at our nbc news headquarters in new york. is your husband michael? sorry to tell you, he's been killed. [ crying ] she is like poisoned candy. attractive on the outside, but deadly on the inside. she was pure evil. >> he fell in love with her, thought she was the end all be all. >> she had everything she wanted. but she longed for one thing more.

>> this guy was going to get killed. >> ooand then it happened. her new husband murdered in their townhouse. >> she needed to get to the house fast. >> was this crime all that it seemed? >> she played such a good game that people didn't know. >> a surprise was coming. >> you don't know what to think. >> and it would arrive from beyond the grave. >> there has not been a story like this ever. is she the villain? is she the victim? who knows? that is what makes her riveting. she is infamous and probably will be forever. >> the sting. hello and welcome to dateline extra. i'm craig melvin. what started as an instant attraction transformed into a

fatal attraction. in the beginning dalia and mike seemed madly in love. and then dalia was told mike had been shot dead. there was more than one twist in this case and it would take investigators nearly a decade to unravel the tale of sex, lies and videotape. here is dennis murphy. >> the mesmerizing story begins in a place where consumption and the envy index are high. palm beach florida. >> it is the winter wonder land of the wealthy. you can drive over the bridge and feel the rarefied air of the mansions. >> jan tuckwood says some can't resist. >> most are glueinfluenced, the

richness is right there. how can they get a piece of it. >> they lived in a high end condo, fine for two up and comers. they had big dreams like any couple young and in love. aspirational at the very least. she had a $20,000 diamond eng e engagement ring. he had a porsche in the garage. their story for public consumption, the g rated version, was love at first sight. mike was an internet entrepreneur and dalia the business woman he fell head over heels for. three months after their first meeting, marriage was inevitable. but a problem in their paradise. mike was married. lawyers jason and josh arranged a quickie divorce so the ballad

of mike and dalia could begin. >> he felt as though this is it and i'm going to have a family with her and we'll grow old together. they hit it off right away. they had a lot of things in common. >> dalia is a real estate a little. -- agent. >> and she was successful and didn't need more. >> sexual attraction or more going on? >> sexual attraction, absolutely. >> with the divorce in hand, they dashed to the courthouse to marry and soon fell into comfortable routines. morning workouts at the gym, steamy date nights at five star hotels and love notes on the fridge. he seemed to be dalia he's dream guy. and three months into the marriage according to michael, she told him she was pregnant. he was thrilled. life was good. life was good. but early one morning in august 2009, it all came to an end for the two, with a finality as certain as crime scene tape strung across the front of the condo.

dalia had been located at her 6:00am workout by the boynton beach police. >> this is sargent frank ranzie, boynton beach police department. >> is everything okay? >> ma'am, i need to talk to you. it's very urgent. when you come home, it involves your husband. there's been an incident. >> reporter: she was instructed to get home right away. when she arrived, she saw police cars out front, everything that spells disaster just ahead. it just so happened a camera crew from the tv show "cops" was there, filming an episode with boynton beach police when dalia got the awful news. >> ms. dippolito? i'm sgt. ranzie. i'm the one that called you. thank you for coming. i'm sorry to call you. listen, we had a report about a disturbance at your house. >> reporter: the officer was direct with dalia. he said there'd been an intruder in the house and several shots were fired. >> is your husband michael? okay, i'm sorry to tell you, ma'am, he's been killed. he's been killed ma'am. >> oh no! oh no. i want to see him. >> i can't let you see him, ma'am. we have to do our job.

>> reporter: michael dippolito, her husband of six months, gunned down in their townhouse. the cops were telling her, but she would not be allowed to go inside to see the body. >> i need you to go with these detectives okay? >> oh no. no. >> does he have enemies? is there anyone who would want to hurt him? >> oh no. no, no. >> if you want to help out your husband you need to go to the station and tell these gentlemen and tell us everything you know about who he knows and who he's connected to. >> reporter: the investigation was only minutes old and the officers told dalia they'd need her cooperation in understanding what had happened. >> we're gonna do everything we can okay. so we need your help. we need to get your husband's killer ma'am. >> reporter: dalia was whisked off to the police station where she'd soon find out that the detectives thought they knew much more about the details of the crime than they were letting on. this case was about to get very complicated, oh yes. coming up -- the questions began. it seems that undercover agents had their eyes and hidden cameras trained on dalia.

