It’s a
story straight out of a made-for-TV movie. Police waited for
newly married Dalia Dippolito to return to home to inform her that her husband, Michael
Dippolito, had been murdered. However, he was not dead. Instead, police set up
the scene to record her reaction. They had already had her on tape paying an
undercover officer, unbeknownst to her, to kill her husband. It was a very unique murder-for-hire sting operation.
Just as bizarre was the trial, wherein Dalia claimed
the unprecedented “reality-TV defense,” in which she claimed her and her
husband set up the whole thing because they wanted to get a reality show. Michael Dippolito called the
accusation “ridiculous.” After a three-week trial in 2011, Dalia was convicted of solicitation
to commit first-degree murder
and sentenced
to 20 years in prison by Circuit Judge Jeffrey Colbath, who called Dalia “pure evil”
during his sentencing remarks.
