippolito. in less than three hours, there was a verdict. >> find the defendant guilty of solicitation to commit murder. >> dalia dippolito, guilty as charged. stone faced, she was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs, facing up to 30 years in prison. >> if she had not hired the

boynton beach police department to kill her husband, is it her belief she would have gotten it? >> she would have done everything in her power to make sure her husband was murdered. she would be looking at first degree murder and the death penalty. >> dalia, without makeup and in jail house blues was back in court a month later for sentencing. her mother bleed with the judge for leniency. >> in life we make mistakes. >> mike dippolito had his turn, too. dalia he said never showed remorse, never admitted she tried to have him killed. >> if she would have owned it, like a normal person and would have owned up to something, i would respect that. but instead, when i get to court, i hear i want a reality television show? you should have said space aliens landed and they did it. that would have been a better defense. you could have made that up. >> in the end, she was sentenced to 20 years, gave dalia a piece of his mind before sending her behind bars. >> it was weeks and months you

continued with these different schemes to try to rid yourself of your husband. it was pure evil. >> outside the courtroom, mike was swarmed by reporters. asked if he felt the sentence was the right one, he gave an answer that was familiar. >> i am 5,000% happy with it. >> even when it seemed over for mike and dalia, it wasn't. strangely, even though michael filed for divorce soon after her arrest, the couple were married at the time of sentencing. the snag in the divorce settlement was real estate and money. michael wanted the title to his condo and his $100,000 back from dalia. the money he gave her to pay his share of the restitution. >> that's the funny thing. they didn't sentence my ex-wife, they sentenced my wife. >> michael did eventually get the divorce with clear title to the condo. dalia's legal team, meanwhile, filed notice of intent to appeal her criminal conviction. the issue?

her love turned informant who provided video testimony at trial because he told authorities he would be out of the country was actually in town during the trial and could and should have taken the stand. his version of events, subject to live cross examination in front of the jury. and in a move that surprised some, three months after her sentencing, the judge that called dalia pure evil allowed her to post $500,000 bond. dalia was released from jail, placed under house arrest in her mother's home pending appeal. she and her attorney declined to comment on the case at this time, due to pending legal proceedings. she is living two miles from her ex-husband. >> were you able ever to step out and look down at your situation and say i can't believe this is happening to me? >> i do it every day. still do it. >> a starry eyed mike dippolito once thought his marriage would be one for the ages.

it turned out to be one for youtube. ♪ i love the way you lie >> that's all for now. i'm lester holt. for all of us at nbc news, i'm lester holt. for all of us at nbc news, thanks for joining us. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com captions paid for by nbc-universal television this sunday, the south carolina surprise. newt gingrich wins and wins big. a double digit victory over governor romney in the first southern primary. we proved here in south carolina that people power with the right ideas beats big money, and with your help we will prove it again in florida. thank you. good luck and god bless you. >> we will talk to the winner himself live this morning. also, how does the romney campaign now respond? >> this is a hard fight, because there is so much worth fighting for. >> the florida the next big test, how does governor romney

connect with conservatives and make the case that he alone can beat president obama? we'll ask top romney supporter, the republican governor of new jersey, chris christie. then our special political roundtable as we wrap up the results from south carolina and analyze where this wild race goes from here, plus the president's standing two days before his state of the union address. how will he use this election year to advance his and dane. joining me the host of msnbc's morning joe, joe scarborough. anchor catty kay and nbc's political director and chief white house correspondent chuck todd. captions paid for by nbc-universal television this thing could go on for a while. the final results from newt