Couple Guilty in Fatal Dog Mauling

A San Francisco lawyer was found guilty of second-degree murder Thursday for the gruesome dog attack on a neighbor who was left bleeding to death in a hallway of their upscale apartment building.

The verdict is the first in which a California dog owner has been convicted of murder in a mauling case.

Marjorie Knoller and her husband, Robert Noel, were also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and of keeping the dog that killed 33-year-old lacrosse coach Diane Whipple last year.

As the murder verdict against Knoller was read in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom, she opened her eyes widely, sighed heavily and started to cry. She turned toward her parents sitting in the audience and seemed to mouth the word “help.” Noel stared ahead.

Whipple’s partner, Sharon Smith, placed her head in her hands and wiped tears from her eyes.

“There’s no real joy in this, but certainly some measure of justice was done for Diane today,” Smith said later. “I was glad to see the jury didn’t buy some of the smoke screens that were put in front of them.”

Knoller, 46, could serve 15 years to life in state prison on the murder conviction. Noel, 60, faces a sentence of four years in state prison. Sentencing is scheduled for May 10 in San Francisco.

After the verdicts, jurors said Knoller and Noel were clearly responsible for allowing their two large Presa Canario dogs to attack Whipple. They also said they did not trust Knoller, who testified on her own behalf that she tried to stop the attack.

“In our point of view, her testimony was not believable,” said jury foreman Don Newton, 64. “That was crucial to our decision in coming to second-degree murder.”

Newton said the jurors disliked Noel, but that they based their verdict on his carelessness with the dogs. “Robert Noel does not seem to be a very nice person.”

Jurors said they were repulsed when they were shown a taped interview the defendants gave on “Good Morning America” shortly after the attack. In contrast to Knoller’s tearful testimony in the trial, she spoke calmly about the mauling during the interview and appeared to blame Whipple for her own death.

“It showed no remorse,” said juror Shawn Antonio, 27. “And it was two [weeks] after it happened . . . and there was no kind of sympathy, no kind of apologies.”

Jurors also gave mixed reviews to the courtroom theatrics of Knoller’s lawyer Nedra Ruiz. During her opening statement, Ruiz crawled around the courtroom to act out her client’s behavior in the hallway the day of the attack.

“She’s an amazingly dramatic person,” Newton said. “She’s an incredible actress and I think to some extent she was counterproductive.”

The case appears to break legal ground in assigning responsibility for the actions of dangerous pets. Animal advocates praised the verdict against Knoller as an important signal to those who do not control their pets.

At the same time, the behavior of the defendants made this an unusual case.

“One lesson from this case may be that if a tragedy happens, taking responsibility is better than attacking the victim,” said Laurie Levenson, a Loyola Law School professor and former federal prosecutor.

Victim’s Mother Praises Jury’s Verdicts

Prosecutors, friends and the family of the victim praised the jury’s decision.

Whipple’s mother, Penny Whipple-Kelly, said she was glad Knoller and Noel would have to take responsibility for her daughter’s death. “I’m just glad the verdicts came out the way they did,” she said.

Assistant Dist. Atty. James Hammer said: “This jury did justice. . . . This was the right thing to do, but it was a tough fight.”

Hammer also said he hopes “Diane Whipple’s death will prevent other people from dying, and that will be one small part of her legacy.”

Knoller’s parents left the courthouse shortly after the verdict was announced and did not comment. Knoller’s defense attorney Ruiz, who escorted them away, also refused to speak to reporters. Ruiz spoke to Knoller’s mother, repeatedly reassuring her that the conviction would be appealed. Noel’s lawyer, Bruce Hotchkiss, also did not comment.

Peter Keane, dean of the Golden State University law school, said he was very surprised at the second-degree murder verdict. He said an appellate court may question whether the evidence was sufficient to warrant a murder verdict.

To convict on second-degree murder, jurors had to find that Knoller acted with conscious disregard for human life.

But Keane added that Knoller’s lawyer presented a poor case.

“The defense attorney never gave the jury a reason for why the incident was not a second-degree murder,” he said. “Her closing argument as a whole was rambling and incoherent, theatrical and emotional.”

As for the lesser counts of involuntary manslaughter and keeping a mischievous dog that killed, Keane said he agreed with the jury.

“This was an easy one,” he said. “The prosecutors could have phoned that in.”

Levenson said several prosecution witnesses who testified about other incidents involving the dogs bolstered the case against the two defendants.

