killed. >> 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. >> please, no. no, please. >> 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. >> oh, my god. >> there has not been a story like this ever in the 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 dahlia and mike first met it was instant fireworks, an immediate attraction that turned into a fatal attraction. to crack the case police needed to know was she diabolical. here is dennis murphy with the sting. >> the mesmerizing story with a fittingly preposterous ending begins where conspicuous consumption is as high as the humidity, palm beach, florida. >> it is the winter wonderland of the wealthy. you can dry over the air and feel the rarified airs, the mansion and hedges that hide the mansions. >> some main landers are said to not be able to 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. >> over the bridge, past the interstate, the newlyweds 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. they 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 site. mike was an internet entrepreneur and dahlia the business woman he fell head over heels for. three months after their first meeting marriage was inevitable. there was a tiny problem in their paradise. mike was married. lawyers jason brodie and josh friedman arranged a quickie divorce so the ballad of mike and dahlia could begin. >> he fell in love with her. he thought she was the end-all, be-all. he thought this was it, i will have a family and we will grow old together. >> they hit it off right away. >> dahlia is a real estate agent. >> and that attracted him to her, she was successful on her own and didn't need him. >> are we talking about sexual attraction or more going on here? >> there's 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. they 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 ascertain as crime scene tape strung across the front of the condo. dahlia had been located at her 6:00 a.m. workout by the boynton beach police. >> this is sergeant frank ramsey, boynton beach police department. >> is everything okay. >> ma'am, it is very important. i need to talk to you. it involves your husband, there's been an incident. >> she was ininstructsed struct home right away. when she arrived she saw police cars out front. it just so happened a camera crew from the tv show "cops" was there filming an episode with boynton beach police when she got there. >> i'm sergeant ramsey, the one that called you. thank you for coming. listen, we had a report of a disturbance at your house. >> the officer was direct with dahlia. he said there had been an intruder in the house and several shots were fired. >> is your husband mike? okay. i'm sorry to tell you, ma'am, he's been killed. >> no, no, no. >> okay, ma'am. >> no, no. >> i can't let you go in, ma'am. we have to do our job. >> michael, 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. if you want to help your husband, you need to go to the station with these gentlemen and tell us everything you know about who he knows, who he is connected to. >> the investigation was only minutes old and the officers told dahlia they would need her cooperation in understanding what had happened. >> we're going to do everything we can, okay? we need your help. we need to get your husband's killer, ma'am. >> dahlia was whisked off to the police station where she would soon find out the detectives thought they knew much more about the details 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 her. when "dateline" continues. d on r when "dateline" continues. thanks to move free ultra i keep up with this little one. see the world with this guy. and hit the town with these girls. in a clinical study, 4 out of 5 users felt better joint comfort. move free. find our coupon in sunday's paper. non-gmo, made with naturally sundown vitamins are all sourced colors and flavors and are gluten & dairy free. they're all clean. all the time. even if sometimes we're not. sundown vitamins. all clean. all the time. i'm part of a community of problem solvers. we make ideas grow. from an everyday solution... to one that can take on a bigger challenge. we are solving problems that improve lives. some things are too important to do yourself. to one that can take on a big ♪ challenge. get customized security with 24/7 monitoring from xfinity home. awarded the best professionally installed system by cnet. simple. easy. awesome. call, click or visit a store today. ♪ dalia dippolito had been called home from the gym to be told by police out front that an intruder had murdered her husband michael. >> is your husband michael? okay, i'm sorry to tell you, ma'am, he's been killed. he's okay, ma'am. >> no, he isn't. >> 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's been trying to get off probation. >> uh-huh. >> 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 who had bilked thousands of investors by selling them phony currencies. >> it was for taking money. it was like he explained it like boiler room kind of 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 had fleeced an outstanding iou of $191,000. >> people weren't happy that he was getting off probation because it's a lot of money he's got to pay back. >> 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. >> there's no problems between you guys? no financial