LOS ANGELES (AP) — A witness in the dog mauling trial of two San Francisco attorneys described defendant Marjorie Knoller as "oddly calm, almost cold" after her two dogs attacked and killed a college lacrosse coach.

Andrea Runge, an animal control officer, testified she stood in the hallway outside Diane Whipple's apartment while Whipple lay dying and found the scene "devastating."

"There was 20 to 30 feet of blood, shreds of clothing. The carpets were soaked in blood, and the victim was in the hallway being attended to," she said Wednesday. "It was just incomprehensible, and Ms. Knoller was oddly calm, almost cold."

Runge said she asked Knoller to lead her two Presa Canario dogs out of the building, but Knoller refused, claiming she couldn't handle the dogs.

Prosecutors were expected to use that comment against Knoller as they attempt to prove she knew the animals were uncontrollable.

Emergency personnel and a neighbor who saw a wounded Whipple through her apartment peephole also testified Wednesday in the trial of Knoller and her husband, Robert Noel. Their dogs, Bane and Hera, killed Whipple, 33, in the hallway of their building on Jan. 26, 2001.

Knoller, 46, who was present during the attack, is charged with second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and having a mischievous animal that killed a human being. Her husband, Robert Noel, 60, faces the latter two charges.

The couple's defense attorneys said the dogs' behavior was unexpected, and that Knoller was badly injured trying to stop the attack.

But in court Wednesday, a San Francisco Fire Department emergency medical technician who examined Knoller testified that she was covered in blood, but appeared to have no serious injuries.

Paula Gamick said she asked Knoller whether she was OK. "Her response was, 'I've seen this sort of thing before. I'm an EMT.' And she intimated, 'I've been in bloody situations like this,'" Gamick said.

Knoller's attorney, Nedra Ruiz, said Knoller's father is a dentist and she had medical training, but she was not an EMT.

Wednesday's court proceedings also included testimony by Esther Birkmaier, a neighbor who was alerted to the attack after hearing dogs growling and barking and a woman crying, "Help me! Help me!"

Birkmaier, 78, said she peered through the peephole and saw a body on the floor with long hair, wearing light-colored clothes.

"And did you see anything on top of the person?" asked prosecutor Jim Hammer.

"I saw a dark shadow that looked like a dog. This is all I saw," Birkmaier said.

During her cross-examination of Birkmaier, Ruiz suggested that the shadow she saw was not a dog but Knoller throwing her body over Whipple, trying to save her. But Birkmaier never conceded that.

Birkmaier and other residents of the building have testified that they were afraid of Bane and Hera, who lunged and snarled at them.

Minutes after Birkmaier's testimony, prosecutors introduced a gruesome series of photos showing Whipple's badly mauled body. In grotesque, bloody close-ups, jurors saw the woman's gnawed neck, puncture wounds on her legs, buttocks and abdomen and blood streaked along her arms. She died shortly after the attack.

Whipple's mother, who was seated in a front row of the courtroom, watched for a while but finally left in tears.

Knoller and Noel averted their eyes during the photo display. Jurors looked at the pictures but some eventually looked away.

Witnesses expected to be called Thursday were to include Susan Smith, Whipple's domestic partner, and Jill and Steve Davis, a couple who say the dogs lunged at Jill Davis when she was eight months pregnant.