Lubbock Car Dealer Found Guilty In Major Theft Trial

A former car dealership manager in Lubbock was found guilty on Wednesday for theft of an amount between $30,000 and $150,000, among other allegations, from the dealership.

Joshua Weston's Arrest in Lubbock

41-year-old Joshua Weston was accused back in 2025 of stealing over $200,000 from the car dealership he ran, Adobe Auto Sales. During this time, he was also charged with criminal mischief, theft and embezzlement, and fraudulent use or possession of identifying information.

The allegations stem from the 8-year span from 2016 to 2024 when Weston personally received reimbursement of $158,005.64 for advertising on Facebook. According to Everything Lubbock, court records noted that reimbursements such as these are meant to be paid from a company account rather than an employee's personal account.

In addition, there was no paper trail tied to these transactions, as no receipts were ever found. The only confirmation the company had was word of mouth directly from Weston over the years.

More Theft Allegations Towards Weston

When Weston resigned, he was also accused of stealing $55,106.57 from a company account. On top of it all, he also allegedly refused to repay a $6,000 employee loan.

There was also the matter of the company Facebook page. Court documents claimed that Weston intentionally deleted a monetized Facebook account tied to the company that was estimated to have been worth over $200,000.

Closing Arguments and Punishment

During closing arguments in Wednesday's trial, prosecution alleged that Weston was testing the waters with small transactions before moving to larger sums. In response, Weston's defense attorney argued that his client never acted maliciously: he was simply taking 15% of the money since he owned 15% of the company.

The prosecutor then rebutted by asking, if Weston never meant to act maliciously, then why did he do what he did in secret for so long?

Following Wednesday's guilty verdict, Joshua Weston will soon receive his punishment and potential prison sentence.