i've seen the beauty of these two people, especially loni. she adopted those girls. good people. it does my heart good to see that. i know i did the right thing. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm andrea canning. thank you for watching. [theme music] [music playing] hello, i'm andrea canning, she's like poison candy. attractive on the outside, but deadly on the inside.

she was pure evil. he fell in love with her. he thought she was the end all, be all. andrea canning (voiceover): she had everything she wanted, but she longed for one thing more. this guy was going to get killed. andrea canning (voiceover): then it happened. her new husband, police said, murdered in their townhouse. something happened at her house, and she needs to get to the house fast. [crying] please, no, no! andrea canning (voiceover): was this crime all that it seemed? she played such a good game that people didn't know. andrea canning (voiceover): a surprise was coming. you don't know what to think. andrea canning (voiceover): and it would arrive from beyond the grave. there has not been a story like this ever in palm beach county history. is she the villain? is she the victim? who knows? that is what makes her riveting.

and she is infamous and probably will be forever. hello, and welcome to "dateline." when dalia and mike dippolito first met, it was instant fireworks, an immediate attraction that turned into a fatal attraction. and to crack the case, investigators needed to know was dalia diabolical or an unwitting pawn in a hoax gone wrong? it would take eight years to unwind this true tale of sex, lies, and videotape. here's dennis murphy with "the sting." dennis murphy (voiceover): the mesmerizing story of dalia dippolito with a fittingly preposterous ending begins in a place where conspicuous consumption and the envy index are as high as the humidity-- palm beach, florida. jan tuckwood: it is the winter wonderland of the wealthy.

you can drive over the bridge and immediately feel the rarefied air, the mansions, and the hedges that hide the mansions. dennis murphy (voiceover): jan tuckwood, then senior editor for the palm beach post, said some mainlanders can't resist the wannabe allure of palm beach. most people on the mainland are influenced. that richness is right there. and how can they get a piece of it? dennis murphy (voiceover): over the bridge, past the interstate, newlyweds dalia and mike dippolito lived in a quarter million dollar condo in high and dry boynton beach. not exactly the same zip code as palm beach, but perfectly fine for two up and comers. dalia and mike had big dreams like any couple young and in love. aspirational, at the very least, she had a $20,000 diamond 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 businesswoman, he fell head over heels for.

three months after their first meeting, marriage was inevitable. dennis murphy (voiceover): there was a teensy problem in their paradise. mike dippolito was married. lawyers jason brodie and josh friedman arranged a quickie divorce so the ballad of mike and dalia could begin. he fell in love with her. he thought she was the end all, be all. he felt as though this was it, and 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. they had a lot of things in common. they enjoyed the same things. dalia is a real estate agent. yes, and that's wh attracted him to her, was that she was successful on her own and didn't need him. are we talking about sexual attraction, or is there more going on here? oh, there's sexual attraction, absolutely. dennis murphy (voiceover): with a divorce in hand, mike and dalia 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 dahlia's dream guy. and three months into the marriage, according to michael, she told him she was pregnant. he was thrilled. 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. dahlia had been located at her 6:00 am workout by the boynton beach police. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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.

dennis murphy (voiceover): the officer was direct with dalia. he said there had been an intruder in the house, and several shots were fired. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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. dennis murphy (voiceover): the investigation was only minutes old, and the officers told dalia they'd need her cooperation in understanding what had happened. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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. andrea canning (voiceover): coming up, the questions began. it seems that undercover agents had their eyes and hidden cameras trained on mrs. dippolito. when "dateline" continues. ooo! our car's value went up! maybe we should track all our cars' value on carvana? we need more trackers! oh! i'm getting a value update! do you see which one is going off? how's it trackin'? some dips, some rises. now what? "hold?" sold. track your car's value on carvana today. why pay more for an effective daily body lotion? gold bond healing lotion hydrates for half the price of the leading daily moisturizing lotion. it visibly heals and moisturizes dry skin in just 1 use. choose gold bond. my moderate to severe crohn's symptoms kept me out of the picture. now i have skyrizi. ♪ i've got places to go and i'm feeling free. ♪

