A cocaine sale that started with social media messages has ended with a prison term for a West Milwaukee dealer and a dead Glendale teenager. On Friday, a Milwaukee County judge sentenced Joshua Oberst to six years in state prison after prosecutors said the cocaine he sold led to the teen’s fatal overdose in December 2023. The sentence, handed down June 5 in Milwaukee County Circuit Court, wraps up the criminal case that began after the teen was found unresponsive in his Glendale apartment, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Investigators traced the deal through messages and surveillance
Glendale police were called to the apartment on Dec. 11, 2023. An autopsy later determined the teen died of acute cocaine toxicity, investigators said.
Detectives searching the victim’s phone found Instagram messages that appeared to set up a cocaine sale the night before the teen’s death. Police then used a detective-led sting operation and surveillance to tie the suspected seller to the scene, according to FOX6 News Milwaukee.
Charges and earlier proceedings
Oberst was charged in August 2024 with first-degree reckless homicide by use of delivering drugs, a felony that prosecutors said could have carried a decades-long sentence if he were convicted, according to earlier reporting by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
That coverage detailed search warrants executed at Oberst’s West Milwaukee residence, where officers seized a substance that crime-lab testing later confirmed contained cocaine.
Case outcome
The six-year prison term closes the state court case against Oberst, capping an investigation that relied on phone records, social media timestamps and crime-lab analysis to track the cocaine from Oberst to the Glendale apartment, per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Court records indicate the substance recovered in the investigation tested positive for cocaine.
