Jurors see victim photos in trial of fatal dog mauling in San Francisco

By Linda Deutsch

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES – In an opening statement punctuated by gruesome photos of a woman mauled to death by a dog, a prosecutor said Tuesday he will prove that two defendants were warned repeatedly their dogs were dangerous and did nothing about it.

San Francisco Assistant District Attorney Jim Hammer told jurors he would show them at least 30 instances in which the huge presa canario dogs kept by Marjorie Knoller and Robert Noel attacked other people, including a time one dog severed Noel’s finger.

Knoller, 46, who was walking the dogs, Bane and Hera, at the time of the attack, is charged with second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and having a mischievous animal that killed a human being. Her 60-year-old husband faces the latter two charges.

The trial in the Jan. 26, 2001, mauling of Diane Whipple was moved to Los Angeles because of extensive publicity in San Francisco.

Hammer said Whipple was previously bitten on the hand by one of the dogs. He presented letters from witnesses, including a veterinarian who warned the couple not to bring the dogs into San Francisco because they “would be a liability in any household.”

Knoller and Noel, in the weeks after Whipple’s death, denied they had ever been warned of dangers involving their dogs and said they had never lost control of them, he said.

Hammer quoted Noel as saying, “Bane was a wonderful mutt. … Bane had never shown any signs of people aggression.” With that, the prosecutor flashed on a screen a picture of Noel’s severed finger after the attack by Bane.

The defendants sat impassively beside their lawyers as the prosecutor showed jurors gruesome photos of Whipple’s injuries – the back of her neck bloodied and punctured by the dog’s teeth, her buttocks and breasts also punctured, her face covered in blood.

The photo exhibit ended with an autopsy picture of Whipple’s naked body laid out on a table with all of her wounds visible. Some jurors looked away, and Whipple’s mother, Penny Whipple Kelly, had tears on her face. The victim’s domestic partner, Sharon Smith, left the courtroom when the pictures appeared.

Knoller’s parents sat in another row listening.

Repeatedly, the prosecutor emphasized that the issue was how much the defendants knew about the aggressiveness of their dogs and whether they did anything to control it.

He gave jurors a dramatic description of the scene in the hallway of Whipple’s Pacific Heights apartment building as she tried to enter her apartment with groceries, only to be knocked down by the 100 pounds-plus Bane.

He said a neighbor will testify that she heard growling and barking, and then the dog pounded her apartment door so hard that she was afraid he would break it down.

It was the neighbor who called 911 for police.

Meanwhile, the prosecutor said, Whipple’s clothes were pulled from her body and she was left naked and bloody, crawling toward her apartment. Hera was left running loose in the hallway, he said.

By the time police arrived, he said, Whipple was gasping.

“Diane Whipple died from a combination of blood loss and asphyxia,” Hammer said.

His presentation also featured videotapes of interviews given by the defendants in the aftermath of the killing in which they expressed no remorse. Knoller claimed that she threw herself on top of Whipple to protect her, a contention that the prosecutor said he would refute.

The prosecutor also said he would detail the relationship between the defendants and two prisoners at Pelican Bay State Prison who allegedly conspired with them to raise a breed of killer dogs.

He showed the jury an excerpt of a letter from one of the defendants which defined the name of the dog who killed Whipple. It said, “Bane: war dog, assassin, death, ruin, destruction.”

Bane was destroyed immediately after the attack. Hera was destroyed last month.

A jury of seven men and five women was seated last week.