The Buffalo Soldier Gate at Fort Bliss, Texas. (Rose L. Thayer/Stars and Stripes)
A soldier at Fort Bliss pleaded guilty Thursday to a charge of murder for the death of a child and was sentenced to 17 years in prison and a dishonorable discharge, officials at the Texas base said.
Sgt. Justin Cope, who was demoted to the rank of E-1 during the sentencing, was charged in the death of a child in El Paso, the city located outside the gates of Fort Bliss in west Texas, according to an Army charging sheet. Authorities have said the child suffered head trauma and that he or she was squeezed or shaken on or about Feb. 10, 2019.
Cope also pleaded guilty to two counts of assault consummated by battery, said Maj. Jessica Rovero, spokeswoman for the 1st Armored Division at Fort Bliss. Court documents described Cope as squeezing the face of a second child and shaking her body in December 2017 in Wiesau, Germany, causing head trauma.
The names of the victims are redacted from the charging sheet, and they are described as younger than 16 years old.
Military judge Col. Michael Friess of the 5th Judicial Circuit accepted the plea Thursday, according to online court records.
Cope, who is assigned to the division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team, was arraigned in October 2020, according to court records. The case was scheduled to go to trial in 2022 but was delayed. Rovero declined to comment on the cause of the delay.
The El Paso Police Department said in 2022 that it investigated the death but made no arrest. The Army Criminal Investigation Division then took over the case.