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welcome back. dalia had gone to the gym one morning and returned home to what seemed like a nightmare. police were outside her florida condo with news that her husband, mike, had been killed. but there was more to the story. much more. turns out detectives already knew quite a bit about dalia thanks to a tipster and an elaborate hidden camera investigation. here is dennis murphy with moore. >> dalia had been called home from the gym to be told by police that an intruder had murdered her husband michael. >> sorry to tell you, ma'am, he's been killed.

>> dal i can't was ruia was rus police department for the start of interviews. she began by telling detectives that michael wasn't squeaky clean. >> mike she said was a convicted felon, a swindler who bilked thousands from gullible investors by selling them phony currency securities. >> it was for taking money, it was like -- 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. >> people weren't happy that he was getting probation because it was a lot of money.

>> find out who he owed suggested dalia and you'll find the killer. the cops listened, but changed the focus of their questioning to the couple themselves. dalia and michael, the newlyweds of six months. >> we're fine, like there's nothing. >> no problems between you guys. no financial problems no -- >> no, there's nothing. his business had slowed down, you know. >> but the cops were toying with dalia. they thought they knew so much more about the nudely wedding whos. did they ever. let's freeze the action in the interview room for a second and roll everything back a few days. that is when a man walked into the boynton beach pd with a story to tell. his lover was shopping for a hit man. the detective didn't know what to make of it. >> at first when he is giving you this information, you don't know what to think. here is a guy who is claiming that he is sleeping with a guy's

wife and now she's trying to get somebody to kill him. >> pretty juicy story. >> exactly. >> the detective had the story run the man down from the top. mohammed said he was a hart time being part-time actor who worked at a convenience store and was friends with benefits for years. and then she asked him for help in finding a hitman to kill her husband. >> he said i'm sleeping with this guy's wife but at the same time, i didn't want this guy to be killed. >> but the detective wondered if he was being sold a story since this mohammed guy didn't know very much about the woman he claimed to be sleeping with. >> 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 stipulatipster he story credible, a life was on the line. so the detectives enlisted mohammed as a confidential informant and gave him a story to tell his part-time lover, that he found her hitman who could pulling off the job can be. >> either this guy was lying to us or it was true. we hadn't valley dated tu hadn' information yet. >> 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 this 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, and not only are we watching her, we are also hearing what is going on in the informant's car live.

>> running down the license plates and registration yield the name of a 26-year-old woman, dalia, the same woman who would later be seen on videotape grieving widow. police officers didn't have to wait long for confirmation. the woman really appeared to be in the market for a trigger man. >> less than a minute or so, she begins talking about hiring somebody to kill her husband. >> he's not doing dental work to get the story out. >> which shocked us. >> the meeting seemed to be all business. dalia produced photos for of her husband for mohammed to hand over to the hitman. dalia brought something else the hitman had requested. cash to buy the gun that would be used. >> i brought $1200.

he is asking for $1200? when are you going to give him the money? >> today. >> shall i turns the money over. >> yes. >> is that crime at that moment? >> not enough yet. we didn't have enough yet. we wanted to go a little bit further with this case. >> the police were about to test dalia and try to get their evidence on camera. coming up -- >> our undercover agent tells her i'll put two shots to the head. no remorse. >> another undercover sting. and a plan is set in motion for a deadly house call. when the sting continues. l. when the sting continues [farmers bell]

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welcome back. dalia was sitting in a police interview room after she had just been told that her husband was dead. with cameras rolling, the scene was remarkable. not for what was being said, but for what both sides were holding back. dalia thought she was playing the cops but did not know that

they had recorded something else which would prove quite damning for dalia. here again is dennis murphy. >> with the help of a confidential informant, the police department had apparently confirmed that woman named dalia wanted to hire a hitman to kill her hufs and husband and it alo be caught on tape. >> reporter: so the police instructed their informant, a man named mohamed, to help set up another meeting with dalia. this time it would be with the hit man who would be, of course, an undercover police officer -- an agent. same drill again. a meeting place outside a store. and a car wired for video and audio. >> hey? >> hey. >> we're staying in here, right? >> all right, yeah, yeah. >> okay. >> man, you look good. >> thank you. >> reporter: in that meeting

