Hearing set for former Whidbey resident accused of murder

Published 1:30 am Friday, May 29, 2026

Former Oak Harbor and Coupeville High School student Jermiah Copeland, a Navy cook, had a scheduled two-week trial in June for the murder of a Navy woman. However, he may enter a plea agreement next month, which means the trial is set to be replaced with a two-day hearing.

Copeland, whose first name is spelled differently in court documents, Island County documents and Navy documents, is charged with killing his fellow Culinary Specialist Seaman, 21-year-old Angelina Resendiz. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service reported her missing on May 31, 2025, and her body was found on June 9, 2025 in Norfolk, Virginia, according to WTKR News 3. Prosecutors say Resendiz was killed by Copeland on May 29, 2025, according to the U.S. Naval Institute.

After Copeland handed over his phone and password, prosecutors used data collected from Copeland’s cell phone to follow his location after Resendiz’s death, according to the U.S. Naval Institute. Copeland screenshotted a pin he dropped on Google Maps in the approximate area that Resendiz’s body was found, the institute reported. Investigators also found that Resendiz’s blood matched the blood in Copeland’s closet and the stairwell of his barracks, the same stairs his watch indicated he went down at 4 a.m. on June 2, 2025. Tracks of a wheeled bag moving from Copeland’s closet and out of his barracks room were identified by the investigators, states the U.S. Naval Institute. Copeland is charged with sexual assault, aggravated assault, sexual misconduct and obstruction of justice in connection with Resendiz’s death, according to Wavy.com.

Though his trial was scheduled for two weeks this June, Marshall Griffin, an attorney representing Resendiz’s family, said Copeland could enter a plea agreement, according to 13 News Now. The trial will be replaced with a providency hearing on June 8 and 9, Griffin told WTKR News 3 on Thursday.

While the plea agreement isn’t finalized yet, if it is presented, a judge will question the defendant to confirm the plea is voluntary and supported by facts in the case, according to 13 News Now. The judge may reject the plea and order a trial if the judge does not believe that Copeland thinks he is guilty. WTKR News 3 reports that Copeland could be sentenced to 40 years if he pleads guilty to murder.

A Navy charge sheet details a history of allegations against the sailor before Resendiz’s murder, ranging from aggravated and abusive sexual conduct, to sexual assault, to wrongful broadcast of an intimate image, to strangulation and more. The occurrences spanned from July 2024 through May 2025, with a rape allegation just days before Resendiz was last seen alive. The sheet also notes that Copeland attempted to obstruct justice by concealing Resendiz’s dead body and hiding his cell phone. He also made two false official statements about Resendiz’s whereabouts: both statements were known to be false by Copeland, states the charge sheet. It’s unclear whether the plea agreement will include the sexual assault allegations, Griffin said, according to 13 News Now.

Copeland faced an Article 32 hearing in Norfolk in September 2025. According to 13 News Now, a trial counsel presented accounts from four women who claimed to have been sexually assaulted by Copeland while he was on active duty. The TV news station noted that even though Copeland was under ongoing investigation after being accused of raping a sailor in a bar bathroom in Norway in November 2024, he was transferred back to Naval Station Norfolk just two months later.

Copeland had other pretrial court appearances in December 2025 and March 2026.

In 2022, when Copeland was 17, the Island County Sheriff’s Office referred the misdemeanor case of Copeland “disclosing intimate images” of a fellow Oak Harbor student to the prosecutor’s office. He denied the allegations and transferred to Coupeville High School.

The News-Times was contacted in July 2025 by former Oak Harbor High School student Lauryn Louis, whose last name was formerly Lopez. Louis claimed that in a separate instance, Copeland sexually assaulted her in 2022, when he was 17 and she was 15 years old, according to a News-Times article. She said Copeland kissed and groped her, and she “didn’t feel she could get away,” according to an Oak Harbor Police Department report obtained by the News-Times. Copeland denied any wrongdoing. Though the allegation was investigated by the Oak Harbor Police Department, it wasn’t forwarded to the prosecutor’s office for a potential charging decision. Oak Harbor Police Chief Tony Slowik told the News-Times that investigators determined there wasn’t probable cause to make an arrest.

Louis said that she didn’t feel that the police took her allegations seriously enough. This sentiment is shared among many others who believe Resendiz’s death could have been prevented if officials had taken the allegations against him seriously. According to 13 News Now, the League of United Latin American Citizens wrote letters to members of Congress asking why Copeland was not arrested after the Navy received the initial report of assault in 2024.

Louis hopes Copeland is held accountable for his actions.

“I think that he needs to learn that what he did was wrong and always will be,” she wrote to the News-Times. “He shouldn’t be allowed to keep getting away with it and being told that it’s OK or having people write him off. That’s not right.”

Copeland is being held in a maximum security brig in Chesapeake, Virginia, according to WTKR News 3.