Man Pleads Guilty to Murdering ATM Customer : Courts: He will be sentenced to life in prison with no parole for the stabbing of a pregnant woman in Sherman Oaks.

A Sherman Oaks man pleaded guilty Friday in the stabbing of a pregnant Toluca Lake woman during a robbery at an automated teller machine, killing her and her fetus.

Robert Glen Jones, 46, entered the guilty plea to first-degree murder and robbery in the death of Sherri Foreman, 29, who was killed March 30 at an ATM machine at a Sherman Oaks bank.

By pleading guilty, Jones, a parolee, saved himself from the possibility of being sentenced to death had he been convicted at a trial of murder with special circumstances.

Prosecutors said Jones will be sentenced Nov. 16 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“You went to an ATM at Woodman Avenue and Riverside Drive in order to get money and you had a knife with you,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Phillip H. Rabichow said to Jones. “There was a struggle over the purse and during that struggle Sherri Foreman got stabbed. Essentially, she died as a result of that. Is that what happened?”

“Yes,” Jones replied.

Authorities initially investigated Foreman’s death as one in a series of fatal carjackings, but later concluded that Foreman’s killer only wanted her money and not her 1984 BMW, which was parked nearby.

Jones allegedly confessed to his girlfriend, Libert J. Ellis, and to investigators, but has maintained that Foreman was accidentally stabbed as she struggled over the purse that he was trying to take.

“The circumstances of the case were such . . . that (it) would have been very difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he intended to kill her instead of accidentally killing her during a struggle,” Rabichow said, noting that Jones was nevertheless guilty of murder because Foreman died during the course of a felony.

Foreman’s father, Carl (Alex) Foreman, and Foreman’s boyfriend, Bobby Brock, struggled to maintain their composure during a short hearing in Van Nuys Superior Court. Brock was comforted by Susan Ann Soto, a woman whom Jones confronted and asked for money minutes before Foreman was attacked and killed.

“This is the kind of thing where words don’t really do any justice to describe how you feel inside after something like this, having the loss of somebody like this,” Brock said outside court. “So we just have to carry on.”

Foreman’s family was consulted, prosecutors said, and authorized the plea, which guaranteed that Jones would not be put to death in the San Quentin gas chamber and that he would never be set free.

“It helps a lot,” Carl Foreman said. “This way we all know he won’t be back on the street. It’s over and done with. It won’t be long and drawn out, which makes it hard on everybody in the long run.”

Defense attorney Elizabeth Harris said Jones that if the case had gone to trial, Jones would have received at least the same sentence, if not the death penalty.

“He was ready to accept his responsibility. His actions have already caused enough pain.”

Evidence and testimony presented at prior hearings showed that Jones’ loitering at a Great Western Bank was caught on film by security cameras.