Suspect Pleads Not Guilty in Guard’s Slaying : Crime: Los Angeles man is accused of gunning down the victim during a robbery of a Home Depot store.

A Los Angeles man, arrested on charges he gunned down an armored car guard during a robbery at a Home Depot store in San Fernando last week, pleaded not guilty Friday.

Tipsters identified Sean Slade, 25, as a suspect and witnesses to the shooting identified him as the gunman who shot Edwin Maldonado in the back of the head, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said. Two accomplices are still being sought.

Slade was charged with murder in the course of a robbery and while lying in wait, robbery, assault with a firearm and burglary, Deputy Dist. Atty. Cindy Ulfig said. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

Maldonado, 26, of Pasadena, where he had formerly served as a police officer, was shot July 20 as he came out of the office in the crowded hardware store after picking up $40,000 in cash and $45,000 in checks. Three robbers escaped through a rear door with a bag containing the money and checks

“They were lying in wait for him,” Ulfig said of Maldonado. “He didn’t have a chance.”

Slade, who is unemployed and lives in Los Angeles with his wife, entered his plea in San Fernando Municipal Court. He was held without bail. A preliminary hearing on the charges was scheduled for Aug. 11.

The slaying of Maldonado prompted his employer, Sectran Security Transportation, and the Home Depot chain to offer a $35,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the killer.

It was unclear Friday whether anyone would receive the reward. Ulfig said the coldblooded nature of the shooting produced numerous calls from people providing tips, before and after the reward was announced.

At least two tipsters, who asked that their identities not be made public, provided Slade’s name to investigators, she said. Deputies arrested Slade at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday outside a Wells Fargo Bank downtown, where Slade’s wife works, Ulfig said.

The arrest was kept secret while investigators attempted to identify the other robbers and arranged for witnesses to the shooting to view Slade in a police lineup Thursday. During the lineup, witnesses identified Slade as the gunman who shot Maldonado, Ulfig and deputies said.

Ulfig said none of the money taken in the robbery had been recovered.

Last week, detectives said they were trying to determine whether the Home Depot robbery was connected to other armored car robberies. Deputies declined comment on that part of the investigation Friday, and Ulfig said no evidence involving other robberies was presented against Slade.

One previous robbery that investigators looked at was a similar holdup at a Home Depot in Van Nuys in 1990. Apparently by grim coincidence, Maldonado was the driver of the armored truck in that robbery, in which another Sectran guard was shot in the hand and disabled.

The earlier robbery resulted in a lawsuit against Home Depot by the injured guard, who alleges the store’s security policies, especially a restriction on armed guards carrying guns in their hands while making money deliveries or pickups, makes guards easy targets for robbers. Home Depot has declined to comment on its security policies.