Plumas Bank robber gets 16 years

Staff reportsThe man charged with robbing Plumas Bank on Donner Pass Road in January was sentenced to 16 years in federal prison this week.

Richard Ward Pruden, described by police as a 40-year-old transient, was sentenced in Oklahoma City, Okla., where is was apprehended by police in nearby Elk City, one month after the Truckee robbery.Pruden reportedly told U.S. District Court Judge David Russell that he wanted to apologize to the people who worked in the banks for scaring them and putting their safety at risk. Pruden told the judge he belongs in prison.

Pruden robbed Plumas Bank at gunpoint for an undisclosed amount of cash on Jan. 8. He evaded local law enforcement, including a CHP helicopter. No shots were fired, and no one was physically harmed in the robbery.Pruden was convicted of robbing banks in Truckee, Elk City and Reno.

He had served prison time in the early ’90s for robbing six other banks, according to Truckee police.At the time of the Truckee robbery, Pruden was listed as one Las Vegas bureau of the FBI’s most wanted fugitives.