LOS ANGELES - Showing the jury a cast of gaping dog's teeth, the prosecutor in the San Francisco dog mauling trial told the jury yesterday that chief defendant Marjorie Knoller coldly blamed victim Diane Whipple for her own death.

As closing arguments got under way, Assistant District Attorney Jim Hammer reminded the jury of a television interview that Knoller gave in which she was asked if she took responsibility.

"And cold as ice she said, 'No, she should have closed her door. That's what I would have done,"' Hammer said. "Those are the real faces of these defendants."

The arguments began after the judge told jurors they must decide whether Knoller, 46, and her husband, Robert Noel, 60, caused Whipple's death.

To find them guilty of crimes, Judge James Warren said, "The facts must be such that the consequences of the actions could have been reasonably foreseen."

In the case of Knoller, who is charged with second-degree murder, he said jurors must decide whether she had the required malice.

"If the person realized the risk, malice is implied and the crime is murder," he said.

Knoller is also charged with involuntary manslaughter and owning a mischievous dog that killed a person. She could receive 15 years in prison if convicted.

Her husband, Noel, also is charged with the latter two crimes and faces up to four years, but the judge warned the jurors that they must consider his case separately. He wasn't present when Whipple was killed.

"Ladies and gentlemen, you must decide separately whether each of the defendants is guilty or not guilty of each of the crimes charged," Warren said.

The charges stem from a bloody attack on Whipple, a 33-year-old college lacrosse coach, in the hallway of her San Francisco apartment building on Jan. 26, 2001.

The trial was moved to Los Angeles because of pretrial publicity.

Knoller faces the most serious charge because she was walking one of the dogs, Bane, when it jumped the victim. The couple's other dog, Hera, got loose during the attack but its role was unclear.

One issue the judge addressed in instructions was the involvement of the defendants with the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang, and two state prisoners, Paul Schneider and Dale Bretches.

Warren told jurors they could consider whether the defendants traded information with the prisoners regarding the dogs. However, he said the relationship with the prisoners could not be considered to judge the character of the defendants.

During testimony, the prosecution presented numerous witnesses who told of frightening encounters with the dogs long before Whipple's death.

Knoller took the stand in her own defense and wept as she asserted she couldn't understand how her beloved pet had become a killer. She said the witnesses who told of previous incidents were mistaken or inaccurate.

Noel did not testify.

"This case has had a lot of emotional excitement in it," the judge said at the outset of jury instructions. "Reading the law may not achieve the heights that counsel have. I have to read it - no histrionics, no gyrations."

Bane was destroyed immediately after her killing. The couple's second dog, Hera, was destroyed earlier this year after the pair waged an unsuccessful court battle to save her.