Los Angeles -- Jurors began deliberating the fate of Marjorie Knoller and Robert Noel yesterday in the dog-mauling death of Diane Whipple, after one last outburst by Knoller's defense attorney prompted the judge in the case to threaten her with jail.

"The administration of justice is in your hands," Judge James Warren told the jury of seven men and five women after an hourlong final rebuttal from the prosecution, which has the burden of proving charges of second-degree murder against Knoller and involuntary manslaughter against Noel.

Jurors got the case at 10:20 a.m. and spent five hours deliberating before breaking for the day. They will resume this morning.

Prosecutor James Hammer got the last word after four weeks of testimony and arguments, telling jurors that the 46-year-old Knoller and her husband, Noel, 60, had disregarded repeated warnings about their two Presa Canario dogs before the attack that killed Whipple on Jan. 26, 2001.

"Ladies and gentlemen, if not this case, on these facts, on over 30 warnings, then when is it a murder case?" Hammer asked. "If not these defendants, then who?"

Hammer went on the offensive against Knoller's attorney, Nedra Ruiz. He scoffed at her assertions during closing arguments Monday that prosecutors had gone after the couple to satisfy gay activists and that Whipple's domestic partner, Sharon Smith, had lied on the stand when she said Whipple had been terrified of the dogs.

"If you have no evidence but your client to rest on, what are you left to do but to call everyone a liar?" Hammer said.

The prosecutor alluded to Ruiz's cross-examination of Smith, when the defense attorney asked, "Do you consider that if you had made a complaint (about the dogs) that Diane Whipple might be alive today?"

Hammer said Ruiz was telling Smith, "It's your fault she's dead, because you didn't complain."

As for Ruiz's assertion that the prosecution hid evidence favorable to Knoller to satisfy gays eager to see someone pay for Whipple's death, Hammer said, "I am not going to give Ms. Ruiz the dignity of a response. . . . She wants to suck me into a fight with her, but I'll stand on my own two feet with my integrity."

Ruiz twice interrupted Hammer, arguing that he was misstating facts. Both times she got a stern reprimand from Warren, who first told her she could be removed from the courtroom, then suggested she could be jailed.

"Your next objection will be made from the holding cell behind you," Warren told Ruiz.

Outside court, Ruiz complained that Warren had allowed prosecutors to object during her closing arguments.

"I find it very unusual that the judge would reprimand me for interrupting the prosecution when the prosecutor interrupted my argument and was never greeted by a threat from the judge to go straight to jail," Ruiz said.

Prosecutors had objected that Ruiz was disregarding Warren's restrictions on the use of certain evidence during her closing argument, and the judge agreed.

Ruiz defended her suggestion that Hammer "wants to curry favor of the homosexual and gay folks," saying gays "were the people who were out picketing with Sharon Smith that Diane Whipple deserved justice."

"That was translated into political pressure that resulted in an outrageous bail" for Knoller and Noel, Ruiz said.

The judge originally set Knoller's bail at $2 million, then cut it in half. Noel's bail has been $1 million since his indictment last March. Neither defendant has been able to raise bond.

Warren "caved in to political pressure," Ruiz said. "He allowed District Attorney Hammer to say, 'Oh, you got to keep the bail up here, because the (Aryan Brotherhood) is going to secret these folks away."'

Knoller and Noel adopted a reputed leader of the prison gang last year, and prosecutors contended they could use contacts with the Aryan Brotherhood to drop from sight if they were freed.

E-mail Jaxon Van Derbeken at jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.com.