LOS ANGELES – The killer dogs who fatally mauled a San Francisco woman last year had a long history of violence and even “ate” their own doghouse as pups, a witness testified yesterday.
Janet Coumbs, the first owner of two Presa Canario dogs who killed Long Island native Diane Whipple last year, told jurors that 125-pound “Bane” and 115-pound “Hera” were tough to control.
“They destroyed the doghouses,” Coumbs told jurors. “We had a doghouse for Bane, and he ate it … we kept repairing it, and he kept tearing it apart.”
Coumbs cared for the dogs until April 1, 2000, when she turned them over to San Francisco lawyers Marjorie Knoller and Robert Noel – who are now on trial for Whipple’s death. Knoller faces a second-degree murder charge, while her husband, Noel, is facing involuntary manslaughter.
But defense lawyers yesterday sought to paint the dogs as friendly animals whom Knoller and Noel could not have known would someday kill.
Under cross-examination, Coumbs said she loved “Bane” and didn’t fear him at all, despite the constant damage he caused on her farm.
The trial was moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles because of high publicity. If convicted, Knoller could get 15 years to life and Noel could get four years.
Prosecutors have to show Knoller and Noel knew their dogs were ticking time bombs before the mutts killed Whipple, a graduate of Manhasset HS on Long Island, in the hallway outside her apartment.Coumbs said she had received “Bane” and “Hera” as a gift from prison pen pal Paul Schneider. But when their relationship soured, Coumbs said Schneider sued for custody of the dogs.
The relationship took a downfall, Coumbs said, because she wanted to socialize the dogs against the wishes of Schneider, a felon serving a life term.
Authorities have said Knoller and Noel, Schneider’s lawyers, were helping him and other members of a white-suprem- acist gang run a business behind prison walls to raise killer dogs.
Fearing a lawsuit, Coumbs gave “Bane” and “Hera” to the San Francisco lawyers.