Charges filed against transient stabbing suspect
Prosecutors have filed attempted-murder charges against a male transient from Santa Monica who is accused of stabbing a woman in the chest at a busy Glendale intersection.
Michael Caudill, 53, appeared in a Glendale courtroom Tuesday to be arraigned on charges of attempted murder and assault with deadly weapon, but the proceeding was postponed, according to court officials.
Caudill, who is being held on $1-million bail, is instead scheduled to appear April 8 in the Mental Health Courthouse in Los Angeles, where a judge will likely assign a court-appointed doctor to evaluate him and determine whether he is fit to face trial.
The Sun Valley woman and her daughter were riding a bus through Glendale last Thursday morning, when Caudill reportedly spat on her daughter’s shoe, Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.
Caudill’s actions sparked an argument between him and the 17-year-old girl’s mother.
Minutes later, the woman and her daughter exited the bus near San Fernando Road and Pacific Avenue and waited to cross the street.
That’s when Caudill — who was towing wheeled luggage — reportedly approached the woman and stabbed her, police said.
She suffered a nonlife-threatening stab wound to her upper torso and was transported to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Witnesses reported the attack to police and provided officers with a description of her alleged attacker.
Moments later, police found Caudill and his belongings in the 4400 block of San Fernando Road.
But last week’s attack isn’t Caudill’s first run with police.
He pleaded guilty in 1997 to second-degree vehicular manslaughter for killing a 68-year-old Burbank resident during an attempt to flee from police who were responding to a domestic-violence report.
Caudill’s van reportedly slammed into another vehicle at Verdugo Road and Colorado Street in Glendale, killing the driver, Ernest Ralph Hauser and severely injuring a passenger.
Caudill served at least six years in prison for the manslaughter charge, according to Shiara Dávila-Morales, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.
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Follow Veronica Rocha on Google+ and on Twitter: @VeronicaRochaLA.
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