Jury selection to start for Dalia Dippolito murder-for-hire retrial

Jury selection to start for Dalia Dippolito murder-for-hire retrial Jury selection to start for Dalia Dippolito murder-for-hire retrial Jury selection for Dalia Dippolito's second trial on a 2009 murder-for-hire charge finally is set to begin Thursday, after rulings on what evidence can and can't be used. Attorneys for the 34-year-old Boynton Beach woman on Wednesday asked Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley to keep away from jurors things that could suggest guilt, concerning the allegation she tried to have her then-husband killed. Among the requests: Don't show a video of police officers approaching her at a police-staged fake-murder scene. The footage became an Internet sensation. Airing it in court will "mislead and incite the jury," the defense argued. But even though the clip showing an apparently grief-stricken Dippolito was used at the first trial in 2011, prosecutors announced they did not mind excluding it from Round Two. Also without objection from prosecutors, Kelley on Wednesday granted defense requests to keep from the jury any references to allegations that Dippolito ever worked as a prostitute or escort or tried to poison newlywed husband Michael Dippolito. Charged with solicitation to commit first-degree murder with a firearm, Dalia Dippolito is accused of hiring an undercover cop who posed as a hit man. Assistant State Attorneys Craig Williams and Laura Laurie are likely to have the jury listen to audio recordings of Dippolito, including a remark she was "5,000 percent sure I want it done." As for possible motives, in the first trial prosecutors said she wanted to get her husband of six months out of her life so she could keep his townhouse and also avoid paying a debt to him.