Man tied to $1M in car thefts from Woodstock, Crystal Lake dealers - including BMWs, Audis - gets 14 years

A Chicago man linked to the theft of multiple vehicles valued at more than $1 million from dealerships in Woodstock and Crystal Lake has pleaded guilty to one count each of burglary and theft.

Joshua Smith, 25, was sentenced Thursday to 14 years in prison in both cases, and he will serve the sentences concurrently. Those sentences also will run concurrent with seven-year sentences on convictions in DuPage County, according to the judgment order filed in McHenry County court. He is required to serve half of his prison term and will get credit for 1,058 days spent in jail. After serving his prison time, he will be on one year of mandatory supervised release, according to the judgment order signed by Judge Mark Gerhardt.

In the Crystal Lake case, the one count to which Smith pleaded guilty alleged that at 2:30 a.m. Aug. 23, 2021, he or someone for whom he is legally accountable “knowingly broke out an overhead bay door window to gain entry” to Brilliance Honda of Crystal Lake, pried open a lock box that held keys to all the cars on the dealership’s lot and took keys to 10 vehicles,” according to the criminal complaint.

In exchange for his guilty plea, 16 additional counts of auto theft were dismissed. Smith initially was accused of stealing 13 vehicles, with a total value of $861,000, from Brilliance Honda between July 11 and Aug. 23, 2021. Those included three Dodge Chargers, four BMWs, four Audis, a Mercedes and a Cadillac, according to the complaint.

In the Woodstock complaint, Smith pleaded guilty to one count of theft, admitting that he actively took part in the theft of five new and used vehicles from Kunes Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram valuing almost $400,000, according to the criminal complaint. He also admitted that he “assisted in the burglary, damage and the attempted theft of” four other vehicles.

The count to which Smith pleaded guilty also said he “assisted in the forced entry burglary of the business and the damage of the biometric locked key box where 24 vehicles keys were stolen,” according to the complaint. He was accused of committing these offenses with six other people, according to the complaint.

Smith has been held in the DuPage County jail on two cases. There, he pleaded guilty in September to one count of aggravated unlawful possession of a stolen motor vehicle valued at $25,000 or more. He also pleaded guilty to residential burglary, said Paul Darrah, DuPage County communications manager. Each is a Class 1 felony, and Smith was sentenced to seven years in prison in each case, Darrah said.