Daddy From Hell

Despite the viciousness of the knifing attack, Goillen says that earlier in the evening the Sheridans and other family members sat in a booth near the front entrance and appeared to be calm, posing “no problems,” to their server. They were regulars at Mel’s and were friendly with several members of the staff. The couple had never caused trouble before. That night, Goillen says only that the Sheridans were “maybe a little drunk, but nothing more — and certainly not violent.”

But sure enough, there it was on the video.

“It was 9:20 exactly,” says Goillen, describing what he later witnessed on Mel’s security video, now in the hands of police. “[Angela Sheridan] was driving — a white Honda Civic. She backed up and almost ran over one of our employees and [Rod Poole]. I guess [Poole] had some words for them, and that’s when they got out of their car.”

Moments later, according to Goillen, the video shows Poole crumpled on the pavement of the popular hamburger joint’s parking lot, suffering multiple knife wounds — allegedly at the hands of Michael Sheridan. He later died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

“It was absolutely senseless,” says Goillen.

On the surface, there are few words more appropriate to describe the murder of Poole, a popular microtonal guitarist featured in a 2001 L.A. Weekly profile. After the initial investigation into the murder, LAPD detectives seemed to agree.

Vickie Bynum, the LAPD Hollywood Division detective investigating the case, downplayed the initial confrontation, calling it “a minor incident that simply escalated out of control.” Detective Larry Cameron, also working on the case, described the incident, with a cop’s understatement, as “incredibly dumb.”

While it would be impossible to disagree with those characterizations of the assault, what has been portrayed thus far as a tragic but freak occurrence of road rage may not have been so incidental after all.

As it turns out, the murder of Rod Poole was merely the most recent in a series of violent acts allegedly perpetrated by Michael Sheridan that went unchecked, year after year.

May 13th was Mother’s Day, so on the night of the murder the Sheridans, Angela, 24, and Michael, 25, weren’t dining at Mel’s alone. Michael’s mother, Sandra, was with them, as was the couple’s 4-year-old son. Angela paid for the Mother’s Day meal, and all four Sheridans exited the restaurant and got in the white Honda together.

Meanwhile, Rod Poole and his wife, Lisa, were just arriving at Mel’s after attending a Laura Martin concert at the Dangerous Curve art gallery downtown. Like the Sheridans, the Pooles were regulars at Mel’s, although police say the two couples had never met.

Walking alongside the Pooles was an off-duty Mel’s employee, German Garcia. As Angela Sheridan backed up the Honda, court documents state, she struck Garcia in the leg — narrowly missing the Pooles as well. According to witness testimony from the Los Angeles County Superior Court file, Poole allegedly responded by telling Sheridan to “learn how to drive, bitch.”

Hearing this, the documents state, Angela Sheridan stopped the car, jumped out and confronted Poole. “What did you call me?” she demanded, getting into Poole’s face as her preschooler and mother-in-law waited inside the car.

“What does it matter?” Poole replied.

But meanwhile, according to police accounts, Michael Sheridan snuck up behind Poole. “You don’t know who you’re dealing with! I’ll kill you, motherfucker!” he reportedly yelled before pulling out an eight-inch kitchen knife and repeatedly stabbing Poole in the upper torso, stomach and chest.

As Poole fell to the ground, witness interviews from the court file say, Angela Sheridan kicked the mortally wounded Poole in the chest, and possibly in the head.

The timing of the Mother’s Day murder was tragic all around. Though Mel’s once had on-site security every night, the restaurant recently scaled back to Friday and Saturday nights only. On this particular Sunday, no one was around to intervene. Before any of the employees or diners inside Mel’s could stop them, the Sheridans jumped back into their Honda and drove off.

The entire incident lasted only 30 seconds. And Michael Sheridan’s mother and tiny son witnessed the whole thing.

Less than two hours later, Angela Sheridan was in police custody — traced by Hollywood cops using a license plate number culled from Mel’s security video as well as information obtained from the credit card she used to pay for her own Mother’s Day meal.

Quickly fanning out to catch Michael Sheridan, police arrested him several hours later, apparently hiding at the home of an aunt. Police also later recovered the bloody knife — in the couple’s South Los Angeles apartment. Crime-scene photos reviewed by the L.A. Weekly show that Michael Sheridan’s blood-stained clothes were discovered by police draped over the side of his son’s firetruck-shaped bed.