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Killer
dog owner sentenced
- by Nick Mays
THE OWNER of two Presa Canario dogs who mauled a woman to death
outside her apartment in San Francisco has been sentenced to
four years imprisonment.
Marjorie Knoller, 46 and her husband, Robert Noel, 60, were
put on trial in Los Angeles in March this year after their dogs
Bane and Hera attacked and killed neighbour Diane Whipple, a
33-year-old San Francisco lacrosse coach. Whipple was killed
in the hallway of the apartment building she shared with Knoller
and Noel as she returned home from a trip to the grocery store
on January 26th 2001.
The prosecution laid out more than 30 incidents or warnings
involving the 100-plus-pound dogs, which were destroyed after
the attack. All the warnings given about the dogs had been ignored
by the couple.
Knoller will serve about 15 months of her term, as she has been
in prison on remand since being arrested after the incident.
The five-week trial gripped much of the nation as prosecutors
described a horrific attack in which Whipple was bitten all
over her body - her throat ripped, her clothes torn off - by
at least one of the dogs.
Knoller was found guilty of second-degree murder, involuntary
manslaughter and having a mischievous animal that kills. Noel
was found guilty on the latter two counts and is currently serving
a four-year term for manslaughter resulting from the attack.
Knoller has appealed against her sentence after her conviction
for murder was dismissed by the Appeal Court last month.
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