(Court TV) — San Francisco lawyer Marjorie Knoller was convicted of second-degree murder and both she and her husband, Robert Noel, of involuntary manslaughter, for their dogs' fatal attack on a neighbor.

Mouthing the words, "Oh my God," Knoller fought back tears as she heard the Los Angeles jury's guilty verdict on the murder count in her neighbor Diane Whipple's death. Knoller faces 15 years to life in prison.

Noel, also an attorney, remained stone-faced Thursday afternoon as the verdict was read in a Los Angeles courtroom. Knoller, who was out of town at the time of the attack — a fact that comprised a big part of his defense — faces up to four years in prison.

Diane Whipple was 33 when she died of wounds she received in a vicious mauling by her neighbors' dogs.

A Rare Conviction

Knoller's conviction of murder Thursday is the first of its kind in California. A conviction for murder for a dog attack is extremely rare in all of the United States.

The case has made national headlines and provided a window for examining the legal ramifications for the owners of vicious dogs who attack humans.

Though murder convictions in such cases are rare, another woman, Sabine Davidson was convicted in Kansas in 1998 of unintentional second-degree murder for the death of a young boy by her three Rottweilers. Earlier Thursday, authorities in Wisconsin announced they would seek homicide convictions for a couple whose dogs attacked and killed a 10-year-old girl.

Both Knoller and Noel were convicted of all charges against them, including charges of owning a 'mischievous' animal. The couple is scheduled to be sentenced on May 10 in San Francisco. The trial, originally slated to take place in San Francisco, was moved to Los Angeles because of the publicity surrounding the case.

Mauled by Dogs

The victim in the case, a popular college lacrosse coach who resided down the hall from the lawyers' sixth-floor San Francisco apartment, was coming home on January 26, 2001, when the couple's two Presa Canarios, Bane and Hera, attacked her.

Bane, who was responsible for the fatal wounds including a massive bite to the victim's neck, was destroyed immediately after the incident. Hera, who also attacked Whipple and bit at her clothing, was destroyed shortly before the trial began.

Knoller claimed that she threw herself on top of Diane Whipple in an effort to save her life, but prosecution witnesses countered that Knoller didn't try to help the woman, call for help or even call 911. Knoller herself testified before a grand jury that indicted her last year that following the attack she left Whipple bleeding in the hallway to go look for her keys.

But during her trial this month, Knoller offered tearful testimony that she tried to save the 33-year-old victim. Noel did not testify at trial.

Before their indictment, the couple publicly denied responsibility for Whipple's death, calling it an accident.

Both defendants went so far as to accuse Whipple of being responsible for the attack. In television interviews and even in a letter to the district attorney's office, they implied that Whipple failed to flee to safety inside her apartment. The couple also raised suspicion when it was reported shortly before the grand jury convened that they had adopted a prison inmate who was a reputed member of a white supremacist gang.

Jurors Explain

One juror, speaking to the press after the verdict Thursday, called an interview Knoller gave to ABC's "Good Morning America" — a tape of which was used as evidence at the trial — a "really, really clear example of somebody trying to reach for a story."

"Whenever she spoke there were contradictions to her story," said a white-haired, middle-aged man. Names and addresses of the jurors were sealed.

Jurors also said that they separated the facts of the case from the eccentric pasts of the two defendants which made them unlikable characters.

"We just all agreed he's not someone we like," a female juror said of Noel, "but it's not based on what we decided."

Prosecutors admittedly were hoping for a manslaughter indictment for both and were themselves surprised when the grand jury charged Knoller with second-degree murder. In order to win a conviction, the state didn't need to prove that Knoller intended for Whipple to die.

Instead, they set out to show that the couple was raising the dogs to be vicious and had knowledge that they could be deadly, but did nothing to prevent a fatal attack.

The inmate, Paul "Cornfed" Schneider, masterminded a killer dog-raising scheme from behind bars — and prosecutors alleged that the dogs that mauled Whipple, were part of that plot.

Parade of Witnesses

A parade of witnesses for the prosecution testified that the dogs — both of which have been destroyed since the attack — had displayed vicious behavior or had even snapped at them. Witnesses testified that Knoller and Noel had watched the violent behavior, been warned and that on even on some occasions, that Noel cursed at those who warned them.

Following the verdict, lead prosecutor James Hammer reiterated a notion he argued during the case: "For a muzzle, Diane Whipple would be alive today and they chose not to do it."

"They did the right thing and they should be proud of themselves," Hammer said of the jury, crediting their decision as a tribute to Whipple which will help raise awareness in the future. "Maybe someone won't die in this way or be hurt."

Reacting to the verdict Thursday, the victim's mother said she was relieved at the jury's decision.

"They tried all along to blame my daughter and anybody else that they possibly could," said Edythe Whipple-Kelly, who has filed a wrongful death suit against the guilty couple. "I'm just glad that the verdicts came out the way they did."

Sharon Smith, Whipple's lesbian partner, also has filed a wrongful death suit against the couple. The civil case garnered nationwide attention since gay partners are not typically permitted to file such a suit, but Smith won the right to do so in a precedent-setting court decision. She also spearheaded a campaign for legislation that expanded the rights of domestic partners in California.

With her lawyer, Michael Cardoza, at her side, Smith told reporters following the verdict that she plans on making a victim's impact statement at the sentencing.

"There's no real joy in this but certainly a measure of justice for Diane was done today," she said.