Man Pleads Not Guilty in ATM Killing : Arraignment: The suspect is charged with murder in the stabbing death of a woman outside a Sherman Oaks bank.

The convicted bank robber accused of fatally stabbing Sherri Foreman after she made a withdrawal at an automated teller machine pleaded not guilty Friday to murder and other charges that could send him to the gas chamber.

Robert Glen Jones, 42, made his plea to Municipal Court Commissioner Nori Anne Walla, who ordered Jones back to court April 29 to set a date for a preliminary hearing.

The 29-year-old Foreman was pregnant when she was stabbed in the abdomen March 30 after withdrawing $40 from an ATM at the Great Western Bank in Sherman Oaks. Her 13-week-old unborn fetus died immediately, but Foreman clung to life for about one day and was able to give police a description of her attacker.

Jones is not charged with killing the fetus because it was not yet viable, prosecutors said.

Jones was arrested several hours after the slaying near his apartment in the 5000 block of Woodman Avenue. Police said a serrated 6-inch paring knife, the weapon they believe was used to kill Foreman, was recovered at the residence.

In addition to Foreman’s murder, Jones is charged with two special circumstance allegations--murder during a robbery and committing murder after lying in wait. If convicted on either special circumstance charge, Jones faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, but prosecutors could elect to seek the death penalty.

“That is generally done by a committee after the preliminary hearing,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Phillip J. Rabichow, the prosecutor handling the case.

Very little new information was released in the wake of Jones’ arraignment.

Defense attorney Patrick Atkinson said he had received very few documents related to the case and then declined to comment.

Rabichow, citing the continuing investigation, declined to comment on the specifics of the case. Rabichow did say that preliminary reports indicate that Foreman was stabbed only once.

Foreman’s murder shocked the community and had led many people to take extra precautions when using ATM machines, especially at night.

Investigators initially thought the slaying of the Toluca Lake woman was another death related to a string of carjackings that have plagued the San Fernando Valley, but prosecutors now say they believe Jones was after Foreman’s money.

Authorities said Jones was released from federal prison last fall after serving time for five armed robberies and one rape.

He has spent 14 of the last 17 years in custody, prison officials said.

Jones is being held without bail.