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CNN Live At Daybreak

Dog Mauling Trial Started Yesterday

Aired February 20, 2002 - 06:08   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Another high-profile trial in Los Angeles. A San Francisco couple is on trial in the dog mauling death of a neighbor. Testimony in the trial got underway yesterday and CNN's Thelma Gutierrez has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The prosecution described in shocking detail the gruesome death of 33- year-old Diane Whipple, details so disturbing that Whipple's domestic partner, Sharon Smith, actually left the courtroom.

JAMES HAMMER, DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY, SAN FRANCISCO: In the hallway was a naked woman from head to toe, with no clothing on her whatsoever, covered in blood, crawling.

GUTIERREZ: Graphic pictures of Whipple's ravaged body, with puncture wounds to her neck, breasts and buttocks were revealed for the first time. She was attacked by huge 100-pound Presa Canario dogs named Bane and Herra (ph) that have since been destroyed.

HAMMER: Diane Whipple was not the first victim of these dogs. She was the last victim of these dogs, of a long line of almost 30 prior warnings and incidents.

GUTIERREZ: Prosecutor James Hammer says he will prove Whipple's neighbors, Marjorie Knoller and her husband Robert Noel, were callous and indifferent to repeated warnings that their dogs were dangerous.

HAMMER: Jill Davis was pregnant, in the lobby of her own building, and one of the dogs, although on leash at that point, lunged out right at her stomach.

GUTIERREZ: The prosecution pointed out Mr. Noel spent three days in the hospital, after he nearly had his finger severed when his own dog attacked him, and that one of the dogs bit Whipple's hand in an earlier incident.

HAMMER: The vet who saw these dogs sent a letter, and he'll testify a letter he'd never written before, but that he felt compelled to write it to give this warning saying, "they don't belong in the city. They're not right for the city. Think of that boy who was injured so, so badly." And do you know what the defendants did? They brought him anyhow. GUTIERREZ: The defense attorney, Nedra Ruiz, says the couple rescues dogs that were abused and only cared for them while they nursed them back to health, and that Knoller tried everything to control the dogs the day of the attack.

NEDRA RUIZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Marjorie Knoller tried to save that woman's life with her own body.

GUTIERREZ: At one point, Ruiz threw herself on the ground to reenact for the jury how Knoller tried to shield Whipple's body from the frenzied animals.

RUIZ: No one is sorrier than, Marjorie Knoller could not save Ms. Whipple, that Marjorie Knoller who risked her life to try to save Ms. Whipple.

GUTIERREZ: It was at this point that Knoller, who had remained composed during the prosecutions opening statements, broke down in tears. But the prosecution says they will prove Knoller did little to stop the attack or anything to help Diane Whipple.

HAMMER: She never called 9-1-1. When the police arrived, Diane was crawling, trying to push herself up towards her apartment, unable to breathe, bleeding to death with one dog still loose. Marjorie was nowhere to be seen, and she didn't call 9-1-1.

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The couple maintain their innocence and say they never expected the dogs to attack.

Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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