Witness: Dippolito said she tried to poison husband

Dalia Dippolito’s jury on Thursday heard an allegation she once tried to poison her husbandby spiking his teawith antifreeze.

Her lawyers fear thisdamaging evidence — previously expected to be kept out of her retrial — will result in a guilty verdict on a murder-for-hire charge involving the hiring of a cop posing as hit man.

Ontop of that claim, the jury also learned that Dippolito allegedly tried to hire a Riviera Beach hit man named “Larry” and tried to steal a gun in the monthsbefore dealing with the undercover cop in a meeting caught on video.

The jury “will never be able to get beyond an allegation she tried to poison and kill her husband,” defense attorney Brian Claypool said, urging the judge to keep all mentions of antifreeze away from the jurors’ ears. “She will be found guilty in five minutes if they hear it.”

Closing arguments and jury deliberations in the SouthFlorida woman’s third trial are scheduled for Friday.

Dippolito, 34, was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2011, but an appellate court awarded her a new trial because of an issue concerning the same antifreeze claim.

Back then the problem was that a pool of prospective jurors heard the allegation, even though the judge had ruled it would not be permitted in the trial. Still, the judge denied a defense request to boot the entire pool and declare a mistrial.

That was the wrong decision, according to the appeals court, whichfound: “Because it involved an attempt to kill the same victim, it was closely related to the pending charges and could have prejudiced jurors in rendering their verdict.”

But on Thursday, Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley permitted prosecutors to raise the issue during cross examination of