they began making plans. she also tells our hitman where they live. she provides a schedule where her husband goes -- comes and goes in the morning, where he's going to be the next day. >> it shows her intent. and the fact that here she is meeting with a complete stranger who she believes it's a hitman -- she actually goes as far as saying, "hey, i'd rather if it happened here." >> how are we gonna do it successfully -- if we go ahead and do it at, like, at the house, like, how do we -- how do we -- how soon could you do it? >> she just wants it done and the sooner the better. >> reporter: 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 and says, "yeah, once i set my mind to do somethin', i do it." >> you definitely want to do this? >> i'm positive, like, 5,000% sure. >> reporter: the pretend hitman told her he'd use a gun. >> give him a tap-tap. >> he gets two in the head. that's it. you know? >> our undercover agent tells her, "hey, i'm gonna put two in his head," meaning two shots to the head, and it doesn't even phase her. no remorse.

>> reporter: dalia and the hit man, who was really an undercover cop, seemed to agree that he would kill her husband in two days time. he told her to be prepared to go to the gym early that morning. >> by the time you get back from the gym, you are going to find two things -- his dead body in the house, all right, or nothing. >> all right. >> reporter: the day before, he called dalia with further instructions. >> tomorrow morning, you gotta be out by 6:00. >> okay. >> doesn't hesitate, doesn't change her mind, none of that. she just says, "okay." and that's it. >> reporter: the next morning, everything was going according to plan. dalia left for the gym. undercover cops tailing her. >> one of our sergeants makes a phone call while she is at the gym. and then we inform her that something happened at her house and she needs to get to the house fast. >> she doesn't know details. she just knows something has happened, get home quickly. >> yes. and she shows up at the house, and once again, she makes contact with our sergeant.

and she's informed of her husband's death, that he's been killed. >> i'm sorry to tell you, ma'am. he's been killed. he's been killed, ma'am. >> oh, no! no. dear god, no. >> if you look at that video, she begins to react before she's even told the whole story. according to that sergeant who was actually making contact with her, he didn't see any tears. >> reporter: and when they brought her to the police station, investigators were curious to see how far dalia would push her scenario blaming the murder on one of her husband's former enemies. the detectives were 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 pay back. >> she mentioned how he had enemies, he was on probation. she didn't even bother to ask how it happened. >> reporter: to their experienced eyes and ears, dalia was making a few mistakes in how she was telling her theory of the crime. but they wanted to push her some more, see if they could get her to confess to her suspected murder plot then and there. would she be obviously rattled

when they led in a familiar face, the person she believed to be the hitman? >> 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. >> reporter: the man before her, actually the undercover police officer, was presented to dalia here as someone they'd just nabbed for the killing of her husband. >> do you know her? >> mm. >> put your head up and look at her. put your head up. >> i've never seen him. >> reporter: the detectives finally put their cards on the table. they told dalia that they knew this was the supposed hitman. and that meeting where they planned to kill her husband? all recorded on tape. >> that's an undercover police officer. we filmed everything that you did. we recorded everything that you did. you're going to jail for solicitation of first-degree murder of your husband. >> i didn't do anything. >> did you hear what i just told you? >> i heard what you said, but i didn't do anything. >> everything you -- listen to me. everything has been recorded.

you were photographed in the convertible when you sat at his car in the front of cvs. what do you want to do? >> oh, my god. >> reporter: rock steady to all appearances, dalia swore up and down she had nothing to do with the death of her husband. but the police had another surprise for her, truly a humdinger. they were about to walk a ghost to the doorway of the interview room. coming up. someone is back from the grave. ♪

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this is the hoyer hour's top stories. president trump took time on christmas eve to air his grievances about the impeachment process. the president delivered a sharp rebuke to democrats accusing nancy pelosi . and thousands of anti-government protestorses clashed with police

in hong kong. they smashed shop windows and police fired tear gas. now back to "dateline." welcome back. investigators thought they had caught dalia on camera orchestrating a plot to kill her husband, yet she was telling them that she was innocent. was it possible that police somehow had it wrong? it was time for detectives to see if the other half of the marriage could provide any explanation. once again, here is dennis murphy. >> reporter: imagine for a minute you're dalia dippolito. homicide detectives in a police interrogation room are accusing you of plotting your husband's murder. dalia didn't know it then, but her husband michael dippolito was still very much alive, and was about to come face to face with his wife of six months, who

