Dog mauling trial comes down to final arguments by both sides

LOS ANGELES -- After the crying and shouting by a defendant, bloody autopsy pictures displayed by the prosecution and the histrionics of a lawyer who crawled on the courtroom floor, the San Francisco dog mauling case is coming down to the law.

Superior Court Judge James Warren plans to instruct jurors in the law of manslaughter and second-degree murder today before they hear final arguments by prosecutors and the defense.

Facing murder charges

Then, the jury will have to decide whether Marjorie Knoller and Robert Noel were indifferent to the safety of their neighbors when they decided to keep two huge presa canario dogs, Bane and Hera, in their small apartment in San Francisco's trendy Pacific Heights.

"Their defense has to be that it didn't occur to them that these dogs might attack and kill someone," said Loyola University Law professor Laurie Levenson. "The prosecution's argument is that keeping these dogs was like playing with hand grenades."

Prosecutors called 30 people who described scary encounters with the dogs long before Diane Whipple was mauled to death by 140-pound Bane.

Knoller, who is charged with second-degree murder, insisted on the stand that witnesses who testified the dogs terrorized them were "inaccurate" or "mistaken."

She wept bitterly and even screamed as she spoke of her beloved pet's transformation into a vicious killer.

Prosecutors are likely to argue it was not incomprehensible at all given the dogs' past. Neighbors said Bane and Hera snapped, growled, lunged at and even bit people and other dogs in the neighborhood. Bane also nearly bit off Noel's finger during a dog fight.

Bane attacked Whipple, a 33-year-old lacrosse coach, on Jan. 26, 2001, as she was carrying groceries into her apartment, across the hall from Knoller and Noel, both lawyers.

In addition to the murder count, Knoller, 46, is charged with involuntary manslaughter and keeping a mischievous dog that killed a person. Her 60-year-old husband faces the latter two charges.

He was not present when the attack occurred.

Their trial was moved to Los Angeles because of extensive pretrial publicity.

Prosecutor Jim Hammer read as the last piece of evidence a letter written by Noel to a state prisoner and member of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang who was adopted by the couple and arranged for them to raise the presa canarios.

"There is no way to ease into this. Bane is dead, as is our neighbor," the letter began. Noel then promised to fight to keep their other dog, Hera, alive.

"Neighbors be damned," he wrote. "If they don't like living in the building with her, they can move."

Bane was destroyed immediately after the attack. Hera was put down after the couple lost a long legal fight to keep her alive.

If convicted, Knoller could draw up to 15 years in prison, while Noel could be sentenced to four years.