"It was their dogs and their careless disregard for Diane's life that caused her death," a tearful Sharon Smith said of Robert Noel and Marjorie Knoller, the married couple who are on trial for the death of Diane Whipple, 33.
"I believe they are guilty and responsible for taking Diane's life, and I want to make sure they are held accountable."
On the day of the attack, January 26, 2001, she said Whipple had called her at work, urging her to come home early so they could go to the movies.
When she got to the apartment, around 5:30 p.m., police and emergency crews were everywhere. She couldn't enter the building because police had sealed off the entrance with crime scene tape.
"My landlord was in front and she told me what happened," she said.
Whipple later died at the hospital, with Smith at her side.
The testimony was the most powerful since the trial began last week, with friends of Whipple and Smith crowding the courtroom. Many in the courtroom cried during the testimony, others intently watched and listened with their arms wrapped around the shoulder of the person next to them.
Noel glanced at Smith while she testified, but Knoller looked away, much as she has done when others have testified.
At one point, Whipple's shredded, blood-stained clothes were displayed in court. Her jeans and sweater were torn into such small pieces it resembled shredded lettuce.
"The clothing is basically shredded, in very poor condition, ripped to pieces," said Spencer Gregory, a crime scene investigator with the San Francisco Police Department.
Smith, who referred to Whipple as "my life partner," said she and Whipple had at least two encounters with the dogs before the day of the fatal attack. In conversations, they would refer to the animals as "those dogs" and Noel and Knoller as "those people."
On one occasion, she said one of the dogs came at her very fast, and she stuck her hand out in a friendly gesture. "No, don't do that," she quoted Noel as saying.
Another time, in December 2000, she said Whipple called her up at work and said, "That dog just bit me."
Smith testified that Whipple later told her the dog bit her left hand as she was leaving the apartment building and Noel was bringing the dog inside.
"You need to control your dog," she quoted Whipple as telling Noel, who stared at her without uttering a word.
However, Smith said they did not file a complaint with the apartment manager and instead just tried to avoid the dogs. But the incident had clearly rattled Whipple.
"She was very scared of those dogs," Smith said.
Under cross-examination, defense attorney Nedra Ruiz pressed Smith on why a complaint was never filed: "Have you considered that if you had made a complaint, Ms. Whipple would be alive today?"
That question drew an audible gasp from the gallery. At least one woman wiped away tears. The prosecution objected and the judge sustained the objection.
Moments later, Ruiz asked Smith about a civil suit she has filed against Noel and Knoller seeking damages -- a move that opened the door for the prosecution to ask her about why she felt the couple should be punished.
Why do you believe they are responsible, asked lead prosecutor Jim Hammer.
"Because it was their dogs and their careless disregard for Diane's life that caused her death," Smith said.
Knoller and Noel have pleaded innocent to the charges of involuntary manslaughter and keeping a mischievous animal that killed a human being.
Knoller -- who was with the two, large Presa Canario dogs during the attack on Whipple -- was also charged with second-degree murder.
Whipple, returning home with groceries, had the key in her door and one of two bags inside when the attack began.
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February 28, 2002
Neighbor Heard Shrieks of 'Help Me!' as Dog Attack Began
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) — A woman who witnessed the dog mauling of Diane Whipple through the peephole of her apartment door testified Wednesday she heard the woman shrieking "Help me! Help me!" as neighbors' dogs savagely attacked her.
"It sounded panic-stricken, quite loud," Esther Birkmaier, 76, told the court in the trial of Robert Noel and Marjorie Knoller, the married couple who owned the dogs and who are on trial for the death of the 33-year-old Whipple.
Wednesday's testimony was some of the most gripping since the trial began last week, with emergency personnel and police officers describing the scene when they first arrived shortly after 4 p.m. on January 26, 2001.
A picture displayed to jurors showed Whipple's clothing, including a knit sweater, so shredded it looked like gauze pads. Police officer Sidney Laws said the dogs had torn through the clothing so extensively that Whipple was "totally nude" when officers arrived.
"She had multiple dog bite wounds over most of her body," Laws said, adding that Whipple was still trying to "get up and crawl."
The emergency personnel described Knoller, who was with the dogs when they attacked Whipple, as covered in blood, but with no visible injuries.
Birkmaier recalled hearing the dogs barking loudly and thinking, "The dogs are loud today." She then heard Whipple's cries for help.
"I got up from the table, walked to the door, looked out the peephole and I saw a body on the floor," she said. "I saw a dark shadow that looked like a dog [on top of the body]."
She went to dial 911 when she heard Knoller urging the dogs to stop in a "loud and shrill" voice.
"I heard a voice, I heard barking, and I heard someone yelling commands," Birkmaier said.
The barking continued for a little bit. "Finally, the barking stopped, the growling stopped, and there was silence," she said.