seemed to want him dead. >> i'm thinkin' in my head, "i'm lucky. i'm lucky." but i'm like, "i'm so screwed right now." the worst day in the world. >> reporter: before waking up that day, michael dippolito was clueless police thought his wife of six months had hired a hit man to kill him. instead, he believed he and dalia had begun a loving new chapter together. they were about to start a family. she told him she was pregnant. dalia was at the gym when those tv cameras from the reality show "cops" captured the moment police knocked on mike's front door. >> police department open your door! sorry, i'm srgt. sheridan from the boynton police department. >> yes, hi. >> can i talk to you? >> yes, for sure. >> we say, "hey, listen, this is what we're doing. we've been conducting an investigation." >> he says, "your wife is gonna have you killed today. you have to come with us." and i just looked at him. and i'm like i mean, it hit me. >> you don't hear those words every day? >> no. >> reporter: the officers told

michael he had to come with them right away to the boynton beach police station before his wife got back from the gym. >> so, "grab your stuff, get in the car. we're outta here." >> yes. >> reporter: meanwhile, outside his townhouse, the police were starting to stage-dress a phony murder scene, all to trick dalia into thinking the hit man she had apparently hired had successfully completed the job. >> reporter: boynton beach police recorded those moments, as did the crew from the cops tv show. but the murky involvement of a tv show would later complicate accusations against dalia. >> reporter: at the station, the detectives cued up their own surveillance videos showing mike the husband dalia's two meetings as she seemed to shop for a hit man. >> i'm positive, like five thousand percent sure. >> reporter: then the police allowed michael to watch his wife's real-time police interrogation going on in another room. dalia, who had no idea her husband was alive, told her police interviewer she had nothing to do with whatever had happened to him even after they brought in the undercover cop

who posed as her hitman. >> put your head up and look at her. >> put your head up. >> i've never seen him. >> i'm watchin'. and i am just watching and i'm waitin' for her to give it up. and you know what? the girl never gave it up. >> we're going to go ahead and arrest. >> reporter: dalia was arrested and handcuffed. and cameras were still rolling when police walked a very-much alive michael into the doorway of the interrogation room. >> oh, my god. >> he's alive. >> and they say, "you know this guy?" and i'm standin' there, probably from twice the distance of us. >> come here please. come here. >> i can't. you can't fix this. >> why not? i didn't do anything to you. >> i heard you. >> mike, come here please. come here. >> and that's when she says, "come here. i love you. i love you." and -- and i told her. i said, "look, i can't." you know, i said "you can't fix this." >> reporter: now it was michael's turn to tell the police his story warts and all, correcting for the record that love at first sight fairytale. >> i -- i can tell ya i didn't meet her in a church. >> she is actually an escort. that's how i met her. she came to my office one day. >> reporter: dalia denies she was an escort.

and though mike describes ordering her up from an escort service, he claims even now there was a mutual attraction that went far beyond that initial transaction. >> when i met dalia we seemed to connect instantly. we hit it off right away. >> it wasn't just bed? >> no. it was everything about it. we just clicked, you know, be it our sex life, be it just our spare time, be it the things we liked, all that. and it just happened. >> reporter: three-months after they met, michael divorced his first wife and married dalia that same week. >> i had just purchased a home, and we're gonna start a life together. and we talked about traveling and doing things, you know, and we had, like, a future planned. >> reporter: but there was a hitch to michael's future, the terms of his probation prevented him from 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 the probation lifted. >> so that was your ticket to freedom? >> pay back the money and yeah. and get my freedom.

you know, and dalia said she would help me with some of the money, about $90,000. and i'm like, "absolutely, let's do it." >> reporter: michael says he and dalia agreed that they would pool their money to pay off dipollito's debt. >> "this is great." you know, she's pushing me forward, too. i thought, like, "okay, i'm gonna get off probation. it's very exciting for me." >> then the plan to get michael out of hock changed again. according to michael, another lawyer said to him, look, you own your townhouse free and clear, why not just turn the title over to dalia? then she can do money things for you, no problem. so michael gave her the deed to the town house as well as $100,000 cash. his part of the payback of the restitution debt. the money was supposed to go to his attorney but it never got there. >> i'll tell ya where it unraveled. as soon as i got dalia that $100,000 is where it went downhill. >> reporter: and he says, after dalia got that nice sized chunk of change, he started to have a

string of run-ins with the police, including one night after 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 actually started crying to this cop. and i'm like, "look man, i haven't done anything in five and a half years." i don't know how, why or what happened. they let me go. i couldn't even believe it. >> and you would've gone back to prison because you violated probation? >> uh, yeah. yeah, absolutely. >> reporter: now he didn't want to think that 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, i said you know, only when i'm with you. my life isn't this exciting. in five and a half years on probation, i didn't have one run in with the police. i'm with this girl six months. and the whole police department knows me. i might as well glow fluorescent. >> so, you're lookin' at her sideways? >> i'm just like, i'm doin' the best i can to be a good husband, give her a chance. >> no reason to believe she's faking it with you?

