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 t
are you crazy? let s hide behind the chainsaws. smart. yeah. ok. if you re in a horror movie, you make poor decisions. it s what you do. this was a good idea. shhhh. i m being quiet. you re breathing on me! if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it s what you do. let s go to the cemetery! reporter: 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 solicitation to commit murder in the first degree. conviction could get her up to 30 years in prison. she pleaded not guilty.
flanked by her attorneys, she spoke exclusively to dateline. for the past seven years this has been a nightmare. she told us her nightmare began after she claimed abuse. she said she was used by the boynton beach 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 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. 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 the dahlia. did you want to have your husband, mike, dead? no. were you soliciting his murder? absolutely no.
the third time. this time the prosecutors who had come up short in the previous trial with their shorthand account of the case presented the full shakespearean version of dahlia s story. murder her husband in cold blood and two bullets put in his head. this time the judge admitted testimony previously not admitted, that dahlia once tried to poison her husband. she told you 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 hit man to kill her husband before the murder for hire plot that was put on tape. and lurid text messages were read out between dahlia and her lover in which dahlia discussed trying to frame mike by putting cocaine in his car. this time dahlia s defense
be 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. 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 hit man. 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 reco