Former North Whidbey resident gets 44 years for sailor’s killing
A former North Whidbey resident was sentenced to 44 years after admitting he strangled Angelina Resendiz, hid her body for days and dumped it in the woods.
A military judge at Naval Station Norfolk sentenced former North Whidbey resident Jermiah Copeland to 44 years in confinement after he admitted killing Navy culinary specialist Angelina Resendiz. The punishment also included a dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and a requirement that Copeland register as a sex offender after his release.
Copeland, 21, pleaded guilty to unpremeditated murder in the death of Resendiz, who was also 21. As part of the plea agreement, he also admitted aggravated assault involving a second victim and indecent recording involving a third victim. Prosecutors dismissed several other charges, including aggravated sexual assault allegations involving three additional victims and a domestic violence charge.
In court, Copeland apologized to the family and admitted he strangled Resendiz with both hands on the floor of his barracks room. Military reporting said he also admitted keeping her body hidden for days before discarding it in the woods. The Navy credited him with one year of time served, and he is expected to serve the rest of the sentence at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
The case turned on more than the killing itself. The Navy’s memo to congressional questions said Resendiz was on authorized liberty on May 29, 2025, then was listed as absent without leave the next day after failing to report for duty. NCIS investigative steps began May 31 after Norfolk police received a missing-person report. Her body was found June 9, 2025, in a wooded area about 10 miles from Naval Station Norfolk, after she had been reported missing on May 29.
Copeland’s charge sheet listed him as an E-3 culinary specialist assigned to USS James E. Williams and showed he had been in pretrial confinement since June 9, 2025. It also included earlier allegations, including a sexual assault allegation in Oslo, Norway, on Nov. 4, 2024, and another alleged sexual assault in Norfolk on May 25, 2025. The military judge’s sentence came after that broader record of allegations and the negotiated plea deal that resolved the court-martial.
The case also reached back to Whidbey Island, where Copeland had already drawn scrutiny as a student. Local reporting said he faced juvenile allegations involving sexual assault and disclosing intimate images while he was on North Whidbey. After a diversion agreement ended, Island County prosecutors declined to charge him as an adult when he was leaving for Navy service, saying military service appeared to be a supervised option.
Resendiz’s family and allies, including the League of United Latin American Citizens, have used the case to press the Navy for transparency and reforms. Her mother, Esmeralda Castle, publicly criticized the service’s handling of the disappearance, turning a Norfolk murder case into a wider test of military accountability that still reverberates back home on Whidbey Island.
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