>> no. i mean, she may have been a bad actress the day they caught her on camera, but as far as with me, she was an academy award winner. >> reporter: he says dalia also seemed to be playing the role as an expectant mother. >> there never was a baby, was there, mike? >> never was a baby. >> reporter: another thing dalia was not expecting was the formal charge being filed against her, solicitation to commit first-degree murder with a firearm. >> hello. >> hello. >> hey, it's me. >> reporter: 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. >> what they're saying is not true. >> you said you wanted to have me killed. i heard that. what's your problem? >> that's not true. that is not true. >> how is it not true? they're charging your [ bleep ]. don't you get it? >> mike, 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?" you know, "i love you," and over and over. and i'm like, "are you kidding?" i said, "well what do you want me to do?" >> you're supposed to get me an attorney please so i can talk to you. >> reporter: even though she would later be released under

house arrest, while still in jail dalia begged the guy she was accused of trying to kill, to help her find a lawyer to beat the charge. michael saw the phone call as an opportunity to play let's make a deal. >> i said, "get me my house back, less of all the problems and legal bills." i said, "and i'll get you a lawyer." >> so listen, sign my property back to me and i'll help you. ok? >> i'm not signing anything. >> so i can't help you. >> reporter: and because of florida's strong open records logs, her jail house phone calls and all the police surveillance tapes made by the boynton beach cops would become public. they were out there, viral, on youtube. >> reporter: those images of dalia boo-hooing online would be seen by thousands of viewers who lambasted her in the comments section. but the people with the only opinion that mattered weren't convened on youtube. they were in a west palm beach, florida, courtroom. what would a jury of her peers make of dalia and michael?

coming up -- the case heads into court and outed more secrets. >> it was like a movie. it was unreal. >> seeking their 15 minutes of fame lose all sense of judgment and common sense. >> was this whole thing a hoax? when the sting continues. when the sting continues they're walking into a trap. your orders are to deliver a message calling off tomorrow's attack. if you fail we will lose sixteen hundred men. your brother among them. we need to keep moving. come on! there's only one way this war ends. last man standing.

(vo) the flock blindly flying south for the winter. they never stray from their predetermined path.

but this season, a more thrilling journey is calling. defy the laws of human nature. at the season of audi sales event. what started as a tentative police sting operation was now being argued in front of a jury in the west palm beach florida courthouse. dalia was accused of solicitation to commit murder in the first degree. conviction could get her up to 30 years in prison.

she pleaded not guilty. the lead prosecutor would introduce a trove of evidence, photographs, audio recordings and videos, including that sting in which dalia tells the undercover cop that she wanted her husband dead asap. >> i'm positive like 5,000% sure. >> it was unreal, like something out of a movie. >> dalia had already spent almost two years under house arrest in her mother's home by the time the trial began in april of 2011. >> they say love is blind. in this case, love was blind, deaf and dumb. >> reporter: the jury would hear the prosecution argue that the six-month marriage of michael and dalia was a fraud from the beginning. >> she made him believe that this was an amazing marriage. he never wanted to believe that his wife, the person that he loved more than anything, wanted to have him killed.

>> reporter: the prosecutor said dalia was juggling two lovers on the side and was trying to enlist each of them in getting her husband bumped off. >> she's playing all of these guys. they're all thinking they're the one. and the only person that she cared about was herself. >> reporter: 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. >> just want my life with you. let's get this -- arrested. >> reporter: to the prosecution, her scheme was apparent -- plant drugs on michael, tip the cops and get him busted back to prison on a parole violation. >> she tries for months to have him arrested. >> reporter: the alleged motive -- greed. prosecutors said she wanted to keep michael's condo and his money all for herself. but when the schemes didn't work out, argued the prosecution, dalia settled on the fatal solution. she'd simply have michael killed so everything would be hers. >> sure you want this dude killed? >> reporter: the prosecution's case looked airtight with all those mesmerizing tapes of dalia

plotting out a murder, and also that video from the "cops" tv show with her looking unglued as she learned of her husband's murder. what no one could have predicted, though, was dalia's defense. >> we live in a world where people seeking their 15 minutes of fame lose all sense of judgment and common sense. >> reporter: dalia's defense attorney michael salnick said this whole crazy story was in fact all about dalia's husband's vanity -- and his thirst for fame. it was mike who was really behind the faked murder, its mastermind, just 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. >> reporter: the defense argued it was all a tv pitch, michael auditioning for his big break.

