WACO, Texas (KWTX) – A Central Texas man who sexually abused an intellectually impaired family member and then thrust blame for the improper contact on the young girl was sentenced to life in prison with no parole Wednesday.
Jurors in Waco’s 19th State District Court deliberated just 10 minutes before recommending that Judge Thomas West sentence Ricky Marlin Pruett to the maximum sentence after his conviction Tuesday for continuous sexual abuse of a young child.
Barring a successful appeal of his case, Pruett, 56, a 27-year employee at Trane Technologies in McGregor, will die in prison.
Ricky Marlin Pruett, 56, was found guilty of continuous sexual abuse of a young child. He was acquitted of the lesser charge of indecency with a child by contact.(Photo Credit: Tommy Witherspoon)
Pruett did not testify during the three-day trial. However, during a videotaped interview with Bellmead detectives before his arrest in March 2024, Pruett told the officers that the girl, who was 10 at the time, initiated the sexual contact with him.
While he tried to minimize his guilt, he told detectives he knew it was wrong and confessed to sexually abusing the girl on multiple occasions while he lived with the girl’s family at a Bellmead trailer park on Cloverleaf Lane.
In punishment phase testimony, defense attorney Sandy Gately called Pruett’s daughter, who told jurors that Pruett raised her as a single parent and was a good father. She said she was shocked by the allegations and said he never acted inappropriately around her.
Prosecutors Luke McCowan and Jessica Washington urged the jury of nine women and three men to give Pruett life in prison. Washington told jurors they “stand between monsters and the weak,” and said Pruett preyed on a defenseless child for his own sexual gratification.
“We are grateful that the jurors seized the opportunity to protect this child, and any future children whom this monster might have encountered,” McCowan said after the trial.
Gately ask jurors for the minimum, 25-year prison term, saying Pruett likely would die in prison with no opportunity for parole.
“The jury had a hard job to do,” Gately said. “They did their best. They did a good job. We had an extraordinarily good jury panel to choose from. It was a tough case. It is what it is.”
A defendant is guilty of continuous sexual abuse of a young child if he commits two or more acts of sexual abuse against a child younger than 14 over a period of 30 days or more.
Pruett was convicted of sexually abusing the girl from March 2022 to December 2023 while he was married to the girl’s mother.
Pruett’s son, Dakota Pruett, 22, pleaded guilty in August 2025 to sexually assaulting the same girl and was sentenced to 33 years in prison in a plea bargain with the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office. He will be eligible for parole after he earns credit for serving half his sentence.
Besides Pruett and his son, the girl testified Tuesday that she also had sexual relations with her twin brother.
The allegations came to light when the girl was caught kissing her brother at school in Ohio, where the family moved when the girl’s mother and Pruett divorced after being together for about 18 months.
During a forensic interview, the girl, who is now a 13-year-old eighth-grader, revealed the abuse by Ricky Pruett and Dakota Pruett.
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