dictionary

Owner admits killer dog couldn't be controlled

Says animal 'went where he wanted'

Knoller on the stand Monday

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Under blistering cross-examination Tuesday, Marjorie Knoller, a San Francisco woman whose 120-pound dog mauled a neighbor to death last year, conceded that she was not in control of the dog at the time of the attack and that the animal had "some dog aggression issues."

Asked by prosecutor Jim Hammer if she felt she was in control of the dog, Bane, on January 26, 2001, when he mauled Diane Whipple, Knoller answered no.

"He went where he wanted," she said.

Knoller is on trial on charges of second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and keeping a mischievous animal that killed a human being for the attack on Whipple, 33, who was mauled to death while bringing groceries back to her San Francisco apartment.

Knoller's husband, Robert Noel, is on trial on the latter two charges. He wasn't charged with murder because he was not at the scene when the attack occurred.

Prosecutors contend that Knoller and Noel knew that the two giant Presa Canario dogs they kept, Bane and Hera, were dangerous. They also alleged that Knoller didn't try to stop the attack and didn't come to Whipple's assistance as the college lacrosse coach lay dying in the hallway of apartment building.

In his cross-examination, Hammer also peppered Knoller with questions about testimony from other witnesses who related incidents where the dogs were aggressive. She frequently responded by saying she wasn't present or didn't recall the incidents, or said that the witnesses were wrong about what took place.

LEGAL RESOURCES Latest Legal News Law Library FindLaw Consumer Center Select a topic Bankruptcy Discrimination Divorce Estate Planning Landlord-Tenant Personal Injury Taxes

He also asked her about a letter she wrote to a prison inmate befriended by the couple, in which she wrote that she didn't "have the body weight or leverage" to control Bane. In the course of that exchange, Knoller conceded that "Bane had some dog aggression issues."

However, Knoller said that she felt those issues involved him going after other dogs, not attacking people.

Earlier, in a second day of sometimes tearful direct testimony, Knoller said she tried to stem Whipple's bleeding after the attack -- but stopped because she believed she needed to get Bane away from the wounded woman.

"I was holding on for dear life to make sure he didn't go back to doing what he was doing," Knoller said.

The defense also called to the stand a trauma expert who testified that Knoller suffered dog bites similar to Whipple's wounds during the incident -- evidence to support the defense contention that Knoller tried to intervene after the dog attacked Whipple.

On the stand Monday, Knoller said that she had tried to stop the attack, even using her own body to try to protect Whipple. On Tuesday, testifying about the aftermath of the attack, Knoller said she put two fingers in a wound in Whipple's neck to stop the bleeding.

But she testified that she took her fingers out of the wound because, fearing Bane might resume the attack, she decided she needed to move Bane and Hera into her apartment. She also said Whipple was breathing and that she was "pretty sure" she still had a pulse.

After putting the dogs in her apartment, Knoller testified that she went back into the hallway and was looking for her keys when she encountered police officers.

A neighbor, not Knoller, had called 911 for help. On cross-examination, Hammer disputed Knoller's assertion that the neighbor, an elderly woman, had told Knoller that she already called for help.

"You made it up," Hammer said.

"No, I didn't," Knoller responded.

Doctors say Whipple died of blood loss and asphyxiation after the 120-pound dog attacked her.

Knoller said that before the attack she had "no idea" that Bane was capable of such violence and therefore doesn't feel responsible for the attack. She agreed to turn the dogs over to animal control officers because, after what she saw Bane do to Whipple, "I didn't want to deal with a beast like that."

Bane was put down, but the couple later fought efforts by officials to destroy Hera. Under cross-examination, Knoller told Hammer that Hera wasn't involved in the attack, as prosecutors contend, and "I didn't want Hera to be put down for something she didn't do."

Both dogs were eventually destroyed.

Knoller also said Tuesday on direct examination that she "never" believed Whipple was responsible for the attack, even though she testified previously that Bane bit Whipple on the neck after Whipple struck Knoller in the eye during the struggle with the dogs -- and that she warned Whipple that her dog was only being protective.

However, under cross-examination, Knoller said Whipple tried to get out from under her after she threw herself on Whipple to stop the attack. "That's when things escalated," Knoller said.

In other testimony Tuesday, a defense expert on trauma, Dr. David Barcay of Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, said he examined photographs of Knoller, taken after the mauling, and compared them to two photos of Whipple. He said Knoller had bruises on her wrists, breast and shoulder, as well as puncture wounds on her fingers, that appeared to be consistent with bites inflicted on Whipple.

Under cross-examination, Barcay was shown 18 more photographs of Whipple showing that she had bites from her forehead to her ankles. The doctor said he could not offer an explanation as to why Whipple had suffered so many more bites than Knoller during Bane's frenzied attack.

The trial of Knoller and Noel was moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles because of the extensive publicity the case received in the Bay Area.

-- CNN Correspondent Thelma Gutierrez contributed to this report.