Jury Selection Begins For Boynton Murder For Hire Trial
WEST PALM BEACH (CBS4) – Jury selection got underway Monday in the trial of a former call girl accused of hiring a hit man to kill her husband at their Boynton Beach home.
Dalia Dippolito, 28, faces one count of solicitation to commit first degree murder, which could net her up to 30 years behind bars.
Dippolito was arrested in August 2009 after soliciting an undercover cop to murder her husband of six months 38-year old Michael Dippolito.
Boynton Beach Police allegedly got wind of Dippolito's plot from an informant. They arranged for him to meet with her at a Mobil gas station on Gateway Boulevard to finalize the arrangements.
During their conversation, Dippolito reportedly gave him $1200 for the hit man to buy a gun; she also gave him pictures of her husband and their home. Dippolito also allegedly wanted to know when it would take place so she could arrange to be at a hair appointment and thus have a credible alibi.
Dippolito met with an undercover Boynton Beach police officer who pretended to be the hired 'hit man'; the two met in the parking lot of a CVS drug store where she allegedly agreed to pay him $3,000 for the murder.
Detectives set up a crime scene at the couple's home and had their video camera's rolling Dippolito arrived home and detectives told her husband had been murdered. Dippolito was captured on camera breaking down and crying upon hearing the news.
Police said she was then taken to the police department where investigators then revealed the truth – the 'hit man' was a cop and her husband was alive and well in the next room.
According to court records, Dippolito had tried twice before to kill her husband. One time, she allegedly tried to hire a Riviera Beach man to kill her husband but he later reneged. She also allegedly spiked her husband's drink with odorless anti-freeze. He reportedly spit out the drink after commenting that it tasted like gasoline.
Last week the judge ruled that the jury would not hear about the 'spiked' drink, but the alleged attempt to hire another man to kill her husband would be admissible.
