Criminal Justice

Elderly homeless bank robber wanted to return to prison; Nevada judge obliges

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A 77-year-old homeless man who said he robbed a Nevada bank so he could return to prison was sentenced to 15 years on Tuesday.

Tommy Ray McAdoo used a steak knife to steal $2,700 from a downtown Reno bank last November, the Associated Press reports. McAdoo has a rap sheet stretching back to when he was 24, prosecutors said.

U.S. District Judge Robert Jones said the sentence was warranted because McAdoo had shown he was willing to commit a violent crime to obtain a government benefit, including housing. McAdoo had heart and kidney disease and is likely to die in prison, according to his public defender, Lauren Gorman.

Gorman had sought a sentence of less than five years.

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