Defense lawyer Nedra Ruiz attempted to portray the defendant Marjorie Knoller, charged in the death of Diane Whipple, as a heroine who was mauled herself as she risked her life to save Whipple from the huge Presa Canarios she and her husband kept in their apartment.

Prosecutors countered with images of Whipple's injuries. The pictures showed the back of Whipple’s neck bloodied and punctured by the dog's teeth, her face covered in blood, her buttocks and breasts punctured.

Some jurors looked away, and Whipple's mother cried. The victim's domestic partner, Sharon Smith, left the courtroom as the pictures were shown.

Knoller, 46, is charged with second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and having a mischievous animal that killed a human being. Robert Noel, her 60-year-old husband, faces the latter two charges.

San Francisco Assistant District Attorney Jim Hammer told jurors they must decide whether Knoller and her husband were warned how dangerous their dogs had become and whether they did anything to protect others from them.

Hammer said there was no proof that Knoller tried to stop the attack and described her as doing nothing to help the victim. He said Knoller passed by the victim and went into her apartment to find her keys.

Hammer said Whipple's clothes were pulled from her body and she was left naked and bloody. By the time police arrived, he said, Whipple was gasping, and she died "from a combination of blood loss and asphyxia.''

The prosecutor said he would show at least 30 instances in which Bane and Hera attacked other people, including an incident in which one dog severed Noel's finger.

Hammer also focused on the relationship between Knoller and Noel, both lawyers, and 39-year-old Paul Schneider, a white supremacist prison inmate who raised the dogs and whom the couple legally adopted.