Jury in murder-for-hire case won't learn about defendant's work as escort

Dalia Dippolito gets ready for 3rd trial in June

Dalia Dippolito will face a third trial on the charge of solicitation to commit first-degree murder.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Dalia Dippolito worked as an escort when she met her husband, Michael Dippolito, a confidential informant. She was accused of trying to poison him  before she tried to hire a hit man, who turned out to be an undercover Boynton Beach cop. But jurors won't get to hear any of it. 

Her defense attorneys filed an unopposed motion classifying these facts as irrelevant. And prosecutors agreed not to present the related evidence during her third trial for the 2009 charge of solicitation for murder. 

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Dippolito, 34, was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2011 after her first trial. An appellate court overturned the conviction due to a jury technicality and granted her a new trial.

In December, the second trial ended in a hung jury. The third trial is set to begin in June. Prosecutors will be presenting the Aug. 5, 2009 video of a fake murder scene with Dippolities shrieking cry. 

Earlier this year, prosecutors accused Dippolito's attorney Brian Claypool of making "improper, untrue and prejudicial" statements to the media that "intentionally" aimed to manipulate potential jurors.

Claypool said a gag order in response to a Jan. 26 statement accusing the State Attorney's Office of continuing a "politically motivated prosecution" would violate his First Amendment rights to free speech. 

FACTS OF THE CASE


About the Author:

The Emmy Award-winning journalist joined the Local 10 News team in 2013. She wrote for the Miami Herald for more than 9 years and won a Green Eyeshade Award.