In a mauling case that shocked many in San Francisco and elsewhere, a prosecutor on Tuesday told jurors the caretakers of two dogs that killed their neighbor should be held responsible because they had ample warnings the animals were capable of violence.
Using graphic photos during opening arguments in the trial of Marjorie Knoller and Robert Noel, San Francisco Assistant District Atty. James Hammer detailed the brutal attack on Diane Whipple. The 33-year-old college lacrosse coach, who lived down the hall from the married couple, suffered wounds all over her body and her throat was torn open.
Portraying attorneys Knoller, 46, and Noel, 60, as indifferent and callous to their neighbors’ complaints about the Presa Canario dogs, Hammer listed numerous incidents in which the dogs bit or lunged at people, including Whipple and Noel.
But Nedra Ruiz, Knoller’s lawyer, argued in her opening statement that Knoller struggled with great effort against the 125-pound dogs during the attack in January 2001. Knoller even threw herself on top of Whipple and tried to beat back the dogs, Ruiz said.
Flinging herself on the floor to act out the attack, Ruiz added, “No one is sorrier than Marjorie Knoller, who risked her life to try to save [Whipple].”
Prosecutor Hammer, asserting that Knoller and Noel participated in a scheme with imprisoned white supremacist gang members to breed the dogs for violence, urged the jurors to convict the couple. Knoller faces second-degree murder charges, and both are charged with involuntary manslaughter.
Whipple’s “throat was pierced so deep it almost went to her vertebrae. … Her trachea was crushed and pierced,” Hammer said.
After heavy pretrial publicity in San Francisco, the trial was moved to Los Angeles County Superior Court.
“The key issues are what did the defendants know about the dangerous nature of the dogs and what did they do about it?” Hammer added. “They liked [that the dogs exhibited violence to people] and they bragged about it to their friends.”
For her part, defense lawyer Ruiz displayed photos of Knoller taken after the attack showing her face and clothing stained with Whipple’s blood.
“Marjorie flings her body on Ms. Whipple and says, `Don’t move, I think he’s trying to protect me,'” Ruiz said. As the lawyer spoke, Knoller wept and covered her face with her hands.
Later, Noel’s lawyer, Bruce Hotchkiss, spoke briefly.
He emphasized that his client was not present during the attack and said the prosecution would present “an enormous amount of evidence” to try to prejudice the jury because his client “has an unconventional lifestyle.”
The mauling has pitted dog owners against non-owners on the issue of unleashed pets and led to a new state law holding caretakers of dogs liable for attacks.
Knoller and Noel were caring for the dogs owned by an imprisoned member of the Aryan Brotherhood gang, a man they adopted as their son. Previous law held only owners of dogs responsible for attacks.
The attack so outraged the city that prosecutors sought second-degree murder charges against Knoller, a highly unusual move in a mauling case.
In his arguments, Hammer said Knoller and Noel knew about the dogs’ violent nature..
He said the woman who trained the dogs at a Northern California farm and the dogs’ veterinarian warned the couple that the animals, which have been destroyed, were too violent to live with them in the city.
Hammer recounted numerous incidents involving the dogs. Noel spent several days in the hospital, his finger nearly severed from an attack. The dogs bared their teeth at a boy, Hammer said, and bit Whipple on the hand in an earlier attack.