problems, no -- 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, you know? >> but the police officers knew much more that moment. so much more. let's freeze the ak shop in the interview room and roll everything back a few days. that's when a man walked into the boynton beach police with a story to tell. the detective didn't know what to make of the walk-in. >> at first when with he's giving you this information you don't know what to think, you know. here is a guy who's claiming he's sleeping with a guy's wife and now she's trying to get somebody to kill him. >> pretty juicy story. >> exactly. >> detective moreno had the tipster run his story down from the top. the man was named mohammed and he said he was a part-time actor who worked at a convenience store. as he told it, he had 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 hit man to kill her husband. >> he says, you know what? i'm sleeping with this guy's wife, but, at the same time, i didn't want this guy to be killed. that was his concern. he couldn't sleep with that whole idea that this guy was going to be killed. >> but the detective wondered if he was being sold a cob and bull story since this mohammed 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, didn't even know who her husband was. >> 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 mohammed as a confidential informant and gave him a story to tell his part-time lover, that he had found her a hit man 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. >> mohammed the tipster set up an asig nation with the woman for the very next day. the car he drove to the gas station meeting point had been rigged by police detectives with picture and sound. undercover agents nearby would watch 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, immediately we pick up the car. not only are we watching her, we're also 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 the license plates and registration gave the name of 26-year-old dalia dippolito. the police officers didn't have to wait long until the informant's story was confirmed. this woman in the car was definitely in the market for a triggerman. >> less than a minute she talks about hiring a man to kill her husband. unprompted, he is not doing dental work to get the story out her. >> honestly you think it's worth killing him over the money. >> it's not even about the [ bleep ] money. like you know the money. we'll spend it like in the [ bleep ] blink of an eye. >> the meeting was all business. dalia produced photos of her husband for mohammed to hand over to the hit man. >> i brought pictures. >> just give mow one picture. i don't want to carry -- >> dalia brought something else the hit man had requested, cash to buy the gun that would be used. >> i you brought $1,200. he's asking for $1,200? >> yeah. when are you going to give him the money? today. >> she turns the money over. is that a crime, detective, at that moment? >> we didn't have enough yet. we wanted to go a bit further with this case. >> the police were about to see how determined dalia was to have her new husband killed. coming up -- >> our undercover tells us, hey, i'm going to put two shots to the head and it doesn't even faze her. no remorse. >> another undercover sting and a plan is set in motion for a deadly house call when "dateline" continues. when "dateline" continues it's just a cough. yeah right. and the earth is flat. ahhh!! treat your cough seriously with robitussin cf max. nothing lasts longer and treats more symptoms for your cough, cold and flu. robitussin. because it's never just a cough. i'm all about my bed. this mattress is dangerously comfortable. i love my leesa. experience deeper rest with the award-winning leesa mattress. designed to provide strong support, pressure relief and optimized airflow to keep you cool. read our reviews, then try it in your own home. order now to get big savings - but only for a limited time. just go to leesa.com today. you need this bed. there's a company that's talked to even more real people than me: jd power. 448,134 to be exact. they answered 410 questions in 8 categories about vehicle quality. and when they were done, chevy earned more j.d. power quality awards across cars, trucks and suvs than any other brand over the last four years. so on behalf of chevrolet, i want to say "thank you, real people." you're welcome. we're gonna need a bigger room. i'm a verizon engineer, and i'm part of the team building the most powerful 5g experience for america. it's 5g ultra wideband-- --for massive capacity-- --and ultra-fast speeds. almost 2 gigs here in minneapolis. that's 25 times faster than today's network in new york city. so people from midtown manhattan-- --to downtown denver-- --can experience what our 5g can deliver. (woman) and if verizon 5g can deliver performance like this in these places... it's pretty crazy. ...just imagine what it can do for you. ♪ when you take align, you have the support of a probiotic and the gastroenterologists who developed it. align naturally helps to soothe your occasional digestive upsets, 24/7. so, where you go, the pro goes. go with align, the pros in digestive health. ♪ with the help of a confidential informant, the boynton beach police department had confirmed that a woman named dalia dippolito wanted to hire a hit man to kill her husband. it was all caught