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had been called home from the gym to be told by police out front that an intruder had murdered her husband, michael. dennis murphy (voiceover): dalia was rushed to the boynton beach police department for the start of interviews. she began by telling the detectives that michael, her deceased husband, wasn't exactly squeaky clean. dennis murphy (voiceover): mike dippolito, she said, was a convicted felon, a swindler who'd bilked thousands of dollars from gullible investors by selling them phony currency securities. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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'd been ordered to make restitution to the victims he'd fleeced, an outstanding iou of $191,000. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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. dennis murphy (voiceover): but the cops were toying with dalia, holding back their best cards. they thought they knew so much more about the newlyweds. did they ever. let's freeze the action in the interview room for a sec and roll everything back a few days. that's when a man walked into the boynton beach pd

with a lurid story to tell. his married lover, he said, was shopping for a hitman. detective alex moreno didn't know what to make of this walk-in. at first, when he's giving you this information, you don't know what to think, you know? here's a guy who's claiming that he's sleeping with a guy's wife, and now she's trying to get somebody to kill him. it's a pretty juicy story. exactly. dennis murphy (voiceover): detective moreno had the tipster run his story down from the top. the man was named mohamed. and he said he was a part-time actor who worked at a convenience store. as he told it, he'd been friends with benefits with a woman for years. they'd met for the occasional casual sex. then she asked him for help in finding a hitman to kill her husband. he says, you know what? yeah, i'm 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. dennis murphy (voiceover): but the detective wondered if he was being sold a cock and bull story since this mohamed guy didn't seem to even

know very much about the woman he claimed to be sleeping with. the detective challenged him. all the information he had was her first name. he didn't know where she lived. he didn't even know who her husband was. dennis murphy (voiceover): while they debated whether or not the tipster's story was credible, they knew that a life may be on the line. so the detectives took it to the next level. they enlisted mohamed as a confidential informant and gave him a story to tell his part-time lover, that he'd found her a hitman who could pull off the job. two things could happen. either this guy was lying to us, or it was true. we hadn't validated the information yet until he actually makes contact. dennis murphy (voiceover): mohamed, the tipster, set up an assignation with the woman for the very 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 this woman was, where she lived, who her husband was, and just what the heck was going on.

alex moreno: 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 also hearing what's going on in the informant's car, live. dennis murphy (voiceover): running down the license plates and registration yielded the name of a 26-year-old woman, dalia dippolito, the same woman who would later be seen on that videotape as the grieving widow. police officers didn't have to wait long before the informant's story was confirmed. this woman in the car 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. unprompted-- he's not doing dental work to get the story out of her. no, which, you know, it shocked us. dennis murphy (voiceover): the meeting seemed to be all business.

dalia produced photos of her husband for mohamed to hand over to the hitman. dennis murphy (voiceover): dalia brought something else the hitman had requested-- cash to buy the gun that would be used. she turns the money over. yes. is that a crime, detective, at that moment? it's not enough yet. we don't have enough yet. we want to go a little bit further with this case. the police were about to test dalia to see if she was determined to have her new husband killed. andrea canning (voiceover): coming up. our undercover agent tells her, hey, i'm going to put two shots to the head and doesn't even phase her. no remorse. andrea canning (voiceover): another undercover sting and a plan is set in motion for a deadly house call. when "dateline" continues.

