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One of five young men charged with killing a Portland pastor during a home invasion accepted a plea deal Wednesday, before he and three other defendants — all now adults — were scheduled to stand trial in September 2027. The fifth defendant in the case, who is still a minor, is being tried separately.
Jayden Sarinana, 18, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his role in a middle-of-the-night burglary that resulted in the shooting of 56-year-old grandfather and pastor Kevin Cooper in November 2025.
Cooper remained on life support at a Portland hospital for more than a month before dying from his injuries Dec. 12.
Sarinana, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, faced 13 charges, including second-degree murder, reckless endangerment, unauthorized use of a vehicle, assault, burglary and weapons charges.
In court Wednesday, Sarinana pleaded guilty to reduced charges of manslaughter and burglary. Under the plea agreement, prosecutors dropped the second-degree murder charges and other counts.
Sarinana has been held in the Multnomah County Jail since January, when he was arrested in connection with Cooper’s killing. The five defendants were arrested between November 2025 and February on unrelated charges before police tied the group together. A grand jury indicted them in January on murder, weapons and burglary charges in connection with Cooper’s death.
Six members of Cooper’s family sat in the courtroom Wednesday, holding back tears as Judge Shelley Russell sentenced Sarinana.
In a letter from Cooper’s daughter, Janina Scott, read aloud by prosecutor Eric Palmer, Scott described the impact her father’s killing has had on her family.
“My whole life has changed the very moment they shot my dad. These boys took a great father, grandfather, brother and husband,” Scott wrote. “I miss him so much that it makes my heart physically hurt. I didn’t even know that was really possible.”
After the statement, Palmer told Russell the case was one of the “most heinous offenses” he had ever prosecuted and asked her to impose the full 15-year sentence allowed under the plea agreement.
Sarinana also pleaded guilty Wednesday to first-degree robbery in a separate case stemming from an October 2025 robbery at a Southeast Portland liquor store, one day before Cooper was shot.
Prosecutors say Sarinana and others severely injured the store’s 73-year-old owner, Ana Hyde. According to court records, Sarinana stole alcohol from the store and, when Hyde attempted to retrieve the stolen goods from the group’s car, they drove away, dragging her with the vehicle. She suffered a fractured skull and shoulder.
At least one of Sarinana’s alleged accomplices in the liquor store robbery, 19-year-old Zyaire Carter, is also charged in Cooper’s killing.
Sarinana is scheduled to be sentenced in the robbery case in 2028. He had also been on probation in a separate juvenile case at the time of the robbery. Detectives investigating the liquor store case used images provided by his probation officer to help confirm his identity, according to court records.
Palmer called the cases “a failure of the juvenile justice system,” saying the system had failed to prevent the young men from committing increasingly violent crimes.
As Sarinana entered his guilty pleas in the two cases, Russell repeatedly pressed him to describe what he had done.
“I committed a crime,” a stoic and mumbling Sarinana said. When Russell asked him to elaborate, he responded, “I did something wrong. I harmed someone.”
Asked about his actions in the liquor store robbery, Sarinana said, “I robbed the liquor store. Someone got injured.”
Russell asked how Hyde was injured.
“They were going to try to stop me,” Sarinana replied.
Sarinana’s defense attorney, Jason Steen, told the court that cases like Sarinana’s can take years to resolve and argued that his decision to accept a plea deal and shorten that process was a sign that he was “remorseful and sorry.”
When given the opportunity to address the court himself, Sarinana remained silent.
Russell told Sarinana that he had caused “unimaginable suffering” and that his actions were “entirely preventable.”
“It’s so tragic someone so young is sitting in that chair today,” Russell said before handing down the 15-year sentence.
Sarinana had faced a combined maximum 60 years in prison and more than $1.1 million in fines for the charges to which he pleaded guilty Wednesday.
Palmer told The Oregonian/OregonLive after the hearing that Sarinana will have to meet a series of requirements during his initial prison sentence in Cooper’s killing before his sentence in the liquor store robbery is determined. He is due back in court for sentencing in that case July 14, 2028.
After the hearing, Cooper’s daughter and wife and Hyde embraced in the courtroom as the two victims’ families thanked detectives who worked the cases.
Saranina’s co-defendants are due in court for the beginning of their trial on Sept. 7, 2027.
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