Birkmaier called 911 again.
Michael Scott, an animal control officer, described seeing blood-splattered walls and floors in the apartment building's hallway. "The scene was horrific," he said.
The dogs were in a bathroom and the bedroom of Knoller and Noel's apartment by then, he said.
He fired three tranquilizers into the dog in the bathroom, yet it had no effect. The dog in the bedroom was so vicious it was "making crashing sounds at the doorway."
"The dog was impacting the door by bashing it," Scott said. "I was worried the door wouldn't hold up."
A police officer with a machine gun and another with a pistol stood by as animal control attempted to get the dogs out of the sixth-floor apartment and into awaiting vans, he said.
They eventually put the dogs in the vans, where the male dog, Bane, was euthanized on site. The female dog, Hera, was not but has since been put to death.
Andrea Grunge, another animal control technician, described Knoller as unusually calm after witnessing such a horrific act.
"Mrs. Knoller was oddly calm and irresponsive," Grunge said.
When animal control technicians asked her help in trying to get the dogs out of the apartment, she would not cooperate. And she would sign a euthanasia order only for Bane.
"She signed over Bane," Grunge said. "She refused to turn over Hera."
Knoller and Noel have pleaded innocent to the charges of involuntary manslaughter and keeping a mischievous animal that killed a human being.
Knoller — who was with the two, large Presa Canario dogs during the attack on Whipple — was also charged with second-degree murder.
Whipple, returning home with groceries, had the key in her door and one of two bags inside when the attack began.
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February 28, 2002
Witness Testifies in Dog Mauling Case.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A witness in the dog mauling trial of two San Francisco attorneys described defendant Marjorie Knoller as "oddly calm, almost cold" after her two dogs attacked and killed a college lacrosse coach.
Andrea Runge, an animal control officer, testified she stood in the hallway outside Diane Whipple's apartment while Whipple lay dying and found the scene "devastating."
"There was 20 to 30 feet of blood, shreds of clothing. The carpets were soaked in blood, and the victim was in the hallway being attended to," she said Wednesday. "It was just incomprehensible, and Ms. Knoller was oddly calm, almost cold."
Runge said she asked Knoller to lead her two Presa Canario dogs out of the building, but Knoller refused, claiming she couldn't handle the dogs.
Prosecutors were expected to use that comment against Knoller as they attempt to prove she knew the animals were uncontrollable.
Emergency personnel and a neighbor who saw a wounded Whipple through her apartment peephole also testified Wednesday in the trial of Knoller and her husband, Robert Noel. Their dogs, Bane and Hera, killed Whipple, 33, in the hallway of their building on Jan. 26, 2001.
Knoller, 46, who was present during the attack, is charged with second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and having a mischievous animal that killed a human being. Her husband, Robert Noel, 60, faces the latter two charges.
The couple's defense attorneys said the dogs' behavior was unexpected, and that Knoller was badly injured trying to stop the attack.
But in court Wednesday, a San Francisco Fire Department emergency medical technician who examined Knoller testified that she was covered in blood, but appeared to have no serious injuries.
Paula Gamick said she asked Knoller whether she was OK. "Her response was, 'I've seen this sort of thing before. I'm an EMT.' And she intimated, 'I've been in bloody situations like this,'" Gamick said.
Knoller's attorney, Nedra Ruiz, said Knoller's father is a dentist and she had medical training, but she was not an EMT.
Wednesday's court proceedings also included testimony by Esther Birkmaier, a neighbor who was alerted to the attack after hearing dogs growling and barking and a woman crying, "Help me! Help me!"
Birkmaier, 78, said she peered through the peephole and saw a body on the floor with long hair, wearing light-colored clothes.
"And did you see anything on top of the person?" asked prosecutor Jim Hammer.
"I saw a dark shadow that looked like a dog. This is all I saw," Birkmaier said.
During her cross-examination of Birkmaier, Ruiz suggested that the shadow she saw was not a dog but Knoller throwing her body over Whipple, trying to save her. But Birkmaier never conceded that.
Birkmaier and other residents of the building have testified that they were afraid of Bane and Hera, who lunged and snarled at them.
Minutes after Birkmaier's testimony, prosecutors introduced a gruesome series of photos showing Whipple's badly mauled body. In grotesque, bloody close-ups, jurors saw the woman's gnawed neck, puncture wounds on her legs, buttocks and abdomen and blood streaked along her arms. She died shortly after the attack.
Whipple's mother, who was seated in a front row of the courtroom, watched for a while but finally left in tears.
Knoller and Noel averted their eyes during the photo display. Jurors looked at the pictures but some eventually looked away.
Witnesses expected to be called Thursday were to include Susan Smith, Whipple's domestic partner, and Jill and Steve Davis, a couple who say the dogs lunged at Jill Davis when she was eight months pregnant.
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