on tape. >> so the police instructed their informant, a man named mohammed, to set p up another meeting for dalia, this time it would be with a hit man who would be, of course, an undercover boynton beach police detective. same drill again, a meeting place outside a store and a car wired for video and audio. >> in that meeting, they began 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. >> it shows her intent and the fact that here she is meeting with a complete stranger who she believes is a hit man, she actually goes as far as saying, hey, i'd rather it happened here. >> she just want it's done, 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. >> the pretend hit man told her he'd use a gun, give him a tap-tap. >> our agent tells him, i'm going to put two in his head, meaning two shots to the head. doesn't even faze her. no remorse. >> dalia and the hit man who's really a cop agree that he will kill her husband in two days. he tells her to be prepared to go to the gym early that morning. >> the day before he called dalia with further instructions. >> tomorrow morning, you got to be out by 6:00. >> okay. >> she doesn't hesitate or change her mind, just says, okay, and that's it e >> 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 and we inform her that something happened at her hughes and she needs to get to the house fast. >> she doesn't know details, just knows something has happened, get home quickly. >> yes. and she shows up at the house and once again makes contact with our sergeant. and she's informed of had 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. >> if you look at that video, she he 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 know tears. >> when they bring her to the police station, investigators are curious how far dalia will push her scenario, blaming the murder on one of her former husband's enemies. the detectives were carefully watching her interview on a monitor in a nearby room. >> people weren't happy because he was getting off probation because it is a lot of money he was paying back. >> she mentioned how he had enemies, he was on probation. she didn't even bother to ask how it happened. >> to their experienced eyes and ears, dalia is making a few mistakes in how she's telling her theory of the crime. but they want to push her some more, see if they can get her to confess to her murder plot then and there. would she be obviously rattled when they led in a familiar face, the person she believes is the hit man? >> get over here! get over here! do you know who this guy is? >> no. >> you've in never seen him before. >> no, i've never seen him before. >> the man before her actually the undercover policeman, is presented to dalia here as someone they just nabbed for the killing of her husband. >> i've never seen him. >> the detectives finally put their cards on the table. they tell dalia they know he this is the supposed hit man and that their meeting where they planned to kill her husband was caught on tape. >> that's an undercover police officer. we found everything that you did, 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 told me but i didn't do anything. >> listen to me. everything has been recorded. you were photographed in the convertible when you sat in his car in the front of cvs. what do you want 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 had another surprise for her. truly, a humdinger. they were about to walk a ghost to the doorway of the interview room. coming up -- >> oh, my god. >> he's alive >> someone is back from the grave. when "dateline" continues. 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[ laughter ] bundle, bundle, bundle. -my kids would love that. -yeah. hello, i'm dara brown . police identified the suspect who fatally stabbed two people and injured several others in yesterday's terror attack on london bridge. the 28-year-old male suspect shot and killed by police was previously jailed for terrorism offenses. house judiciary committee chairman jerry nadler set a deadline of december 6th for president trump to alert the committee if his legal team will participate in the impeachment hearings by calling witnesses or presenting evidence. you can catch me at the top of the hour on msnbc live. now back to "dateline". ♪ 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, behur husband michael dip leto was very much alive and 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 so screwed right now. the worst day in the world. >> before waking up that day he was clueless police thought his wife of six months 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. dowel ya' was at his wife was already at the gym when he learned all about it with an early morning knock on the door of his townhouse. the police. >> with key talk to you. >> yeah, sure. >> they said, hey, listen, this is what we're doing. we're conducting an investigation. >> he says, your wife is going to have you killed today. you have to come with us. i just looked at him and 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 the boynton beach police station before his wife came back to the gym. >> grab your stuff, we're out of here. >> yes. >> meanwhile, outside his townhouse the police were starting to stage-dress a phony murder scene, all to trick dalia into thinking the hitman she had apparently hired had successfully