By Keith L. Alexander
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 12, 2008 11:31 AM

A Southeast Washington woman accused of killing her four daughters pleaded not guilty this morning to premeditated first-degree murder charges.

Banita Jacks, 33, stood quietly as her attorney addressed the judge at a brief hearing in D.C. Superior Court. If convicted, she could be sentenced to life in prison.

Judge Frederick H. Weisberg set a trial date for Dec. 1. Her attorneys have 15 days to notify the court and prosecutors if they intend to enter an insanity defense.

Jacks has been in jail since she was arrested Jan. 9, the day that federal marshals serving an eviction notice found the bodies in a rowhouse on Sixth Street SE.

In an indictment returned Wednesday, a grand jury said Jacks killed the girls with "deliberate and premeditated malice." The document also provided new details about how the children died.

The youngest, Aja Fogle, 5, had been strangled and beaten, the indictment said. Her sisters, N'Kiah Fogle, 6, and Tatiana Jacks, 11, had been strangled. As previously thought, Brittany Jacks, 16, had been stabbed, the document said.

Jacks was also charged with failing to provide the girls with adequate nutrition and medical attention. Authorities have said they think the girls had been dead for up to six months. Jacks had told police that they died in their sleep. The eldest, Brittany, had puncture wounds on her abdomen, and a knife was near her body, court papers say.