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cdennis murphyss. (voiceover): with the help of a confidential informant, the boynton beach police department had apparently confirmed that a woman named dalia dippolito wanted to hire a hitman to kill her husband. and it all seemed to be caught on tape. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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 hitman 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. in that meeting, they begin making plans. she also tells our hitman 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. she shows her intent. and the fact that here she is meeting with a complete stranger who she believes is a hitman, she actually goes as far as saying, hey, i'd rather if it happened here. 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 and says, yeah. once i set my mind to do something, i do it. dennis murphy (voiceover): the pretend hitman told her he'd use a gun, give him a tap, tap. our undercover agent tells her, hey, i'm going to put two in his head, meaning two shots to the head, and doesn't even phase her. no remorse. dennis murphy (voiceover): dalia and the hitman, 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. dennis murphy (voiceover): the day before, he called dalia with further instructions. doesn't hesitate, doesn't change her mind, none of that. she just says, ok, and that's it. dennis murphy (voiceover): the next morning, everything

was going according to plan. dalia left for the gym, undercover cops tailing her. alex moreno: one of our sergeants makes a phone call while she's at the gym and then 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. alex moreno: 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. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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.

she mentions how he had enemies, he was on probation. she didn't even bother to ask how it happened. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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 let in a familiar face, the person she believed to be the hitman? dennis murphy (voiceover): the man before, actually, the undercover police officer, was presented to dalia here as someone they just nabbed for the killing of her husband. dennis murphy (voiceover): the detectives finally put their cards on the table. they told dalia that they knew this was the supposed hitman

and that the meeting where they planned to kill her husband all recorded on tape. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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. andrea canning (voiceover): coming up. andrea canning (voiceover): someone is back from the grave, when "dateline" continues.

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i'm jessica layton in new york. the death toll is rising in south korea after a plane from bangkok veered off the runway as it was landing in that country's southwest. south korean officials say 177 of the 181 people on board are dead. two were rescued alive with injuries, two are still missing. officials say the pilot declared may day after issuing a bird strike alert. and authorities say multiple body parts have washed ashore on the southern coast of california. nbc los angeles reports the first findings, a human leg, was discovered by a family on christmas morning on the shoreline of palos verdes estates. now, let's go back to "dateline."

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 thinking 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. dennis murphy (voiceover): before waking up that day, michael dippolito was clueless police thought his wife of six months had hired a hitman 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! [inaudible] - sorry. - yes. i'm sergeant sheridan with the boynton police department. - hi. may i talk to you? yes, for sure. we said, hey, listen, this is what we're doing. we've been conducting an investigation. he says your wife is going to 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. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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 out of here. yes. dennis murphy (voiceover): meanwhile, outside his townhouse, the police were starting to stage dress a phony murder scene, all to trick dalia into thinking the hitman she'd apparently hired had successfully completed the job. the hitman she'd he's been killed. [crying] dennis murphy (voiceover): 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. at the station, the detectives cued up their own surveillance videos, showing mike, the husband, dahlia's two meetings as she seemed to shop for a hitman. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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. i'm watching, and i'm just watching. and i'm waiting for her to give it up. and you know what? the girl never gave it up. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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. and they say, you know this guy? and i'm standing there, probably from twice the distance of us. and that's when she says, come here. i love you. i love you. and i told her. i said, look, i can't. you know, i said, you can't fix this. dennis murphy (voiceover): now it was michael's turn to tell the police his story, warts and all,

correcting for the record that love at first sight fairy tale. i can tell you, i didn't meet her in a church. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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, 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. dennis murphy (voiceover): three months after they met, michael divorced his first wife and married dalia that same week. i had just purchased a home, and we were going to start a life together. and we talked about traveling and doing things, you know, and we had, like, a future planned. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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. dennis murphy (voiceover): michael says he and dalia agreed that they would pool their money to pay off dippolito's debt. this is great, you know? she's pushing me forward, too. i thought, like, ok, i'm going to get off probation. it was 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 townhouse, as well as $100,000 cash, his part of that payback of the restitution debt. the money was supposed to go to his attorney, but it never got there. i'll tell you where it unraveled.

