The domestic partner of Diane Whipple, mauled to death by dogs in San Francisco, will be allowed tell a jury about a warning the frightened woman delivered to one of the defendants the month before she was killed.

Whipple was bitten on the hand by one of Robert Noel's 120-pound Presa Canarios and told him to keep the animal under control, Sharon Smith testified Tues. A few weeks later, one of the dogs mauled Whipple to death in San Francisco.

The prosecution argued that the incident Smith described had put Noel and his wife, Marjorie Knoller, on notice of their dogs' dangerous behavior before the fatal attack Jan. 26, 2001. The defense questioned whether the first incident had really happened.

Smith was the first witness in a string of evidentiary hearings in the case against Knoller and Noel.

Knoller, 46, is charged with second-degree murder, and both she and Noel, 60, are accused of involuntary manslaughter and of keeping a vicious dog whose attack causes death.

Attack Dog Put to Sleep

Yesterday, the Presa Canario, Hera, accused of being part of the fateful attack was put to sleep after a long legal battle over the dog's fate ended at the California state Supreme Court.

Hera was put down at San Francisco's Animal Care and Control shelter after the city got an order from the courts lifting a stay on her execution. The stay had been in place for the past year.

The dog had been preserved first as evidence after the Jan. 26, 2001, attack that killed 33-year-old Whipple.

Then the dog was kept alive while her owners and animal-rights activists challenged the legality of a city hearing officer's order deeming her vicious.

The defendants, Noel and Knoller, have maintained Hera was not involved in the attack.

They say Hera merely tugged on the victim's clothing as their other Presa Canario, Bane, mauled her.