Well I imagine before this is over, the woman and man who owned the
dogs, who are jewish, will be screaming "anti semitism" and if they
appeal, the mate of the lesbian killed by the dogs will be charging
discrimination......
As for the dogs, the the dogs usually take on the attributes, of theiri
masters and here we had dogs that did not like, lesbians.
In fact this woman who at one time it was alleged detested the
homosexual lifestyle of the "victim" when the dog had previously made an
advance to this woman, its owner said it was because of the perfume she
was wearing - a type of perfume this Miglin (whose husband was murdered
along with this Versace in homosexual lovers nest) sells and hawks as a
big drawer and full of sex appeal.
It is know that Alsteir Crowley wore musk, for horses like musk and
tahey would walk over to him as if he had some magical control over him.
Now these dogs - were they affected by this woman's perfume?
Frankly between the lot of them, I would prefer the dogs had not been
executed - but then too there are people who love to execute dogs to
earn their - god what a lifestyle.
Regardless, too bad about the dogs.....the others, well dogs do not
attack for no reason do they?
Forget the name of that perfume - starts with a PHE - something they put
into it, but could it have driven this dog to madness?
Now the drive will be on to kill more dogs because of a couple of dogs
that went bad.......but then what caused the final attack, did this
woman order them to kill?
Saba
Maul
Mauling trial jurors explain verdicts
Marjorie Knoller, left, reacts as the guilty verdict on the count of
second-degree murder in read Thursday. At right is her attorney, Nedra
Ruiz.
March 22 -- Don Newton, jury foreman in the dog-mauling trial, tells
reporter Sara James on NBC's "Today" show why the jury found the
defendants guilty.
MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS LOS ANGELES, March 21 — Jurors
who found Marjorie Knoller guilty of murder in the dog-mauling death of
a neighbor said they were surprised that Knoller took the witness stand
at all. "From our point of view, her testimony was not believable," said
Don Newton, 64, foreman of the seven-man, five-woman panel that
convicted Knoller and her husband Thursday in the death of Diane
Whipple, 33.
Should a pet's owner go to jail for the pet's misbehavior? Yes;
the owner is solely responsible for making sure the animal is not
dangerous No; the owner cannot know how the animal will react in all
circumstances
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THE JURORS SAID the San Francisco couple, whose two huge
dogs attacked Whipple last year, was "arrogant" and repeatedly ignored
warnings about their dogs.
"We decided there was not simply one action," Newton
said. "It was a series of actions and failures to heed warnings."
The jury said the second-degree murder charge against
Knoller was the last count decided.
"It was a painful decision," Newton said. "The question
of implied malice was a difficult question to decide, but we did decide
there was implied malice in her actions."
Knoller, who was walking the dogs when the attack
occurred, faces 15 years to life for the murder conviction. She and her
husband, Robert Noel, also were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter
and of having a mischievous dog that killed someone. He faces a maximum
of four years in prison when he and his wife are sentenced on May 10 in
San Francisco.
HUSBAND SEEN AS RESPONSIBLE
While Noel wasn't present during the fatal mauling,
Newton said the jurors found that he was probably as responsible as his
wife was for the events. "Robert Noel didn't seem to be a very nice
person," he said.
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Whipple was fatally mauled Jan. 26, 2001, outside her
apartment by at least one of Noel and Knoller's two huge Presa Canario
dogs.
Jeanne Sluiman, 52, said Knoller's testimony about the
attack had so many inconsistencies that the jurors had to go beyond it
to other facts to reach their decisions.
That was echoed by juror Shawn Antonio, 27, who said
Knoller's stories were "so fabricated, it was difficult. She'd come up
with 10 scenarios of what happened and the only other witness is no
longer with us."
Antonio said that the jurors repeatedly reviewed a tape
of a TV interview in which Knoller disavowed responsibility for
Whipple's death.
'NO KIND OF SYMPATHY'
"There was no kind of sympathy, no kind of apologies," he
said. "It helped us a lot."
