On August 1, 2009, Dalia Dippolito of Boynton Beach, Florida got into the passenger seat of a red sedan for a clandestine meeting and told the driver she wanted him to kill her husband.
She offered him $7,000 and he responded that he'd already bought the gun. They agreed on a date and time when she would be at the gym to establish an alibi.
When Dalia arrived home from her workout on the day of the murder, her house was a crime scene. Police told her that her husband was dead and she broke down in tears right there on the street. Officers consoled her and escorted her to the station for a debriefing and explanation.
There, she continued to sob in horror and disbelief — until the man she believed to be dead came out from behind a doorway.
The whole operation had been a setup. The hitman was an undercover cop and her husband himself was in on the sting — with the entire saga had even been recorded for an episode of "COPS
Dalia Mohammed was born in New York City on October 18, 1982, and was raised with her two siblings by an Egyptian father and a Peruvian mother. When she was 13 years old, her family moved to Boynton Beach, Florida, where she graduated from high school in 2000.
She opted for a real estate license and began moonlighting as an escort because she lacked career direction. It was through that work that she met Michael Dippolito in 2008.
Even though he was already married, he fell in love with Dalia and divorced his wife to marry her. The couple got married on February 2, 2009, just five days after Mike's divorce was finalized.
Mike Dippolito was a former prisoner who served time for stock fraud and was on probation. However, shortly after tying the knot, he had a series of weird run-ins with the authorities that put his freedom in jeopardy.
After taking Dalia Dippolito to dinner one night, he was pulled over by the police. Police discovered cocaine in his cigarette pack but released him after trusting his denial that it was his.
On a different morning, after Dalia delivered Mike a Starbucks beverage, he became so unwell that he was incapacitated for days. And his contacts with the police were beginning to worsen. They stated that the police had received anonymous information claiming Mike was a narcotics dealer.
Even though no proof was discovered, Mike was so concerned that a charge would stick that, at the end of July 2009, he decided to transfer the title of his house to Dalia in order to "guard his assets" in the event that he was jailed. However, Dalia was the unknown caller, and this was precisely what she had planned.
Dalia Dippolito Murder Plan
Dalia Dippolito had been preparing for her husband’s murder for weeks. She approached an ex-boyfriend named Mohammed Shihadeh to recruit a hitman for the task. Instead, he informed the police, who, despite their skepticism, decided to investigate.
By coincidence, COPS was working with the police department that week and consented to record everything. They installed a covert camera in Shihadeh's vehicle and instructed him to arrange a meeting with Dalia.
Dalia first met Shihadeh on July 30, 2009, in the parking lot of a gas station, when he informed her that he knew someone who could complete the task. Two days later, she would meet with the contact to discuss the details of the crime.
To establish Dalia's intentions, the Boynton Beach Police Department sent officer Widy Jean undercover as a hitman. Again, the police department worked with filmmakers from COPS to capture the meeting, which took place in a red convertible in a generic parking lot on August 1.
The recording of Dalia Dippolito’s solicitation is undeniable. Jean, posing as the assassin, asks Dalia, "Are you certain that you want to kill him?" Without hesitation, Dalia says, “There’s no changing. I’m determined already. I’m positive. I’m, like, 5,000 percent sure.”
Then, she gave him $7,000 and agreed to go to her local gym on Wednesday, August 5 in the morning to create an alibi.
How Florida Police Concocted A Complicated Hoax Crime Scene
The morning of the “murder,” Dalia went to the gym at 6 a.m., as promised. While she was away, cops set up a phony crime scene at her and Mike’s beige townhouse.
When she returned, there were several police cars parked in front of the residence,yellow tape had been placed around the perimeter, and a forensic photographer was photographing evidence. She wept into an officer's arms when he informed her that Mike Dippolito had passed away.
It began as she would have anticipated. Sergeant Paul Sheridan consoled her as a widow and escorted her to the police station so that she could assist in identifying a culprit.
Sheridan brought a handcuffed Widy Jean into the room and claimed the "suspect" was seen departing her home in order to gauge her reaction. Jean, playing a caught criminal, denied knowing Dalia Dippolito. She denied knowing him, as well.
The cops then made a shocking disclosure. Mike appeared in the doorway — and told her he knew everything.
"Mike, please come," she pleaded. “Come here please, come here. I didn't do anything to you."
He told her she was on her own. Dalia was charged moments later with solicitation of first-degree murder.
Using COPS As A Defense At Trial
The first call Dalia Dippolito made from jail was to her husband. She not only denied attempting to murder him but also scolded him for not getting an attorney for her. Mike sought the return of his property title in exchange for taking care of her parents.
The following day, Dalia was released on $25,000 bail, but her trial was imminent. It began in the spring of 2011.
Prosecutors asserted that Dippolito wanted the death of her husband and possession of his assets. Dalia claimed she was aware that she was being filmed by an undercover cop, and that her husband, who was so desperate to become a reality TV star, encouraged her to create a murder-for-hire video.
“It was a stunt that Michael Dippolito, whether he’ll admit it or not, hoped to capture the attention of someone in reality TV,” said defense attorney Michael Salnick. “Michael Dippolito’s hoax to achieve fame and fortune was a bad prank.”
In contrast, the jury found Dalia Dippolito guilty. She was sentenced to 20 years, though an appeals court in 2014 concluded that the jury was inappropriately picked, leading to a retrial in 2016.
Dalia Dippolito Was Finally Given A 16-Year Sentence
“People tell me ‘you’re lucky to be alive,'” Mike Dippolito said at a sentencing hearing. “And I’m like, ‘I guess.’ But I still have to go through all of this. It’s not even real. It’s like I can’t even believe we’re still sitting here like this girl didn’t even try to do this.”
Despite the overwhelming evidence, that retrial ended in a 3-3 hung jury. Dippolito was released on house arrest and gave birth to a son before her final trial in 2017.
On July 21, 2017, Dalia Dippolito was sentenced to 16 years in prison by Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley, who concurred with the defense that having COPS videotape the arrest was inappropriate. Her appeal to the Florida Supreme Court in 2019 was dismissed.
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