Paul "Cornfed" Schneider was already serving a life sentence for attempted murder when he met Noel and Knoller in 1996.

The couple was representing a prison guard, whom Schneider was called to testify against. But the inmate stunned the courtroom when on the stand he said that he refused to lie for prosecutors.

Pelican Bay State Prison, Schneider's home

He and Noel began writing to each other, and a friendship was born.

"He's a very intelligent, articulate individual," Knoller said of Schneider in published reports.

According to Schneider, he and fellow inmate Dale Bretches were just looking for a window to the outside world when they enlisted the lawyers' help to raise pets on their behalf.

Schneider had received $20,000 from a suit against the Department of Corrections, and says he was looking to spend it on the dogs. He and Bretches say they chose the Presa Canario breed because they are not "sissy dogs" and because they have a reputation as good family pets.

Bretches

Schneider later denied responsibility for Whipple's death, calling it a "horrible nightmare," "a tragedy" and "an accident."

"It was definitely wrong. But in his little dog brain, for some reason, he felt he was doing something right," Schneider told the San Francisco Chronicle during a jailhouse interview.

Prosecutors, however, tell a different story — that Schneider, a member of the prison's white supremacist gang, the Aryan Brotherhood, was raising the dogs as weapons to be used by the Mexican Mafia.

Prison officials and prosecutors also say that Schneider showed no concern at all for the loss of Whipple's life, and that the only emotional reaction stemming from the incident was over injuries Knoller sustained.

Though Schneider was not charged in the Whipple case, he is facing charges for conspiring to arrange murders for the Aryan Brotherhood. In September, Schneider was indicted along with seven others on federal charges that he had participated in the ordered killings of about two dozen people.

He was also charged with the 1995 murder of a sheriff's deputy, who was shot to death by Robert Scully. Authorities say Scully and Schneider's girlfriend, Brenda Moore, were acting on Schneider's orders to commit a series of robberies — and that Sonoma County Sheriff Deputy Frank Trejo was killed when he approached the duo.

Schneider denies any ties to white supremacists or illegal activities.

"I'm not a white supremacist, I'm not a dog fighter, I'm not an attack dog trainer or owner or breeder," he told the Chronicle.

Knoller and Noel

But to Noel and Knoller, however, Schneider possesses so much integrity that they are proud to call him "son."

Three days after the attack of Diane Whipple, the lawyers adopted the 39-year-old inmate.

"Mr. Schneider is definitely a man of more character and integrity than most of the people you're going to find in the California Department of Corrections administration," Noel told the Chronicle.

"I just love them both like they are my parents. I can completely trust them. I know they care deeply and there is no ulterior motive," Schneider said.

Though expected to be called to the stand by prosecutors, Schneider has already sent a letter to Judge James Warren indicating he will invoke his Fifth Amendment right, while vowing to do anything he could to disrupt the trial.

"I refuse to say anything as a prosecution witness in any case. It is against my beliefs and gets people killed," he wrote.

Kimberly Guilfoyle-Newsom

Schneider has already given prosecutor Kimberly Guilfoyle-Newsom some worries, after she received a threat against her life. She was given round-the-clock security after investigators believed that the Aryan Brotherhood could have a contract on her life.

But Schneider later denied that, calling the notion "ridiculous" because she's not the head prosecutor on the case, nor is she a male.

Next: Part V — Whipple's legacy