Daughter says man accused in robbery just made a mistake

An accused bank robber is not a bad person, his teenage daughter said tearfully Friday.

"I love my dad. He just made a mistake," said 16-year-old Christy Pasillas. "I don't want people who read about him to think bad of him. He made a mistake."

Paul Pasillas, 47, is being held in the Carson City Jail on suspicion of felony armed robbery.

According to police, he entered the First National Bank of Nevada at 1101 N. Carson Street on Wednesday and demanded money at gunpoint.

He was found with the money stuffed in his pocket and sock half an hour later, three blocks away at Barb's Y-Not Saloon, 152 East Long St., police said.

The weapon, recovered from a Corbett Street rooftop at Pasillas' direction, was a pellet gun, said Carson City Sheriff's investigator Cate Summers.

"He went in there with a fake gun. He didn't have any intention of hurting anybody," said the middle daughter of Pasillas' three teenage girls. "Everybody just calls me and tells me my dad's an idiot. It hurts my feelings. I want them to know the truth. He's a good dad."

She said they have lived in Carson City for more than 10 years, coming to the area from California, and her father works in construction.

Summers said investigators are looking into a possible accomplice to the robbery, but declined to name a suspect.

"We have reason to believe Pasillas might not have acted alone," she said.

Christy Pasillas said she's heartbroken over the circumstances and wishes she could see her father, who remains in jail with a $40,000 bail.

"My dad is something I've always had, he's like my best friend, and now he could be taken away from me because he made a bad decision," she said. "I would pay all the money in the world just to be able to see him again.

"He doesn't know how much he means to us. This is just hard, you know?"

Contact F.T. Norton at ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1213.