Murder Conviction Reinstated in Fatal San Francisco Dog Mauling Case

Juliana Barbassa

The Associated Press

August 25, 2008

A woman whose dog mauled her neighbor to death could go back to prison for several years after a Superior Court judge reinstated on Friday the jury's original second-degree murder conviction.

"The defendant acted with conscious disregard for human life," said Judge Charlotte Woolard, after listing some of more than 30 incidents in which Marjorie Knoller's dogs bit or lunged at other people, and quoting from a veterinarian's letter warning the dogs were dangerous.

Woolard then reinstated the jury's conviction of second-degree murder for Knoller in connection to the death of Dianne Whipple in 2001. The presiding judge had thrown out that charge and convicted Knoller of involuntary manslaughter in March 2002.

Knoller was sentenced to four years in prison, and was paroled in 2004 after serving about half her sentence.

Whipple was attacked by at least one of two huge Presa Canarios cared for by Knoller in the hallway of the San Francisco apartment building where they all lived. Knoller and her husband, Robert Noel, who were both lawyers, were keeping the dogs for a state prison inmate whom the couple eventually adopted.

An appeals court then reinstated the second-degree murder conviction but last year the California Supreme Court said the trial judge and appeals court were both wrong and sent the case back down for reconsideration.

Knoller now faces 15 years to life in prison when she's sentenced on Sept. 22.

"This was a senseless and preventable death," said deputy attorney general Amy Haddix. "She elevated the quality of life of these dogs above the safety of their neighbors."

Noel, who also was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, wasn't at home during the grisly attack that tore all of Whipple's clothes from her body and left her with 73 different bites, including the fatal bites on the neck.

The couple outraged San Francisco residents in the days following the attack, when during a TV interview they seemed to blame the victim for her death. Knoller testified during trial that she had tried desperately to get the male dog, Bane, off Whipple, a 33-year-old lacrosse coach.

The judge on Friday ruled Knoller should be held in custody until her sentencing, without bail, since she faces a possible life sentence, has no community ties and can be considered a flight risk.

Whipple's former partner, Sharon Smith, was at the courthouse for the hearing.

"There is some relief, some closure here, but we still have the sentencing," she said.

Defense attorney Dennis Riordan said the judge's decision lowered the bar on the definition of murder. Knoller had testified that she never thought her dogs could kill someone, and her demeanor during the trial convinced the judge who heard the case, Riordan said.

For judge Woolard to read over the evidence without having been at the trial and find otherwise constitutes "a great act of hubris," he said. "The murder charge in this case never made sense."