Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

More Testimony Given in Dog Mauling Trial

Aired February 28, 2002 - 08:32   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: On to some of that gruesome and frightening testimony in the dog mauling trial in Los Angeles. A neighbor of victim Diane Whipple witnessed the attack from behind the safety of her apartment door and described the horrifying sights to the jury yesterday.

CNN's Anne McDermott was in Los Angeles.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNE MCDERMOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Esther Birkmaier told the court she heard barking and growling outside her apartment door and then a panicky voice pleading help me, help me. She looked through the peephole and saw her neighbor, Diane Whipple, on the floor of the now bloody hallway with a dark shadow over her, a shadow Birkmaier took to be a dog. As she dialed 911, she heard the voice of another neighbor, Marjorie Knoller, shouting, no, no!

Knoller and her husband, Robert Noel, are on trial for involuntary manslaughter, and Knoller is also on trial for second- degree murder. Her attorney, Nedra Ruiz, got down on her knees in the courtroom, as she is seen doing here, during opening statements trying to show that Birkmaier might have seen Knoller over the victim trying to protect the young woman. But prosecutors suggested Knoller might have protected the young woman better by yelling sooner and they referred to Birkmaier's testimony.

JIM HAMMER, PROSECUTOR: For two minutes after the attack began, she never heard Marjorie Knoller yell a thing.

MCDERMOTT: Knoller and her husband have long said that the attack on Whipple by their dogs called Presa Canarios was completely unexpected. But other witnesses in the case told of frightening encounters with the animals.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the dog just attacked.

MCDERMOTT: But the defense attorneys noted there was no contact made and the witness never bothered to report this incident. Among the next few witnesses, Whipple's domestic partner.

Anne McDermott, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE) TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com