“The prosecutors had much stronger facts than in most dog mauling cases. Normally you don’t have owners with 30 prior incidents warning them,” Levenson said. “Step after step, Knoller made the wrong move, going on ‘GMA,’ having her lawyer attack the victim, having her lawyer attack the judge.”

Whipple died Jan. 26, 2001, after being attacked outside her Pacific Heights apartment by the two dogs.

She was returning from a trip to the grocery store and was trying to enter her apartment when the dogs, each weighing more than 100 pounds, charged her.

Bane, the larger of the two, knocked Whipple down and bit and scratched her from head to toe. Bane tore at Whipple’s throat while the second dog, Hera, ripped her clothes.

Knoller testified that she tried to save Whipple by yanking Bane’s leash, yelling at the dog and placing herself in harm’s way by lying on top of the victim. There were no witnesses, but a woman from across the hall testified that she heard growling, barking and pleas for help.

When police arrived, they found Whipple naked, covered in blood and trying to crawl toward her door. She died at San Francisco General Hospital from blood loss and asphyxiation.

The brutal attack stunned and angered San Franciscans and prompted hundreds of complaints about other dogs to the district attorney’s office and animal control officials.

Whipple’s death also initiated a national debate on the responsibility of dog owners and landlords. Wrongful-death civil cases are pending against Knoller and Noel and the building owners.

Grand Jury Returned Murder Indictment

A San Francisco grand jury indicted the couple in March 2001. Even though prosecutors sought only involuntary manslaughter charges, the grand jury also returned the second-degree murder indictment against Knoller.

Investigators linked the dogs to an illegal dog-breeding operation run by two members of a white supremacist prison gang serving time at Pelican Bay State Prison.

Knoller and Noel had represented the inmates, Paul Schneider, and Dale Bretches.

After the attack, the lawyers adopted Schneider, who is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for attempted murder and aggravated assault while in prison.

The case was moved to Los Angeles because of intense publicity in the Bay Area. The couple have been in jail since they were indicted. The two dogs were destroyed.

During the five-week trial, the courtroom was packed with Whipple’s friends, Knoller’s parents and a crowd of reporters.

Prosecutors presented 40 witnesses, arguing that Whipple died because the defendants arrogantly ignored warnings about their dogs’ dangerous nature.

Neighbors, dog walkers and postal workers testified about terrifying encounters with the dogs. Smith told jurors that Whipple was bitten by one of the dogs a month before the fatal attack.

In their closing arguments, prosecutors held up a cast of Bane’s teeth and insisted that the defendants should be convicted because they knew their dogs were more dangerous than loaded guns and that it was only a matter of time until they killed.

They called the defendants arrogant liars, and discredited Knoller’s account of the mauling, saying that she would have been injured more severely had she been on top of Whipple.

Defense attorneys presented 28 witnesses and argued that the attack was a tragic accident and that their clients could never have anticipated that their dogs would kill. Their witnesses included restaurant owners and veterinarians who said the dogs were normally well-behaved and friendly.

Defense attorneys urged jurors to acquit in their closing arguments, saying that their clients had not been warned about the dangers of the dogs because nobody had complained to police or animal control officers.

The defense case hung on the credibility of Knoller, who sobbed as she told jurors that she tried to shield Whipple from the dogs. Her attorney showed jurors Knoller’s ripped clothing and enlarged photographs of her injuries.

Knoller denied that her dogs were dangerous and said the couple walked their pets all around San Francisco and had never had a problem.

Noel, who arrived home after the attack, did not testify.

The jurors were partially sequestered. They began deliberating Tuesday morning and asked to rehear statements Noel had made to the grand jury about the dogs’ aggression before reaching verdicts on four of the five counts Wednesday afternoon. They reached a decision on the final count--second-degree murder for Knoller--just after 10 a.m. Thursday. The verdicts were read at 1:45 p.m.

A Warning to Owners of Vicious Animals

The case had a major impact on the city of San Francisco. Mayor Willie Brown issued a statement praising the outcome.

“I hope Ms. Smith, the family and the friends of Ms. Whipple find some comfort in this outcome,” Brown said in the statement.

Carl Friedman, director of San Francisco Animal Care and Control, called the trial “a wake-up call for people who own aggressive animals.”

“It means people will have to do everything they can to work with their animals to control their aggression,” he said. “There is no upside to this case. Ms. Whipple is dead. The family is devastated, the dogs have been killed and the defendants are going to be in jail.”

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Times staff writers John Johnson, Laura Loh, Maura Dolan, Henry Weinstein and staff researcher Norma Kaufman contributed to this report.