>> the evidence will show that the plot for the contract killing of mike dippolito was never real. mike dippolito hoped to capture the attention of someone in reality tv. >> reporter: the defense attorney argued that dalia was in on the reality show idea the whole time. that scene out front of dalia wailing? acting, said the defense. >> dalia knew that mike wasn't harmed and hers is a fake reaction to a fake event. >> reporter: the defense pushed michael dippolito hard on cross-examination, accusing him of dragging dalia down with his stupid idea of being a tv star. >> this 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, uh, completely made up. >> all right, let's bring in our jury, please. >> reporter: and after two weeks of trial testimony, the jury agreed. >> we find the defendant guilty of solicitation to commit first-degree murder. >> reporter: in the end, the judge sentenced her to 20-years,

and gave dalia a piece of his mind before sending her behind bars. >> it was weeks and months that you continued with these different schemes to try to rid yourself of your husband. it was pure evil. >> reporter: but that wasn't the final note in the ballad of mike and dalia. in a move that surprised the prosecution -- just three months after sentencing, the judge who called dalia "pure evil" allowed her to post a $500,000 bond. she was released from jail and was again placed under house arrest while she appealed her conviction. fast forward three years, and dalia won her appeal for a new trial. >> the judge in her first trial failed to properly filter jurors for potential bias and exposure to pretrial publicity. >> reporter: brian claypool is one of dalia's new lawyers. >> some of the jurors said she was guilty in front of the entire jury pool, which contaminated the jury pool.

>> reporter: and so -- more than seven years after dalia dippolito was charged with hiring a hitman to kill her husband, she would go on trial again. >> when she heard the news that she had been granted a retrial, she was extremely overjoyed because she felt like she would have a second chance to have the truth be told. >> reporter: she would speak exclusively to "dateline." and oh, what a story she'd tell, this real housewife of boynton beach. so much better than reality tv. coming up -- >> i just started manufacturing all of these things. >> did you want to have your husband mike dead? >> no. >> murder for hire? or audition for television? >> dalia was used as a pawn by the boynton beach police department to manufacture good tv. >> a cliffhanger of an episode is coming up. when the sting continues. phones down.

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she had been. welcome back. the verdict was yev overturned. before her second trial could even begin, dahlia's legal team would double down on their stranger than strange tv and dahlia would speak with us with more bizarre claims. with the conclusion of our story, here's ed murphy. and now the conclusion of the michael and dahlia show. five years after dahlia was

sentenced five years for hiring a hitman to kill her husband, back in court facing a possible 30-year stretch. >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon. >> first, at pretrial hearing as they tried to get the case dismissed, her new team retested a new reality tv defense. that she and her former lover, a tv extra mohammed had been planning a tv presentation to be posted on social media. those in-car meeting weren't about arranging the hit. they were all about that tv presentation. sheclaimed she wanted to back out of the tv project but mohammed was having none of that. >> at that point he lifted his shirt and showed me his gun and threatened me. he threatened to hurt me, hurt my family. >> mohammed the informant denied threatening her or participating

in a reality tv production. >> the reality tv defense plays into the whole story. >> dahlia's defense was weirdly appropriate. >> seems to make total sense because the whole story doesn't make sengs. throw in that angle. i want to be famous. so let's do this stunt,s if it was a stunt. it just adds to the weirdness. >> the story didn't fly with the new judge. the motion to dismiss was thrown out. and so just last week, dalia showed up at the palm beach county courthouse once again -- new trial, new jury. >> we'll have the opening statements by the attorneys. >> reporter: the prosecution was the same as ever though a xe skeleton of the whole story t. is based 100% on her actions and intent. 100%. >> we have it all on tape, he

