A Florida woman has been sentenced to 16 years in prison after being accused of hiring a hit man to kill her husband back in 2009.
Last month, Dalia Dippolito was convicted of solicitation of first-degree murder. The prosecutors on the case say that she was recorded on video and audio plotting to have her spouse, Michael Dippolito, murdered.
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The jurors were played a recording of Dippolito explaining to an undercover detective that she was “5,000 percent sure” that she wanted her husband dead.
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Dippolito’s sentence was imposed by Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley, who said that she behaved in a “cold and calculated manner.”
Fortunately, Michael Dippolito was unharmed in the situation.
The legal team representing Dippolito say that she never intended to follow through with the scheme. They maintain that Dippolito, her husband, and her former lover were plotting to make a video project that could help land them a reality TV show.
Brian Claypool, Dippolito’s attorney is accusing the Boynton Beach Police Department of not conducting a thorough investigation into the matter because they were preoccupied with capturing good material for the TV show Cops.
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The lawyer also says that Dippolito plans to appeal the case and that they remain optimistic that the conviction will be overturned.
“[Dippolito’s] doing surprisingly well, considering,” Claypool said. “She is clinging to her faith during this time.”
Claypool was not satisfied with the result of the trial or with the behavior of some of the jurors. He says that one of them was allegedly falling asleep throughout the proceedings.
“She was almost snoring,” he says. “We made two trial complaints on the record, and submitted five affidavits from people who saw her sleeping. Florida case law is clear that this is grounds for a new trial.”
If this approach doesn’t result in a retrial, Claypool says that there are other options for them to pursue.
“There are several grounds for appeal,” he says, “and we intend to pursue them all. My client is not perfect, but she is a mother who didn’t do what they said she did. A lot of the evidence that was introduced was not only irrelevant, but it was extremely prejudicial.”
