Casey Phillips
Robbinsville – A Robbinsville couple facing charges of death by distribution in a drug-overdose death came up during a Superior Court administrative session in Robbinsville on Feb. 23, but for opposite reasons.
Bobby Huel Pastell – 29 of Robbinsville – had posted a $150,000 secured bond, but on Feb. 12 was again arrested on drug charges, this time possession of methamphetamine.
Superior Court Judge William Coward increased Mr. Pastell’s bail to $300,000, cash only, and – if he manages that – it will be subject to an electronically-monitored house arrest “for his safety and the community’s.”
A trial session will be held Oct. 7 to determine when his actual trial will proceed.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, his wife, Nikki Pastell, has been in custody since since May 2021, unable to post the $150,000 secured bond.
Authorities believe Mr. Pastell is the primary suspect in the case and that Mrs. Pastell may simply have been in the house at the time.
Mrs. Pastell’s lawyer, Waynesville-based attorney Andrew Kite, said Mr. Pastell was able to post bail and hire a private attorney. Mrs. Pastell, meanwhile, has been unable to post bail and – declared indigent – was assigned a court-appointed lawyer, he said.
Kite said the $150,000 secured bond set for Mrs. Pastell was “completely unattainable.”
“This may as well be a million dollars,” he said.
Kite said Mrs. Pastell is from Graham County and has family and a job waiting for her; she is not a flight risk, he said.
Judge Coward changed her bond requirement from $150,000 secured, to $150,000 unsecured.
If she posts bail, she will be required to get a job, abstain from illegal drugs, stay away from known drug users (including her husband), stay away from the victim’s family and live with her mother, who has been caring for Mrs. Pastell’s children.
She is not to leave Graham County “unless she’s in an ambulance,” Judge Coward said.
“If she goes to a movie in Sylva or the mall in Asheville, she’ll go right back to jail.”
Coward said Mrs. Pastell does not appear to be a danger to the public and there is no possibility that she could destroy evidence or intimidate witnesses.
This is not a case where she might go out and murder someone while out on unsecured bond, he said.
First of its kind
The Pastells are implicated in the drug overdose death of 30-year-old Casey Allen Phillips on March 25, 2021. In Mrs. Pastell’s favor, investigators have come to believe that Mr. Pastell was primarily – if not entirely – responsible for the drug activity in their household, as well as the drug overdose death attributed to a drug sale Mr. Pastell is said to have made.
“She was there in the house when the drugs were given to Mr. Phillips,” Judge Coward said. “There is no eyewitness saying she passed the drugs to him or took money. It appears he (Mr. Pastell) is the one running the (drug) operation.”
Assistant District Attorney James Moore said evidence strengthens the case against Mr. Pastell and away from Mrs. Pastell, although does not absolve her. He said modifying her bail to make it more obtainable for her would “not be inappropriate.”
Evidence led investigators to Bobby Pastell as Phillips’ drug dealer and the Graham County Sheriff’s Office went forward with the arrests after receiving results of the autopsy. Coupled with items items collected from Phillips’ bedroom, that led detectives to seek an unprecedented “death by distribution” charge against the Pastells on June 29, 2021.
Bail for both Pastells was set at $150,000 secured bond at that time.
Family’s grief
Natashia Phillips McFadden of Sylva, Phillips’ sister, appeared in court and in response to Mrs. Pastell’s bail being described as unobtainable, said, “My ability to speak to my brother is also unobtainable.”
She said her family does not hold hate in her family’s heart for Mrs. Pastell and agreed that she would not be a flight risk.
“I believe she would show up in court,” McFadden said. “Her family, they’re good people.”
Mrs. Pastell worked as a housekeeper and her employer wrote a letter vouching for her.
Bobby Huel Pastell, 29, and his wife, Danielle “Nikki” Nichole Pastell, 37, were arrested June 30 and July 1, 2021, respectively, on warrants of “death by distribution” in the man’s death.
These are the first arrests of this kind in Graham County, officials said.
On March 25, 2021, EMS and deputies responded to a 911 call to the 50 block of Big Oak Drive. Someone there was not breathing, according to the call. Once there, they found Phillips’ body along with items consistent with drug use at the scene.
Graham County detectives conferred with the District Attorney’s office after months of investigation, awaiting final results of an autopsy to determine the cause of death and SBI Crime Lab results from evidence collected from the victim’s bedroom.
On June 29, 2021they presented their case to a local magistrate who found probable cause and granted their request for the issuance of a “death by distribution” warrants.
Mr. Pastell was located and arrested in Swain County on June 30, 2021. Nikki Pastell was
arrested on July 1, 2021, at her residence in Graham County.
Death by distribution has been on the books in North Carolina since 2019, but was not used in Graham County until the Phillips case. Death by distribution is a Class C felony, with a maximum penalty of 231 months imprisonment. Aggravated death by distribution is a Class B2 felony with a maximum penalty of 484 months imprisonment.
History of crime
Bobby Pastell’s prison record started in June 2011, when he was in his late teens and was arrested on a felony charge of drug possession. He was convicted in January 2013 and his sentence was suspended, but the suspension was revoked later that summer and he spent two months in jail. He spent just over one month more in jail on the same charge that winter, according to state prison records.
Mrs. Pastell has not been charged with any crimes since arrested in connection with Phillips’ death, nor does she have a prison record.