said. dalia hiring a man to kill her husband. >> two bullets put in her husband's head for nothing. >> then dalia's turn with defense presented by attorney crien claypool saying the police trapped dalia in a reality tv production for their own 15 minutes of fame on the "cops" tv show. >> you can't break the rules and then be rewarded by breaking the rules. that's really what this case is about. >> everybody is entitled to a police investigation that has integrity. this never really was a credible police investigation. rather, dalia was used as a pawn by the boynton beach police department to manufacture good tv for the "cops" tv show. >> dalia's attorney say boynton police undermined its own investigation when the public information officer had the video posted online. >> within several hours, video

footage by cops and boynton beach p.d., you went back to the police department and posted this on youtube. correct? >> correct. >> you knew at that time there was a pending criminal investigation of dalia dippolito, correct? >> correct. >> in the end, dalia's team contended boynton beach tv violated dalia's constitutional rights. jurors, they said, look at the motives of the man running the surveillance video and find their target dalian not guilt-oguildalia not guilty. >> this was a police department in love with -- tossed dalia under the bus. >> a police department can't toss a client's rights under the bus to make good television. >> as dalia waited for a jury of six for her fate flanked by attorneys she spoke exclusively

to district attorney. >> this has been a nightmare. >> she claimed being the victim of domestic abuse, an accusation her ex-husband strongly denied. she says she was used by the boynton police. >> we're here because they turned what should have been a complaint in getting me help and questioning me and stuff into this big production for a "cops" tv show deadline and started manufacturing all of these things and creating these scenarios and putting me in this situations that look horrible. >> the police say they did not ignore a domestic abuse case. they were trying to stop a murder for hire plot and those "cops" tv cams didn s change th substance of their investigation into dalia. >> did you want to have your husband mike dead? >> no. >> were you soliciting his murder as you are charged in this courthouse? >> absolutely not. no. >> after ten hours of deliberation half of the jury seemed to agree. >> to the judge, we the youy

after further deliberation still cannot reach a unanimous verdict. >> the judge forced to declare a mistrial. meanwhile, mike dippolito was glued to the tv beside himself impl. >> to be honest i was watching and i said, what? what do these people need to see? she's on tv saying she wants me killed. one was a police officer. >> he said distracted by the defense team hocus-pocus. >> everybody in the world, sad to say, she's basically beat the legal system twice now. >> do you think she should do hard time. >> honest answer, i'd like to see her go and taste t. under house arrest, dalia went home again to her new baby boy. a child fathered by a man with an extensive rap sheet. so on june 2, 2017, she went on trial again for the third time. this time the prosecutors would come up short in the previous trial with a shorthanded account

of the case presented the whole shakespearean version of dalia's story. >> murder her husband in two blood, and two bullets put in his head. >> this time the judge admitted testimony previously not presented that dalia once tried to poison her husband. >> she told you she researched something on the internet about some kind of antifreeze that's odorless, doesn't have a smell, doesn't have a color, and she put it in his tea. >> and that she had previously tried to hire a hitman to kill her husband before the murder for hire plot caught on tape. >> i'm so horny for you -- >> and lured text messages read between dalia and her lover in which dalia discussed framing mike by putting cocaine in his car and then alerting the police. >> we need drugs in the car and it will put him away for a while. >> this time dalia's defense wasn't strong enough for that onslaught of evidence. amp just 90 minutes of deliberation the jury returned its verdict. >> we find the defendant guilty

of solicitation to commit first-degree murder. >> dalia was taken away. her family sobbing. the following month after a crushing impact statement by mike. >> the girl tried killing me four, five times. handed me an iced tea with antifreeze in it. smiled at me. >> the judge sentenced dalia to six years in state prison. a month later back in court again her lawyers arguing the trial wasn't val id because of testimony about dalia trying to kill her husband wasn't valid. by now she was hooked. it would go to the supreme court of the united states next. but for now dalia dippolito the real housewife of boynton beach who became a worldwide reality tv sensation is now florida inmate w-42222. yes, really.

>> that's all for this edition of "dateline" extra. i'm greg melvin. thank you for watching. ♪ no. it can't be. it can't be. he was so big in my life that the thought that anything bad could have happened to him. it didn't make sense to me. >> reporter: glamorous, good-looking. the golden. the dashing hollywood movie executive. >> he was more like a movie star in real life. >> just so charismatic. >> the perfect southern california family. >> h