$500,000 bond for Dalia Dippolito as she appeals murder-for-hire conviction

WEST PALM BEACH — A judge Tuesday afternoon granted a $500,000 bond for Dalia Dippolito while she seeks to overturn her conviction and 20-year sentence for trying to hire a hitman to kill her husband.

A jury earlier this summer convicted Dippolito on solicitation to commit murder charges at the end of a high-profile trial.

Her attorney, Michael Salnick, had asked Circuit Judge Jeffrey Colbath for a bond no higher than $150,000 and offered to surrender the passports of both Dippolito and her mother in exchange for her release.

Assistant State Attorney Laura Burkhart Laurie had asked Colbath to deny bond altogether or place the bond amount at $350,000.

Colbath set the half-million dollar bond, though he said he didn't believe Dippolito's legal team would prevail on their appeals in the case.

Dippolito, 28, paid a hit man $3,000 to kill her newlywed husband, Michael, in August 2009. But the hit man was an undercover Boynton Beach police officer, and her scheme was caught on video.

Her videotaped arrest at a staged murder scene drew hundreds of thousands of viewers from around the world.