California pastor paid $40,000 to have his daughter’s boyfriend shot dead, police say

A California pastor is accused of paying nearly $40,000 to hitmen who shot his daughter’s boyfriend in an attack that injured but did not kill him, authorities said.

The pastor, Samuel Pasillas, 47, of Victorville, California, was one of two men arrested in connection with the murder-for-hire investigation that began last year after the attempt in Riverside, California, police said.

Mr. Pasillas was arrested on March 13 and charged with solicitation to commit murder, conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon, Riverside police said. said in a statement on Tuesday.

Juan Manuel Cebreros, 55, of Long Beach, California, was also arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon. Although police spoke of men hired for the shooting, they did not immediately identify another suspect.

A lawyer listed for Mr. Pasillas could not be reached Wednesday. It was not clear whether Mr. Cebreros had an attorney.

The investigation stemmed from a shooting on Oct. 21, when a man drove himself to a hospital with gunshot wounds and reported he had been attacked while driving around 7 p.m. in the Orangecrest neighborhood of Riverside, a city about 60 miles (90 kilometers) southeast. of Los Angeles.

The man who was shot, who was not identified by authorities, said another vehicle pulled up next to him as he approached Plainview Street.

Then the shooting started.

“Gunfire came from this other vehicle and he was struck multiple times,” police said in their statement.

Officers later found evidence of the shooting at the intersection of that street with Grove Community Drive. They did not say what weapons were used in the attack.

Robbery and Homicide detectives conducted a follow-up investigation and were assisted by the Riverside Police Problem Focused Police Team and Crime Analysis Unit.

Detectives determined the attack was “a murder-for-hire,” police said. The targeted man “was in a relationship with a woman whose father is the pastor of a Spanish-language church in the city of Victorville,” about 40 miles north of Riverside in San Bernardino County.

In its statement, which identified Mr. Pasillas as a pastor, police did not name his church. The Los Angeles Times identified this the church as the Centro Internacional de Oración.

Rafael Porras, who answered a church phone number and identified himself as a senior pastor, said he had no comment on the arrest or investigation, but he said Mr. Pasillas had been a volunteer at the church for a decade and is not part from his staff.

Detectives found evidence that Mr. Pasillas had met with men he had hired and provided them with information about the victim, including where he was believed to be the night of the shooting, police said.

It was not immediately clear from their statement what evidence police had linking Mr. Pasillas and the men involved in the shooting. Riverside police did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

The department said Mr. Pasillas had paid nearly $40,000 and had been monitoring the victim in the weeks leading up to the shooting.

Detectives were serving search warrants at homes in Victorville, Long Beach and Lynwood, all in California, on March 13 when the arrests were made.

Mr. Pasillas and Mr. Cebreros were each being held on $1 million bonds at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside, police said. According to inmate records, the two men are scheduled to appear in court at the Riverside Hall of Justice on March 26.

Alain Delaqueriere research contributed.