A sailor based in Norfolk, Virginia, will spend 44 years in federal prison after he was sentenced Tuesday for unpremeditated murder in the strangulation death of a female sailor he worked with, Navy officials said.
Jeremiah Copeland had pleaded guilty to killing fellow Culinary Specialist Petty Officer Angelina Resendiz.
“Petty Officer Copeland deserves to be held fully accountable for his heinous actions that resulted in the tragic murder of Petty Officer Resendiz,” said Special Agent in Charge Emily Schmid of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service’s Norfolk Field Office. “NCIS offers its condolences to the Resendiz family as well as gratitude to our local and state law enforcement partners who assisted in the search for Petty Officer Resendiz.”
Her body was discovered in June 2025 in a wooded area 10 miles from Naval Station Norfolk. She was last seen in her barracks room about 10 days earlier. Her body was found inside a black duffel bag, according to U.S. Naval Institute News.
“Upon immediate notification of a missing persons report, the NCIS Norfolk Field Office worked tirelessly over a 10-day period to locate Resendiz, pursuing all investigative leads and processing critical digital forensic evidence,” Navy officials said in a statement. “Our efforts ultimately resulted in the recovery of Resendiz’s remains and the arrest of Copeland.”
According to media reports during the trial, Copeland said the victim was with him in the barracks before her death. He admitted to killing Petty Officer Resendiz after she became upset over a message on his cellphone.
In addition to the prison sentence, Copeland will be dishonorably discharged from the Navy. He will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release.
Her death came about five years after Army Spc. Vanessa Guillen was bludgeoned inside an armory at Fort Hood, Texas, by another specialist, Aaron David Robinson, who killed himself as he was about to be arrested.
The Guillen case resulted in several high-level firings at Ford Hood along with a major overhaul of the military justice system, transforming how the military handles allegations of sexual misconduct. The decision to prosecute military sexual assault and harassment was stripped from the service members’ chain of command and handed over to independent, specialized military prosecutors.
