A US Navy sailor was sentenced to 44 years in prison for strangling his fellow service member, whose body was later found in a wooded area of Virginia.
Petty Officer Jermiah Copeland pleaded guilty Tuesday in connection with the death of Petty Officer Angelina Resendiz at a general court-martial in Norfolk, Va., the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) announced Tuesday.
“Petty Officer Copeland deserves to be held fully accountable for his heinous actions that resulted in the tragic murder of Petty Officer Resendiz,” Special Agent in Charge Emily Schmid said.
Copeland told investigators that Resendiz, 21, was in his barracks in Miller Hall on Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, hanging out, drinking, and kissing on May 29, 2025, when she got upset about something on his phone, according to USNI News.
He admitted that he jumped on top of Resendiz and strangled her when she “started freaking out” and he tried to quiet her down.
“I killed CS3 Resendiz on May 29, 2025… I strangled her with my hands,” Copeland told the judge on Monday, according to the outlet.
Resendiz, 21, was last seen on May 29 at her barracks in Miller Hall around 10 p.m., NCIS said.
Officials had questioned Copeland over Resendiz’s whereabouts on June 1, while her body was inside his closet.
Copeland admitted that he lied to investigators and said he had taken her back to her barracks.
Resendiz’s body was discovered in a wooded area in Norfolk, about 10 miles off base, on June 9 — 12 days after her disappearance.
He then said he dumped her body inside a Navy-issued black wheeled duffel bag, according to USNI News.
“I knew people were looking for her and if she was found in my closet, I would be in trouble,” Copeland told the court.
Prosecutors presented cell phone data at a pre-trial hearing showing Copeland’s watch tracked him descending stairs around 4 a.m. on June 2, the outlet reported.
His GPS also placed him driving off base, and at 4:47 a.m. he dropped a Google Maps pin — and screenshotted it — near where Resendiz’s body was later found.
An NCIS forensics team went to the location of the pin, where they ultimately found Resendiz’s body.
Under the plea deal, Copeland was found guilty of five of the seven charges against him — aggravated assault by strangulation, indecent recording, obstruction of justice and false official statement — with his premeditated murder charge reduced to unpremeditated murder.
Among the charges, Copeland admitted to strangling another woman aboard the USS Harry S. Truman on July 24, 2024, as well as secretly recording a woman in a bathroom stall and filming another woman during sex without her consent, USNI News reported.
In addition to his decades-long sentence, Copeland will also receive a dishonorable discharge, forfeit all his pay, have his rank reduced to the lowest for a Navy enlisted — Seaman Apprentice — and will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release.
The plea agreement also required Copeland to sit down face-to-face with Resendiz’s mother, Esmeralda Castle, 13News Now reported.
Castle said the conversation was brief — but she made sure Copeland knew that despite the devastation he caused, he could still work on becoming a better person.
“You still have life,” she recalled telling Copeland to 13News Now. “I’m sorry it’s going to be behind these walls, but you still have life, and even behind these walls, you can still do good things.”
Copeland will serve his sentence at the US Disciplinary Barracks in Leavenworth, Kansas.
Read the full article here