as soon as i got dalia that 100,000 is where it went downhill. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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. mike dippolito: i actually started crying to this cop. and i'm like, look, man, i haven't done anything in 5 and 1/2 years. i don't know how, why, or what happened. they let me go. i couldn't even believe it. and you would have gone back to prison because you violated probation. uh, yeah. yeah, absolutely. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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. and 5 and 1/2 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 looking at her sideways? i'm just like, i'm doing 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. dennis murphy (voiceover): he says dalia also seemed to be playing the role as an expectant mother. there never was a baby, was there, mike? there never was a baby. dennis murphy (voiceover): another thing dalia was not expecting was the formal charge being filed against her-- solicitation to commit first degree murder with a firearm. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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. 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, over and over. and i'm like, are you kidding? i said, well, what do you want me to do? i didn't do anything. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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, give me my house back, less of all the problems in legal bills, i said, and i'll get you a lawyer. dennis murphy (voiceover): and because of florida's strong open records law, her jailhouse phone calls and all the police surveillance tapes made by the boynton beach cops would become public. they were out there viral on youtube. [crying] dennis murphy (voiceover): those images of dalia boohooing 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? andrea canning (voiceover): coming up, the case heads into court, and out come more secrets. it was like something out of a movie. it was unreal. people seeking their 15 minutes of fame lose all sense of judgment and common sense. andrea canning (voiceover): was this whole thing a hoax? when "dateline" continues. let's monopoly go! friends are like money. keke, i won again? they make everything more fun. and you can never have enough! toodaloo. my moderate to severe crohn's symptoms kept me out of the picture. now i have skyrizi. ♪ i've got places to go and i'm feeling free. ♪

♪ control of my crohn's means everything to me. ♪ ♪ control is everything to me.♪ and now i'm back in the picture. feel significant symptom relief at 4 weeks with skyrizi, including less abdominal pain and fewer bowel movements. skyrizi helped visibly improve damage of the intestinal lining. and with skyrizi, many were in remission at 12 weeks, at 1 year, and even at 2 years. don't use if allergic. serious allergic reactions, increased infections, or lower ability to fight them may occur. before treatment, get checked for infections and tb. tell your doctor about any flu-like symptoms or vaccines. liver problems leading to hospitalization may occur when treated for crohn's. now's the time to take control of your crohn's. ♪ control is everything to me. ♪ ask your doctor about skyrizi, the #1 prescribed biologic in crohn's disease. why pay more for an effective daily body lotion? gold bond healing lotion the #1 prescribed biologic hydrates for half the price of the leading daily moisturizing lotion.

it visibly heals and moisturizes dry skin in just 1 use. choose gold bond. have you always had trouble with your weight? same. discover the power of wegovy®. with wegovy®, i lost 35 pounds. and some lost over 46 pounds. and i'm keeping the weight off. i'm reducing my risk. wegovy® is the only weight-management medicine proven to reduce risk of major cardiovascular events such as death, heart attack, or stroke in adults with known heart disease and obesity. don't use wegovy® with semaglutide or glp-1 medicines, or in children under 12. don't take if you or your family had mtc, men 2, or if allergic to it. tell your provider if you plan to have surgery or a procedure, are breastfeeding, pregnant, or plan to be. stop taking and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or any of these allergic reactions. serious side effects may include pancreas inflammation and gallbladder problems. call your prescriber if you have any of these symptoms.

wegovy® may cause low blood sugar in people with diabetes, especially if you take medicines to treat diabetes. call your prescriber about vision changes, if you feel your heart racing while at rest, or if you have mental changes. depression or thoughts of suicide may occur. common side effects include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, stomach pain, flu, or upset, headache, feeling tired, dizzy, or bloated, gas, and heartburn. some side effects lead to dehydration, which may cause kidney problems. with wegovy®, i'm losing weight, i'm keeping it off, and i'm lowering my cv risk. ask your prescriber about wegovy®. dennis murphy (voiceover): what started as a tentative police sting operation-- [crying] dennis murphy (voiceover): --was now being argued in front of a jury in the west palm

beach, florida courthouse. 28-year-old dalia dippolito 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. lead prosecutor liz parker would introduce a trove of evidence-- photographs, audio recordings, and videos, including that sting in which dalia tells an undercover cop posing as a hitman that she wanted her husband, mike dippolito, dead asap. it was unreal. it was like something out of a movie. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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 w-u. let's get this [bleep] arrested. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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 fake 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. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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. dennis murphy (voiceover): the defense attorney argued that dalia was in on the reality show idea the whole time. [crying] dennis murphy (voiceover): 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. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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 completely made up.