completed the job. >> he's been killed. >> 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 mining, the husband, dalia's two meetings as she seemed to shop for a hitman. >> i'm like 5,000 percent sure. >> then police allowed michael to watch his wife's real-time interrogation going on in the other room. dalia, who had no idea her husband was alive, told police interviews she had nothing to do with him, even after they brought in the cop who posed as her hitman. >> i'm watching, just watching and i'm waiting for her to give it up. and you know what? the girl never gave it up. >> dalia is arrested and handcuffed. and cameras were still rolling when police walked a very-much-alive michael to the door of the interview room. >> oh, my god! >> he's alive. >> oh, my god. i didn't do anything. mike, come here, please. >> i heard you. >> come here. >> that's when she says, come here, come here, i love you, i love you. i said, look, i can't, you can't fix this. >> now it was michael's turn to tell the police his stories warts around all, correcting for the record the fairy tale. >> she is actually an escort. that's how i met her. she came to my office one day. >> dalia denies she was an escort and though mike describes ordering her up from an escort service he claims there was a mutual attraction that went far beyond the initial transaction. >> when i met dalia we seemed to connect instantly. we hit it often right away. >> it wasn't just bed. >> no, everything about it. we just clicked, be it our sex life, be it just our spare time, be it the things we liked, all of that. it just happened. >> three months after they met michael divorced his first wife and married dalia that same week. >> i just purchased a home and we were going to start a life together, and we talked about traveling and doing things and, you know, we had like a future planned. >> 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 the $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, get my freedom. you know, dalia said she would help me with some of the money, about $90,000. i'm like, absolutely let's do it. >> michael says he and dalia agreed they would pool their money to pay off dhis debt. >> this is great. she is pushing me forward. i thought i'm getting off probation. it is exciting for me. >> then the plan to get michael out of hock changed again. according to michael said to him, look, you own your townhouse free and clear, why not turn the title over to dalia and 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 the payback of the restitution debt. the money was supposed to go to his attorney but it never got there. >> i tell you where it unraveled. as soon as i got dalia the $100,000 is when it went downhill. >> and he says after dalia got the 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 police swarming michael's vehicle. after a search they found cocaine stashed beneath a spare tire. >> i actually started crying to this cop. 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 have gone back to prison because you violated probation? >> yeah, yeah, absolutely. >> 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 only when i'm with you, my life isn't this exciting. in five-and-a-half years on proxy 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. >> you are looking at her side ways? >> i'm looking i'm doing the best i can to be a good husband, give her a chance. >> no reason she is faking with you? >> no, 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. >> he said she was playing the role of an expect ant mother. >> there never was a mother? >> never was a baby. >> solicitation to commit first degree murder with a firearm was filed against her. >> hello. >> hey, it is me. >> but even after her arrest dalia phoned michael from jail pleading with him to get her an attorney, claiming the cops got it all wrong. >> what they're saying is not true. >> you said you wanted to have me killed. i heard that. >> that is not true. that is not true. >> how is it not true? they're charging you, 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, over and over. are you kidding me? what do you want me to do? >> you're supposed to get me an attorney, please, so i can talk to you. >> 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 of 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, okay. >> i'm not signing anything. >> then i can't help you. >> and because of florida's strong open records law, her jail house phone calls and all of the police surveillance tapes made by the boynton beach cops would become public. they were out there viral on youtube. >> i need you -- i need you to -- >> those images of dalia boohooing online would be seen by thousands of viewers who lambasted her in the comments section. the people 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 outcome 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. >> was this whole thing a hoax? when "dateline" continues. man: sneezes skip to the good part with alka-seltzer plus. now with 25% more concentrated power. nothing works faster for powerful cold relief. oh, what a relief it is! so fast! ♪ what started as a tentative police sting operation is now being argued in front of a jury in the west palm beach, florida courthouse. 