Tennessee man sentenced to over 12 years for Asheville bank robbery

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WSPA) – A Tennessee man was sentenced to over 12 years Thursday for an armed robbery of a bank in Asheville.

37-year-old Paul Gordon Day was sentenced to 147 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release for the robbery.

According to filed court documents and evidence presented at trial, on November 2022, Day rode a bicycle to the PNC Bank branch located at 8 O’Henry Avenue across the street from the federal courthouse.

Day parked the bicycle and entered the bank wearing a blue cap, sunglasses, a blue surgical
mask, a grey sweatshirt, and gloves. Upon entering the bank, Day drew from his waistband a firearm wrapped in a black plastic bag secured to the barrel with rubber bands and approached the bank tellers.

Day held up a firearm, ordered a customer who was in the bank to the ground, and demanded money from tellers. The tellers complied and gave Day the cash, including a GPS tracking device concealed within the money.

Day then fled the scene on the bicycle.

Court documents show that law enforcement tracked the GPS device and determined it was located inside a vehicle traveling on Interstate 26 toward Weaverville. Law enforcement
conducted a traffic stop of the vehicle and arrested Day.

Law enforcement searched the vehicle and recovered the firearm Day used during the robbery, the stolen cash and the GPS tracking device, the bicycle, and numerous articles of clothing worn by Day during the commission of the robbery.

On January 2024, Day was found guilty by a federal jury of bank robbery using a dangerous weapon and possessing and brandishing of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.

Day remains in federal custody and will be transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility.

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