all right, let's bring in our jury, please. dennis murphy (voiceover): and after two weeks of trial testimony, the jury agreed. juror: we find the defendant guilty of solicitation to commit first degree murder. dennis murphy (voiceover): in the end, the judge sentenced her to 20 years and gave dalia a piece of his mind before sending her behind bars. judge: it was weeks and months that you continued with these different schemes to try to rid yourself of your husband. it was pure evil. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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.

dennis murphy (voiceover): brian claypool was 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. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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. andrea canning (voiceover): coming up. they just started manufacturing all of these things. did you want to have your husband, mike, dead? no. andrea canning (voiceover): murder for hire or audition for television? brian claypool: dalia dippolito was used as a pawn by the boynton beach police department to manufacture good tv.

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and see “wicked,” in theaters now. welcome back. i'm andrea canning. dalia dippolito was caught on tape plotting to have her husband, michael, killed. at trial, she mounted a defense no one saw coming, claiming that it was all a bizarre reality tv publicity stunt engineered by michael. the jury didn't buy it, and she was found guilty.

but in a case filled with twists, the verdict was overturned. it was now time for the retrial, and dalia's defense team had more tricks in store. here's dennis murphy with the conclusion of "the sting." dennis murphy (voiceover): and now the season finale of the dalia and michael dippolito show. more than seven years after dalia's outburst went viral-- [crying] dennis murphy (voiceover): --and five years after dahlia was sentenced to 20 years for hiring a hitman to kill her husband, she was back again in court on the same charge, facing a possible 30-year stretch. man: good afternoon, ms. dippolito. good afternoon. dennis murphy (voiceover): first, at a pretrial hearing, as they tried to get the entire case dismissed, dalia's new team road tested a new reality tv defense, that she and her former lover, the informant and a sometime tv extra named mohamed, had been planning a tv presentation to be posted on social media. those in-car meetings, she said, weren't about arranging a hit. they were all about that tv presentation.

the purpose of meeting him was to discuss the presentation and taping what was going to be on there. dennis murphy (voiceover): she claimed she'd wanted to back out of the purported tv project, but she insisted mohamed was having none of that. and at that point, he lifted his shirt and showed me his gun. and he threatened me. he threatened to hurt me. he threatened to hurt my family. dennis murphy (voiceover): mohamed, the informant, denied threatening her or participating in a reality tv production. the reality tv defense seems to play into this whole story. dennis murphy (voiceover): jan tuckwood, then senior editor for the palm beach post, said dalia's defense was weirdly appropriate. it just seems to make total sense because the whole story doesn't make sense. so you just throw in that angle-- i want to be famous. so let's do this stunt, if it was a stunt. it just adds to the weirdness. dennis murphy (voiceover): dalia's story didn't fly with the new judge, and the motion to dismiss was thrown out. and so in december 2016, dalia showed up at the palm beach

county courthouse once again. new trial, new jury. we're going to have the opening statements by the attorneys. dennis murphy (voiceover): prosecutor craig williams' version of the 2009 events was the same as ever, though a skeleton of the full story. dennis murphy (voiceover): we have it all on tape, he said, dalia hiring a hitman to kill her husband. for 4,700 bucks, she wanted two bullets put in her husband's head or nothing. dennis murphy (voiceover): then it was dalia's turn, with her defense presented by los angeles attorney brian claypool, saying, the police entrapped dalia in a reality tv production for their own 15 minutes of fame on the "cops" tv show. everybody is entitled to a police investigation

that has integrity. this never really was a credible police investigation. rather, dalia dippolito was used as a pawn by the boynton beach police department to manufacture good tv for the "cops" tv show. dennis murphy (voiceover): dalia's attorney said boynton beach police undermined its own investigation when the public information officer had the video posted online. within several hours of video footage by "cops" and boynton beach pd, you went over back to the police department, and you posted this on youtube, correct? correct. and you knew at that time that there was a pending criminal investigation of dalia dippolito, correct? correct. dennis murphy (voiceover): in the end, dalia's team contended boynton beach pd had violated dalia's constitutional rights. jurors, they said, look at the motives of the men running the surveillance video and find their target, dalia, not guilty.