28-year-old dalia dippolito is 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 an videos, including that sting in which dalia tells an undercover cop posing as a hit man that she wanted her husband mike dippolito dead asap. >> i'm positive. like 5,000% sure. >> it was unreal. it was 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 2011. >> they say love is blind. in this case love was blind, deaf and dumb. >> 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. >> 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 is playing all of these guys. they're all thinking they're the one and the only person that she cared about was herself. >> detective alex moreno red 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. >> 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. >> 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. >> you're sure you want to kill this dude? >> the prosecution's case looked airtight with all of those mesmerizing tapes of dalia plotting out a murder, and all the video from the "cops" tv show with her looked unglued as she learned of her husband's murder. what no one could predict 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. >> dalia's defense south korean michael salnik said this crazy story was about dalia's husband's vanity and his thirst for fame. it was mike who was 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. >> the defense arked it wgued il 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. >> the defense attorney argued that dalia was in on the reality show idea the whole time. >> okay. >> that scene out front of dalia waling, acting. >> she knew mike wasn't armed and hers is a fake reaction to a fake event. >> the defense pushed him hard on cross-examination, accusing him of dragging dalia down with his stupid idea of dragging dal his stupid idea of 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 have ever heard. i mean completely made up. >> all right. let's bring in our jury, please. >> and after two weeks of trial testimony, the jury agreed. >> we find the defendant guilty of solicitation to commit first degree murder. >> 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. >> 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. >> 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. >> and so more than seven years after dalia dippolito was charged with hiring a hit man to kill her husband, she would go on trial again. >> when she heard the news that she had been granted a new trial, she was extremely overjoyed because she felt like she would have a second chance to have the truth be told. >> she would speak exclusively to "dateline" and, oh, what a story she would tell. this real housewife of boynton beach, so much better than reality tv. coming up -- >> started manufacturing all of these things. >> did you want to have your husband mike dead? >> no. >> were you soliciting his murder as you are charged with in this courthouse. >> no, absolutely no. >> murder for hire ora dig audi for television. >> dalia dippolito was used as a pawn by the boynton beach police department to manufacture good tv. >> a cliffhanger of an episode is coming up when "dateline" continues. upbeat music♪ no cover-up spray here. cheaper aerosols can cover up odors in a flowery fog. but febreze air effects eliminates odors. with a 100% natural propellent. it leaves behind a pleasant scent you'll love. 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(laughs nervously) of course i know your name. i just get you mixed up with the other guy. what's his name? what's your name? switch to geico®. you could save 15% or more on car insurance. could you just tell me? i want this to be over. some things are too important to do yourself. ♪ get customized security with 24/7 monitoring from xfinity home. awarded the best professionally installed system by cnet. simple. easy. awesome. call, click or visit a store today. happy veterans day. happy veterans day. happy veterans day. happy veterans day. student veterans of america champions those who have served and also prepares them for their next chapter in life. please take a moment this this veterans day to remember service members, who put their education and careers on-hold to give back to all of us. we thank you. feliz día de servicio. happy veterans day. happy veterans day. please visit studentveterans.org dalia dippolito was caught on tape, plotting to have her husband michael killed. at trial, she mounted a defense no one saw coming, claiming 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 twist, the verdict was overturned. it was now time for the re-trial, and dalia's defense team had more tricks in store. here's dennis murphy with the conclusion. >> now the season finale of the dalia and michael dippolito show. more than search years after dalia's outburst went viral, and five years after dalia 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 years. >> good afternoon, ms. dippolito. >> good afternoon. >> at a pretrial hearing as they tried to get the entire case dismissed, dalia's new team had a tv defense, that she and her lover 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, all about the tv presentation. >> the purpose of meeting him was to discuss the presentation taping what was going to be on there. >> and she reported she wanted to back out of the reported tv project but she insisted mohamed was having none of that. >> at that point, he lifted