Couple charged in musician's slaying

By Richard Winton, Times Staff Writer
May 17, 2007

A husband and wife were charged Wednesday in the fatal stabbing of a musician outside a Hollywood restaurant, authorities said.

Michael Hermen Sheridan, 25, and Angela Cherie Sheridan, 24, are accused of attacking and killing Roderick Poole during an altercation Sunday in the parking lot of Mel's Drive-In, in the 1600 block of Highland Avenue. The couple appeared in a downtown courtroom Wednesday on the charges and were being held in lieu of $1-million bail each.

Michael Sheridan is also charged with the special-circumstances crime of using a knife.

According to authorities, Angela Sheridan nearly hit Poole and a valet about 9:45 p.m. as she backed her white Honda Civic. The Sheridans exchanged words with Poole, 45, who was walking with his wife, and then jumped out of the car. They began punching Poole, before Michael Sheridan pulled a knife and allegedly stabbed him several times, authorities said. The couple then drove away.

Poole was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he died a short time later.

Authorities said the parking lot has a security camera system that may have captured the attack. Detectives were able to trace the Civic and arrested the Sheridans.

Friends said Poole was a native of Britain. The musician and guitarist was well known in Los Angeles' experimental music scene.


A tragic and unexpected occurence; we have lost one of the great innovators of modern classical music, one of the world's leading experts in the theory of just intonation.  So stupid and senseless.