Former Whidbey man gets 44 years in military prison

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, June 16, 2026

A former North Whidbey resident who was accused of sex-related crimes as a teenager will spend decades in a military prison after pleading guilty to killing a fellow sailor.

As part of a plea agreement, 21-year-old Jermiah Copeland pleaded guilty during a court-martial hearing at Naval Station Norfolk last week to the unpremeditated murder of fellow Navy culinary specialist Angelina Resendiz, who was also 21. He also pleaded guilty to aggravated assault involving a second victim and indecent recording involving a third victim.

Under the plea agreement, military prosecutors dismissed charges of aggravated sexual assault involving three other alleged victims and a domestic violence charge, the Guardian reported.

A military judge sentenced Copeland to 44 years in prison. He also received a dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances and an order to register as a sex offender upon release.

During the hearing, Copeland admitted to strangling Resendiz to death in his barracks room last year, according to U.S. Naval Institute News. He concealed her body in his room for days before discarding it in the woods.

“Seaman 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 of the Norfolk Field Office said, according to Navy Times.

The case drew national attention after Resendiz’s mother, Esmeralda Castle, publicly criticized the Navy’s handling of her daughter’s disappearance, particularly the lack of communication with the family. Resendiz went missing May 29, and her body was found June 9, 2025. Castle said she was not properly notified by the Navy about her daughter’s disappearance and instead learned details from her daughter’s coworkers and media reports.

An independent documentary crew working on a film about sexual assault in the military became interested in the case after learning that Copeland had previously been accused of sexual crimes. The crew came to Whidbey Island last year to interview two women who said Copeland victimized them while they were in high school.

As first reported by the Whidbey News-Times, Copeland was accused of sharing intimate images of one girl and sexually assaulting another while he was a high school student.

After Copeland was accused of sending sexually explicit videos of a girl to friends in 2022, he left Oak Harbor High School and enrolled at Coupeville High School. In juvenile court, he entered into a diversion agreement, which is generally required for a juvenile’s first offense unless the allegation is a felony.

A second girl reported to police that Copeland sexually assaulted her in 2022, but investigators with the Oak Harbor Police Department concluded there was not probable cause to refer the case to the prosecutor’s office.