March 28, 2001
(SAN FRANCISCO) - A lawyer has been charged with second-degree murder and she and her husband with involuntary manslaughter for the death of a woman killed by their dogs.
Marjorie Knoller, 45, and Robert Noel, 59, were arrested Tuesday at a friend’s ranch after a grand jury handed up indictments. Noel received a traffic ticket when he was pulled over by the California Highway Patrol on the way to the ranch.
Diane Whipple was fatally mauled by the two Presa Canario dogs in a hallway in the apartment building where she and the two lawyers lived. Knoller and Noel say they were caring for the animals for their legal owners, two cellmates at the maximum-security Pelican Bay Prison. The couple adopted one of the inmates a few days after Whipple’s death.