Jackson was also charged with cultivating marijuana and other drug charges and was being held on $1 million bail. He was scheduled for arraignment on Friday on the attack charges and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.
Stan Goldman, a professor of criminal law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said it was rare for the state to seek a murder conviction against a dog owner over a fatal attack, saying such cases are more often prosecuted as involuntary manslaughter or gross negligence.
"In order to rise to the level of murder you have to show that the dog owner knew of the great danger they were creating, and that's the tough part," Goldman said.
"It's almost like any dangerous condition you keep around the house," he said. "If you keep an ultra-electrified fence and don't warn people, the theory could be that you are subjectively aware you are creating a danger but don't do anything about it."
Goldman said defense attorneys could likely argue that their client was not aware that his dogs could kill, which prosecutors might try to counter by pointing to the previous complaints against the animals.
In 2001, Diane Whipple, a 33-year-old top collegiate lacrosse player and coach, was fatally mauled by two Presa Canarios - a dog breed that can grow as large as 130 lbs (60 kg) - in a hallway outside her San Francisco apartment.
The dog's owners, a married couple who lived in the same apartment building, were convicted of involuntary manslaughter and the wife was found guilty of second-degree murder.
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Cynthia Johnston and Lisa Shumaker)
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