San Francisco - A woman whose two dogs attacked and killed her neighbour in the hallway of their San Francisco apartment building seven years ago was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.

Superior Court Judge Charlotte Woolard said Monday that Majorie Knoller, 53, had not bothered to put a muzzle on her aggressive Presa Canario-mastiff-mixed dogs before taking them out of her apartment and did not call for help or retrieve a weapon while the animals were mauling 33-year-old Diane Whipple for at least 10 minutes, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

In 2002, a California jury found Knoller guilty of second-degree murder, but a judge reversed the decision and found her guilty of manslaughter and sentenced her to a four-year jail sentence.

She spent three years behind bars before being paroled.

Last year, the state Supreme Court ruled that the judge had used the wrong legal standard in overturning the murder verdict. Woolard reinstated the jury's murder verdict at a hearing last month.

Knoller's lawyer said he would appeal the murder conviction.