Parole denied to attorney serving life in fatal dog mauling

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California commissioners have denied parole for a former San Francisco attorney serving a life sentence in a bizarre dog-mauling case that tested the limits of the state’s murder laws.

Marjorie Knoller is serving a sentence of 15 years to life in prison for second-degree murder after her dogs viciously attacked and killed her 33-year-old neighbor, Dianne Whipple, in their San Francisco apartment building in 2001.

Parole board spokesman Luis Patino said commissioners decided Thursday that 63-year-old Knoller can try again in three years.

The California Supreme Court eventually decided Knoller acted with a conscious disregard for human life when her 140-pound Presa Canario escaped and killed Whipple. The sentencing judge said Knoller did little to stop the attack.

Knoller’s husband, Robert Noel, wasn’t present but was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.