US navy member sentenced to 44 years in prison for killing female sailor | US military

A member of the US navy has been ordered to spend 44 years in federal prison after admitting that he fatally strangled a fellow sailor in his barracks room, violently squeezed the neck of a second woman onboard an aircraft carrier and illegally made secret video recordings of a third, including while they were being intimate.

Meanwhile, the family of the petty officer whom Jermiah Copeland acknowledged murdering, Angelina Resendiz, has called for reforms within the armed forces meant to better protect women serving in the military.

Aspects of Resendiz’s slaying evoke the case of the US army soldier Vanessa Guillén, whose 2020 murder at a Texas base prompted the military to overhaul its policies against sexual assault and harassment.

According to the US Naval Institute (USNI), an independent, non-profit watchdog, Resendiz was last known to be alive in her barracks room at Virginia’s Naval Station Norfolk.

Investigators found her body two weeks later in woods about 10 miles (16km) from the base. They came to suspect Copeland – a 21-year-old culinary specialist – had killed Resendiz in his room at the barracks, concealed her corpse in his closet for days and then discarded her body in the woods.

During a two-day court proceeding that began on Monday, Copeland admitted to a military judge that he had indeed killed Resendiz, a native of Mexia, Texas, and also a culinary specialist. He said he did that amid a night of imbibing and kissing in his room, as the Virginia news outlet WTKR reported.

Copeland wanted his shipmate on the guided-missile destroyer USS James E Williams to be quiet after a notification on his telephone upset her, used his hands to strangle her to death after she fell to the floor and eventually brought her to woods in Norfolk’s Broad Creek area, he said.

He acknowledged he later lied to Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents looking into what happened to Resendiz by telling them he had brought her to her room alive, according to WTKR.

Furthermore, Copeland conceded that he compressed the neck of another woman in July 2024 onboard the USS Harry S Truman. And he confessed to illicitly, furtively recording a woman in a bathroom stall as well as her and him having sex.

Copeland ultimately declared himself guilty in a general court-martial of unpremeditated murder and making a false official statement in connection with Resendiz. He apologized to his and Resendiz’s families as well as the navy.

With respect to the two other women, Copeland pleaded guilty to aggravated assault by strangulation and indecent recording.

Other charges against Copeland were dismissed in exchange for his guilty plea, which involved a 44-year sentence at the federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas. He must register as a sex offender, forfeit pay, undergo a demotion and be dishonorably discharged from the navy, too.

Copeland also reportedly met with Resendiz’s mother, Esmeralda Castle, as part of his guilty plea.

Castle has since spoken to congressional representatives, state lawmakers and national organizations about better combating physical abuse and sexual assault in the military.

In May, she unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination to represent her state house district in the Texas legislature, where she hoped to enact reforms and safeguards aimed at keeping women in the military as safe as possible.

Castle told ABC News that her campaign wasn’t “about politics”.

“It’s about people – about compassion, community, resilience and hope,” she remarked.

Castle also said: “I have to help my kid.”

As he pleaded guilty and was sentenced, a forensic psychologist testified that Copeland survived childhood sexual abuse along with other trauma in his youth. The psychologist testified that such ordeals probably caused Copeland certain social problems throughout his life – but her examination of him did not encompass whether those would have driven him to kill Resendiz.

Copeland’s grandmother, Kathy Brown, testified on Tuesday as part of his sentencing, the Virginia news outlet WVEC reported. Brown said her family loved Copeland but did not condone his admitted actions and believed he deserved to be held accountable.