his shirt and showed me his gun and he threatened me and threatened to hurt me, threatened to hurt mi family. >> mohamed the informant denied threatening her or participating in a reality tv production. >> the reality tv defense seems to play into this whole story. >> palm beach post senior editor says dalia's defense was weirdly appropriate. it seems to make total sense because the whole story doesn't make sense so you just throw in that angle, and i want to be famous, so let's do this stunt, and if it was a stunt, it just adds to the weirdness. >> the 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, mu trial, new jury. >> we're going to have the opening statements by the attorneys. >> prosecutor craig williams' version of the 2009 events were the same as ever, though a skeleton of the full story. >> it is a case 100% on ms. dippolito's orders, her actions, and her intent. 100%. >> we have it all on tape, he said. dalia, hiring a hitman to till her husband. kill her husband. >> 4700 buck, she wanted two bullets put in her husband's head for nothing. >> then dalia's turn, with her defense presented by the los angeles attorney, saying the police entrapped 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 and that's what really this case is about. >> 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. >> dalia's attorney said boynton beach police undermined its own investigation when the public information officer had the video posted online. >> within several years 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. >> 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. >> as dalia waited for a jury of six to decide her fate, her attorneys, she spoke exclusively to "dateline." >> the past seven years have been a complete nightmare. >> she told us the nightmare began after she claimed she was a victim of domestic abuse an, sa accusation her ex-husband strong le denies. >> turning a complaint and getting help and questioning 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 create canning these scenarios and putting me in these situations that look horrible. >> the police say they did not ignore a domestic abuse case and trying to stop a murder for hire plot and the cops tv cameras did not change the substance of the investigation into dalia. >> did you want to have your husband mike dead. >> no. >> were you soliciting his murder. >> no, no. >> in this courthouse. >> no. >> after nearly ten hours of deliberation, half of the jury seemed to agree. >> we the jury after further deliberations still cannot reach a unanimous verdict. >> 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, 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, by two different people, one being a police officer. >> he said he believed the jury was distracted by the defense team hocus pocus. >> 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 would like her go and taste it. >> under house arrest, dalia went home again to her new baby boy, a child fathered by a man with an extensive rap sheet. on june 2, 2017, she went on trial again, for the third time, this time the prosecutor who come up short in the previous trial with the shorthand account of the case, presented the full shakespearean version of her husband's story. >> two bullets in her head. >> and the judge allowed evidence not previously presented, that dalia tried to poison herself. >> she researched something on the internet on some kind of antifreeze that is odorless, doesn't have a smell, doesn't have a color and put it in his tea. >> and tried to previously hire a hitman to kill her husband before the murder for hire plot caught on tape. and lurid text messages between dalia and her lover in which framing him by planting cocaine in the car and alerting police. >> put him a while in a way. >> and dalia's defense this time wasn't strong enough for the onslaught of evidence. after 90 minutes of deliberation, the jury found the verdict. >> we find the defendant guilty. dalia taken away. her family sobbing. and the following month, after a crushing victim impact statement from mike dippolito. >> the girl tried to kill me three or four times, handed me an iced tea with antifreeze in it, smiled at me. >> the judge sentenced her to 16 years in state prison. a month later she was back in court again, the lawyers arguing the trial wasn't valid because the testimony trying to poison her husband should never be allowed, but for now, she was caught. and dalia dippolito, who became a worldwide reality tv sensation is now florida inmate w 42222. yes, really. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thanks for watching. good morning. i'm dara brown in new york at msnbc world headquarters. 6:00 in the east. 3:00 out west. here is what is happening. new leadership. new dead lines. president trump's big decision in the impeachment inquiry. terror in london. a knife attack turned the city's iconic bridge into a crime scene. what we know about the suspect, and how a bystander helped stop the attack. >> and homestretch. with just over two months left before the iowa caucuses, who is up in the polls and who is scrambling to turn things around? >> and shattering records for the holiday shopping season off to a strong start, how retailers are bridging the gap between in store andnl

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