Joshua Joe Molinar, 39, was found guilty of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault after a 2023 incident that sounded more like a bad action flick than real life. It started when a woman came over to borrow his phone. Instead of being neighborly, Molinar allegedly assaulted her, forced her into sexual acts, and kept her trapped for three hours before she managed to escape.
Rather than take the L like a normal criminal, Molinar decided to level up to “bunker standoff guy.” Yes, he literally holed up underground while SWAT tried to coax him out. Gas finally did the trick, because nothing says “end of the line” like being smoked out of your doomsday hideout.
The jury didn’t buy the defense’s “both of them were too high to know what really happened” argument, because shockingly, “meth brain fog” isn’t a get-out-of-jail-free card. Molinar is now awaiting sentencing, which starts Tuesday.
Between the kidnapping, the assault, and the underground bunker, this whole case just proves one thing: in Lubbock, even the criminals come with plot twists.
