Local 10 News obtains audio of Dalia Dippolito recorded jail call

Boynton Beach woman convicted in murder-for-hire plot discusses prison break

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Dalia Dippolito can be heard discussing a recent prison break in a recorded jail call while she was awaiting sentencing after being found guilty of hiring an undercover police officer to kill her husband.

A portion of that recorded conversation was obtained Friday by Local 10 News.

The Boynton Beach woman's conversation with an apparent lover is being used by a state prosecutor to counter her attorney's request that Dippolito be released from jail pending an appeal.

Dippolito was convicted last month of solicitation to commit first-degree murder and sentenced to 16 years in prison. It was her third trial.

Assistant state attorney Craig Williams wrote in a Wednesday court filing that Dippolito should not be released from custody on an appellate bond because she is a flight risk. In the filing, Williams cited a July 8 jail conversation that Dippolito had with someone about a recent prison break.

"Shortly after the verdict, the defendant can be heard on tape enthusiastically discussing a recent case of how an inmate broke out of a maximum security prison using wire cutters that were delivered to him via drone," Williams wrote.

Williams provided a transcript of the conversation as evidence.

"There is a guy who was in prison in Texas and he had somebody fly a drone over and drop off wire cutters, and he cut wires and escaped from prison," Dippolito said in the recording.

"Wow, that's awesome," the man said.

Dippolito was wrong. The escaped inmate broke out of a South Carolina prison, although he was captured in Texas two days later.

"Everyone here was, like, pumped up when they read that," Dippolito said.

California defense attorney Brian Claypool, who represented Dippolito during her second and third trials, told ABC News that there was nothing incriminating in her conversation.

"There was nothing in this jailhouse phone call that indicates that Dalia Dippolito had any intent or plan to carry out to escape this jail," Claypool said.

Dippolito was found guilty of hiring an undercover police detective whom she thought was a hit man to kill her then-husband in 2009, saying that she was "5,000 percent sure" she wanted him dead. The Boynton Beach Police Department staged a phony crime scene on the day that Dippolito's husband was supposed to be killed and recorded her reaction.

Her 2011 conviction and 20-year sentence were thrown out on appeal. Last year's trial ended with a 3-3 hung jury.

Dippolito has since given birth to a son, who is now 1 year old, while she was out of jail on house arrest between the second and third trials.

Williams wrote that Dippolito "has proven to be a greater threat and flight risk."

"In-house arrest provides little protection when this defendant can orchestrate the ultimate crime using a telephone and manipulating others to carry out her schemes," Williams wrote.

Court records show that a bond hearing previously scheduled for Aug. 9 was canceled Thursday. No explanation was given.