The jurors said they thought that if the defendants
cared, they would have heeded the warnings of a veterinarian who wrote
to the couple early on about the danger the dogs posed.
"If someone wasn't arrogant they would have had to heed
that warning," Sluiman said.
Unlike Knoller, Noel didn't testify at trial. During
deliberations, the jury asked to hear a reading of his testimony to the
grand jury that indicted the couple.
Couple charged in Wisconsin mauling death
"It made it clear that he was not any different than
Marjorie Knoller in this," Newton said. "He was equally responsible."
Antonio asked to make one thing clear: "We really didn't
go into this deciding that we would hate these people."
The jurors were asked about their impressions of
Knoller's flamboyant defense attorney, Nedra Ruiz. Several said they
found her antics, such as crawling on the floor, a distraction.
March 22 — Jim Hammer and Kimberly Guilfoyle Newsom discuss their
successful prosecution of Marjorie Knoller and Robert Noel in the
California dog-mauling trial.
The foreman called her "an incredible actress and I think
to some extent she was counterproductive."
Murder charges are rare in dog mauling cases, but
prosecutors said the husband-and-wife lawyers knew their two powerful
dogs were "time bombs." The prosecution brought in more than 30
witnesses who said the dogs, Bane and Hera, had terrorized them.
San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan said he
always expected to win a murder conviction, even though there had never
been one in a dog mauling case in California.
"I wasn't surprised at all," he said.
Defense attorneys didn't speak to reporters afterward.
They said previously they would appeal an adverse outcome.
Knoller gasped when the guilty verdict on the most
serious charge against her, second-degree murder, was read in the packed
courtroom.
Noel showed no emotion as the verdicts were read.
TEARS IN COURTROOM
A large group of friends of Whipple and her domestic
partner, Sharon Smith, burst into tears in the courtroom when the
verdicts were read. Smith has sued the owners of the apartment building
where Whipple was killed under a historic new California law that gives
gay partners the same right as a spouse to sue for damages.
KNBC Los Angeles
• Knoller, Noel guilty on all counts
Whipple's mother, Penny Whipple-Kelly, told reporters
that she was "very pleased and happy" with the verdicts.
"Marjorie, from what I could see, never took any
responsibility until it was convenient for her at trial," Whipple-Kelly
said.
Whipple-Kelly denounced Knoller and her attorney for
appearing to portray Whipple's death as her own fault. "They tried to
blame my daughter and anyone else they possibly could," she said.
Smith told reporters: "I think justice was done to them.
I was glad to see the jury didn't buy some of the smokescreens the
defense put in front of them," including accusations by Knoller's lawyer
that prosecutors were trying to "curry favor with the homosexual and gay
folks."
"It's been a long 14 months, and a lot of that time was
spent focusing on this moment, so it's a very emotional moment for me,"
Smith said.
The trial was moved to Los Angeles because of concern
that overwhelming publicity would prevent a fair trial in San Francisco.
The trial was grim: The jurors were shown saw 77 bloody
photos of Whipple's wounds, many of them blown up to wall size on a
movie screen. The prosecutors said the 110-pound college lacrosse coach
had been bitten everywhere except the top of her head and the soles of
her feet.
Experts said the 120-pound Bane delivered the fatal
wounds. They could not say for certain whether the other dog took part
in the attack. Both dogs were destroyed.
PET SAID TO HAVE TRANSFORMED
Noel did not testify and contended through his lawyer
that he had no warning that the dogs would kill. But his letters to the
couple's adopted son were read to the jury.
Two weeks before the attack, Noel wrote about an incident
in which the dogs frightened Whipple as she entered the building's
elevator. In the letter, Noel referred to Whipple as a "timorous little
mousy blond."
After the attack, he wrote another letter bemoaning the
death of Bane and vowing to fight for the life of Hera. "Neighbors be
damned," he wrote. "If they don't like living in the building with her,
they can move."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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