In this study, short carbon fiber (SCF)-reinforced epoxy composites were prepared through changing of the fiber content (0.1-0.7 wt%). An electrodeposition process was used to produce Cu-coated SCFs. To investigate the effect of Cu-coated SCFs on the composite mechanical and electrical properties, we prepared two kinds of reinforcements: SCFs treated by $400^{circ}C$ ($400^{circ}C$-treated SCFs) and Cu-coated SCFs (Cu-SCFs). Fracture characteristics of the composites revealed that the Cu coating and the epoxy matrix had a better interface, meaning that the tensile and bending strength results were better in epoxy/Cu-SCFs composites than those in epoxy/$400^{circ}C$-treated SCFs composites. The $400^{circ}C$-treated SCFs decreased the electrical resistivity of the epoxy composites compared to the pure epoxy. However the epoxy/Cu-SCFs composites had lower electrical resistivity than epoxy/$400^{circ}C$-treated SCFs with the same fiber content.