Los Angeles ? A tearful defense attorney told jurors Tuesday that her client, who is charged in the dog-mauling death of her neighbor, risked her life to save the woman.

Marjorie Knoller flung herself on Diane Whipple when she was attacked by a 100-pound plus presa canario owned by Knoller and her husband, Robert Noel, the lawyer said.

Robert Noel, above, and Marjorie Knoller listen to opening statements at their trial on charges that their dog Bane fatally mauled a neighbor, Diane Whipple, last year. The trial opened Tuesday.

“Marjorie was covered in blood,” attorney Nedra Ruiz said in opening statements, her voice breaking. “No one is sorrier that Marjorie Knoller could not save Ms. Whipple than Marjorie Knoller, who risked her life.”

Knoller, 46, cried as she listened. She is charged with second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and having a mischievous animal that killed a human being. Noel, 60, faces the latter two charges.

Knoller was with the dogs, Bane and Hera, at the time of the Jan. 26, 2001, attack on Whipple, 33, outside her San Francisco apartment. The trial was moved to Los Angeles because of extensive publicity in San Francisco.

San Francisco Assistant Dist. Atty. Jim Hammer told jurors they must decide whether Knoller and Noel were warned how dangerous their dogs were and whether they did anything to protect others from them.

Hammer gave jurors a dramatic description of the scene in the hallway of Whipple’s apartment building as she tried to enter her home with groceries, only to be knocked down by Bane.

He said a neighbor who called 911 will testify that she heard growling and barking, and then the dog pounded her apartment door so hard that she was afraid he would break it down.

Marjorie Knoller

The prosecutor also said there was no proof that Knoller tried to stop the attack and described her as doing nothing to help the victim. He said Knoller passed by the victim and went into her apartment to find her keys.

Hammer said Whipple’s clothes were pulled from her body and she was left naked and bloody. By the time police arrived, he said, Whipple was gasping, and she died “from a combination of blood loss and asphyxia.”

The prosecutor said he would show at least 30 instances in which Bane and Hera attacked other people, including an incident in which one dog severed Noel’s finger. He said Bane, the male, had also lunged at a pregnant woman and at a 6-year-old boy and bit one neighbor.

He punctuated his opening statement with gruesome photos of Whipple’s injuries.

Some jurors looked away, and Whipple’s mother cried. The victim’s domestic partner, Sharon Smith, left the courtroom as the pictures were shown. The defendants were impassive.

Hammer also focused on the relationship between Knoller and Noel and two Pelican Bay State Prison inmates who allegedly conspired with them to raise a breed of killer dogs.