WCDA's Office Announces Most Recent Habitual Criminal Sentencing

Conviction on Fraud Check Charges Leads to 25 Year Sentence

The Washoe County District Attorney’s Office has announced that a local man has been sentenced to two concurrent 25 year prison terms as a result of a prosecution for charges of obtaining money by false pretenses.  Consistent with the District Attorney’s commitment to aggressively prosecute habitual criminals, the prosecutor in the case sought and received habitual criminal status based on the defendant’s criminal history that spanned 35 years.  The sentence ensures the defendant must serve a minimum of 10 years in prison before parole eligibility begins.

Bobby Lloyd Mann, 56, originally from Arizona, pled guilty in May to two counts of Obtaining Money by False Pretenses and was sentenced last week to two concurrent 25 year prison terms by Judge Scott Freeman. Mann’s criminal history contained 14 felony convictions that spanned 35 years and included multiple fraud-related crimes. In this most recent case, Mann was arrested by detectives with the Regional Repeat Offender Program (ROP) after he was linked to the passing of multiple fraudulent checks throughout the Reno/Sparks area. Nevada Division of Parole and Probation Officers had alerted ROP detectives in October, 2016 of Mann’s fraud activities when suspicious checks were located at his residence during a routine search.  ROP detectives determined the checks were fraudulent and a news release generated calls from additional victims.  The investigation determined that Mann had forged multiple checks connected to various bank accounts and fraudulently obtained thousands of dollars in cash and goods. Mann was arrested in November and this office filed formal criminal charges against him.

At sentencing, Deputy District Attorney Matt Lee argued Mann had again defrauded unsuspecting victims in our community, behavior which he has repeated throughout his adult life.  Lee pointed out that within four months of his prior release from prison, he returned to forging and altering checks, a consistent pattern in Mann’s criminal career. 

The Washoe County District Attorney’s Office works closely with the Northern Nevada Repeat Offender Program on cases involving habitual criminals. Prosecutors and detectives work to bring these offenders to justice and pursue long prison sentences to ensure the community’s safety. In this case, the conviction resulted in a significantly longer maximum sentence than the 1 to 6 year term for one count of obtaining money by false pretenses.