this was a police department in love with publicity. and by virtue of that, they tossed dalia dippolito under the bus. a police department can't toss a client's constitutional rights under the bus to make good television. dennis murphy (voiceover): as dalia waited for a jury of six to decide her fate, flanked by her attorneys, she spoke exclusively to dateline. for the past seven years, i mean, this has been a complete nightmare. dennis murphy (voiceover): she told us her nightmare began after she complained that she'd been the victim of domestic abuse, an accusation her now ex-husband michael strongly denies. she said she was used by the boynton beach police. we're here because they turned what should have been a complaint and getting me help and questioning me and stuff into this big production for a "cops" tv show deadline that they had. and they just started manufacturing all of these things and creating these scenarios and putting me in these situations that look horrible.

dennis murphy (voiceover): 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 cameras didn't change the substance of their investigation into dalia. did you want to have your husband, mike, dead? no. were you soliciting his murder, as you're charged with within this courthouse? no, absolutely, no, no. dennis murphy (voiceover): after nearly 10 hours of deliberation, half of the jury seemed to agree. to the judge, we, the jury, after further deliberation, still cannot reach a unanimous verdict. dennis murphy (voiceover): the judge was forced to declare a mistrial. meanwhile, mike dippolito was glued to the tv, beside himself. i'll be honest. i was watching, and i'm like, what? and i'm thinking to myself, what do these people need to see, you know? she's on video saying she wants to have me killed to two different people, one being a police officer. dennis murphy (voiceover): he said he believed the jury was distracted by defense team hocus pocus. so what i'm saying to you is 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 it. dennis murphy (voiceover): under house arrest, dalia went home again to her new baby boy, a child fathered by a man with an extensive rap sheet. and so on june 2, 2017, she went on trial again for the third time. this time, the prosecutors, who'd come up short in the previous trial with their shorthand account of the case, presented the full shakespearean version of dalia's story. to murder her husband in cold blood, had two bullets put in his head. dennis murphy (voiceover): and this time, the judge admitted testimony previously not presented, that dalia had once tried to poison her husband. she told you that 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. dennis murphy (voiceover): and that she had previously tried to hire a hitman to kill her husband

before the murder for hire plot that was caught on tape. i'm so horny for you. dennis murphy (voiceover): and lurid text messages were read out between dalia and her lover, in which dalia discussed framing mike by planting cocaine in his car and then alerting the police. we need drugs in the car, and it will put him away for a while. dennis murphy (voiceover): this time, dalia's defense wasn't strong enough for that onslaught of evidence. after just 90 minutes of deliberation, the jury returned its verdict. juror: we find the defendant guilty of solicitation to commit first degree murder. dennis murphy (voiceover): dalia was taken away, her family sobbing. and the following month, after a crushing victim impact statement from mike dippolito-- the girl tried killing me probably three or four times, handed me an iced tea with antifreeze in it, smiled at me. dennis murphy (voiceover): --the judge sentenced dalia to 16 years in state prison. a month later, she was back in court again, her lawyers arguing the trial wasn't valid because the testimony about dalia

trying to poison her husband should never have been allowed. but by now, she was cooked. perhaps her last ray of hope for freedom came in a petition to the supreme court of the united states, but her case was denied. and so dalia dippolito, the real housewife of boynton beach, who became a worldwide reality tv sensation, is now simply florida inmate w42222. yes, really. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm andrea canning. thanks for watching. ♪ it's christmastime ♪♪ good morning and welcome to a special holiday edition of "morning joe." we're on tape this hour, bringing you some of our best discussions of the past few weeks. we will begin with