=> Murder by Dog conviction = 15 years in Prison ! <= Bad Doggie!
Reality_CheckŠ
for indifference to the fate of a neighbor who was mauled to death by
Knoller's dogs in a San Francisco apartment hallway and sentenced the former
attorney to 15 years to life in prison for second-degree murder.
Superior Court Judge Charlotte Woolard, who had reinstated a jury's murder
verdict for the January 2001 attack at a hearing last month, rejected a
defense lawyer's request for probation today and said the horrific
circumstances of the crime far outweighed Knoller's previous crime-free
record.
Woolard said Knoller had not bothered to put a muzzle on her aggressive
140-pound dog before taking him out of the apartment and did not call for
help, retrieve a weapon or dial 911 while the animal was mauling Diane
Whipple for at least 10 minutes.
Knoller "left Ms. Whipple in the hallway to die alone," the judge said. She
said Knoller lied repeatedly in grand jury and trial testimony, has never
expressed remorse, and "blamed the victim" in a television interview after
the attack.
The 25-minute hearing included a statement from Whipple's partner, Sharon
Smith, who looked at Knoller and declared that more than seven years after
"the worst day of my life and the last day of Diane's life, finally there is
some justice."
Knoller, 53, wearing orange jail clothing, looked straight ahead throughout
the hearing and did not speak before being led away by guards. Her lawyer,
Dennis Riordan, said afterward that he would appeal her murder conviction on
numerous grounds, including Woolard's discounting of a finding by the
original trial judge that Knoller hadn't known the dog could kill someone.
The crime "is not and has never been murder," Riordan told reporters. He
said Knoller's chance of success on appeal "depends on whether we get a
judgment that's controlled by law or a judgment that's controlled by San
Francisco politics."
Prosecutors said it was the first murder conviction for a dog mauling in
California history.
Knoller and her husband and law partner, Robert Noel, had custody of two
Presa Canario dogs who were owned by inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison. On
the day of the attack, Knoller took the larger dog, Bane, for a walk on the
roof of the Pacific Heights apartment and returned to the sixth-floor
corridor when the dog bolted away from her and attacked Whipple as she was
about to enter her apartment. Bane's 100-pound mate, Hera, charged out of
Knoller's apartment and may have joined the attack.
Whipple, 33, the women's lacrosse coach at St. Mary's College, suffered at
least 77 wounds.
A jury in Los Angeles, where the trial was moved because of extensive
publicity in the Bay Area, convicted Knoller of second-degree murder in 2002
and found Noel guilty of involuntary manslaughter for leaving the dogs with
his wife while knowing she couldn't control them. He was paroled in
September 2003.
Judge James Warren of San Francisco Superior Court, who presided over the
trial, reduced Knoller's conviction to involuntary manslaughter, saying he
believed her when she testified she had no idea Bane might kill someone.
But the state Supreme Court ruled last year that Warren had used the wrong
legal standard in overturning the murder verdict. The court said prosecutors
seeking a murder conviction for dog mauling don't have to prove the owner
knew the dog was likely to kill, only that the owner had been aware the
animal was potentially lethal and had exposed others to the danger.
The court returned the case to Superior Court to decide whether to reinstate
the murder conviction. Warren, who has retired, was willing to come back to
handle the case, but the court's presiding judge instead assigned it to
Woolard - a decision that Knoller's lawyer said he will challenge in the
appeals court.
Woolard reinstated the murder conviction Aug. 22, saying Knoller had ignored
numerous warnings that the dogs were dangerous and had seen them repeatedly
attack and threaten other dogs and people. She ordered Knoller jailed
immediately after last month's hearing while awaiting sentencing.
Knoller had served nearly three years in prison for manslaughter before
being paroled in 2004, and will be credited for that period when she becomes
eligible for parole consideration in about 10 years.
Woolard fined her $10,000 and ordered her to pay $6,800 out of her prison
earnings in restitution to Smith.