Pleading Guilty to Article 121 in the Air Force: What Sentences Followed?
The records hold 36 Air Force courts-martial in which the accused pleaded guilty to charges including Article 121 (larceny), all tried from March 2020 on. The median adjudged confinement was 3 months, compared with 4 months in all Air Force guilty pleas.
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Short answer: The records hold 36 Air Force courts-martial in which the accused pleaded guilty to charges including Article 121 (larceny), all tried from March 2020 on. The median adjudged confinement was 3 months, compared with 4 months in all Air Force guilty pleas. Of convicted enlisted members, 62% received a punitive discharge, compared with 60%.
Cases Begin in 2020
This page covers 2016–2025, but every case in it was tried between March 2020 and September 2025. The yearly count was 0 for each year from 2016 through 2019. It was 6 in 2020, 3 in 2021, 6 in 2022, 5 in 2023, 12 in 2024, and 4 in 2025.
Air Force records from 2016 to 2019 rarely list a guilty plea, so a larceny guilty plea from those years would usually not be identifiable here. The zeros describe what the records show. They do not show how many airmen pleaded guilty to larceny in those years.
Mostly Short Confinement
All 36 guilty pleas ended in a conviction, and 31 of the sentences included confinement (86%). The median was 3 months, about the same as the 4 months median in all Air Force guilty pleas in those years. A quarter of the sentences were 6 months or longer.
Sentences under 6 months were the most common, at 64% of convictions here compared with 55% across Air Force guilty pleas. No confinement was imposed in 14% of these cases, compared with 7%. Sentences longer than one year were less common: 4 of 36 convictions (11%), compared with 22%. No sentence here was 5 years or more, compared with 5% of all Air Force guilty pleas.
These are adjudged sentences, before any clemency or appeal, and each covers every charge in its case.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, all Air Force guilty pleas in those years |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 5 | 14% | 7% |
| Under 6 months | 23 | 64% | 55% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 4 | 11% | 16% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 4 | 11% | 17% |
| 5 years or more | 0 | 0% | 5% |
Sentences by Court Level
Of the 36 cases, 25 were special courts-martial, with a median confinement of 2 months. The other 11 were general courts-martial, with a median of 1 year. The general share was 31%, lower than the 43% in all Air Force guilty pleas.
A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge. A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including long confinement and a dishonorable discharge or dismissal.
Discharges for Enlisted Airmen and Officers
A punitive discharge followed 62% of the enlisted convictions: 18 bad-conduct discharges and 2 dishonorable discharges. Across all Air Force guilty pleas in those years, the share was 60%, about the same.
The records list 4 convicted officers or warrant officers, and 2 were dismissed. Dismissal is the officer form of a punitive discharge. A sentence without one does not rule out a later administrative separation.
Larceny Alone or With Other Charges
Article 121 was the only charge in 16 of the 36 cases. In the other cases, the most common additional charges were Article 112a (drug offenses) in 7 cases, Article 107 (false official statement) in 4, Article 134 (the general article) in 3, Article 86 (AWOL) in 3, and Article 124 (frauds against the United States since 2019, maiming before that) in 2.
Who Pleaded Guilty
Of the accused, 24 were junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4), 8 were NCOs (E-5 to E-9), and 4 were officers or warrant officers. That rank makeup is similar to all Air Force guilty pleas in those years, where 68% were junior enlisted.
A military judge alone heard all 36 cases. No enlisted or officer panel heard any case, which matches the 0% panel share across Air Force guilty pleas. The accused usually chooses the forum.
Where They Were Tried
Osan AB, South Korea had the most cases, with 3. JB McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey; JB Langley-Eustis, Virginia; Shaw AFB, South Carolina; and Keesler AFB, Mississippi each had 2. Together these five accounted for 31% of the 36 cases. With counts this small, no installation had notably more cases than the others.
Rules in Force During These Years
The Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. It set fixed panel sizes, created judge-alone special courts-martial capped at six months with no punitive discharge, and introduced written plea agreements. Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel decide whether to prosecute covered offenses such as sexual assault, domestic violence, and murder. For offenses after December 27, 2023, the military judge sets the sentence within new sentencing parameters. The records lack offense dates, so trials from 2024 on include both old-rule and new-rule cases.
What the Records Do Not Show
Air Force records never report plea agreements, so these figures cannot show whether an agreement capped any sentence. The records also do not describe what was taken, its value, or the evidence. They leave out larceny handled through nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation.
For what the offense covers and how it is defended, see Article 121 on the law firm's website. Dates and sources for the law changes: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Air Force courts-martial tried 2016–2025: where the accused pleaded guilty to charges including Article 121 (larceny) (36 cases), compared with all Air Force guilty pleas in those years.
Source: public court-martial records (Article 140a, UCMJ) in Military Trial Results, data updated October 24, 2026. Definitions, sources, and known gaps: how this data was built. Errors: content@bodiesburied.com.
Related Analysis
- Article 121 (Larceny): Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- Sentences (hub)
- Air Force Article 121 Cases by the Numbers, 2016–2025
- What Sentence Follows an Air Force Larceny Conviction?
- Guilty Pleas in Army Larceny Cases: How Often, and What Came Next (another service)
- Guilty Pleas in Navy-Marine Corps Larceny Cases: How Often, and What Came Next (another service)
- Guilty Pleas in Air Force Child Sexual Abuse Cases: How Often, and What Came Next
- Article 121 explained on the law firm's website
- Search every case in Military Trial Results (members)
Compare: federal court. Theft and Fraud: Federal Sentences vs. Air Force Courts-Martial, 2016–2025
About the author. Jocelyn C. Stewart is a retired Army JAG with more than 24 years of trying courts-martial and more than 200 jury trials. She hosts Where All The Bodies Are Buried and runs the Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart. This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.