What Sentence Follows an Air Force Larceny Conviction?

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Based on 121 cases · 2016–2025 · Air Force records · data updated October 24, 2026

Few Larceny Cases Were Contested

A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. Of the 42 records that list a plea, 36 were guilty pleas and only 6 were not-guilty or mixed pleas. That is a contested share of 14%. Across all Air Force convictions in these years, the share was 31%.

Plea data is limited here. Only 42 of 121 records list a plea, in part because Air Force records from 2016 to 2019 rarely note a guilty plea.

21% Without Confinement

Of the 121 convictions, 95 included confinement. The other 26, or 21%, did not. That share is higher than the 15% across Air Force convictions.

When confinement was adjudged, the median was 3 months. A quarter of terms were 7 months or longer. Terms under 6 months accounted for 51% of convictions, compared with 48% service-wide. Terms of 6 months to 1 year accounted for 14%, compared with 15%.

How Often Did Sentences Exceed One Year?

Sentences of more than one year were imposed in 16 of the 121 convictions (13%), lower than the 23% across Air Force convictions. Of those, 12 were more than 1 year and under 5 years (10%, compared with 16%). The other 4 were 5 years or more (3%, compared with 7%).

All figures are adjudged sentences, as announced at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each sentence covers every charge in the case, not only the larceny charge.

General and Special Courts-Martial

General courts-martial made up 40% of these cases (49 of 121). Special courts-martial made up the other 72. A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including long confinement and a dishonorable discharge. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year.

Sentences differed by court level. The 49 general courts-martial had a median confinement of 10 months, and 21% were contested. The 72 special courts-martial had a median of 2 months, and 11% were contested. Since 2019, a special court-martial can also be tried by a military judge alone, capped at six months of confinement with no punitive discharge. This page does not report those cases separately.

Larceny and False Official Statements

At least one other article was charged with Article 121 in 83 of the 121 cases. The most common additional charge was Article 107 (false official statement), in 30 cases. Article 134 (general article) appeared in 21, Article 92 (orders violation) in 17, Article 112a (drug) in 17, and Article 128 (assault) in 6.

When other charges were present, the adjudged sentence covers all of them. The numbers on this page are therefore not a measure of larceny alone.

Discharges About the Same as the Service Rate

Of 112 convicted enlisted members, 65 received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge (58%). That is about the same as the 56% across Air Force convictions. Of the 65, 10 were dishonorable.

The records list 9 convicted officers or warrant officers, and 5 were dismissed. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.

Rank and Forum

The larceny group is more senior than Air Force convictions as a whole: 67 junior enlisted members, 45 NCOs, and 9 officers.

A military judge alone decided guilt in 94 cases. Members heard 22% of cases with the forum listed: 11 enlisted panels and 16 officer panels. The accused usually chooses the forum. Judge-alone trials are mostly guilty pleas, so the forum figures follow how many cases were contested.

When and Where

The cases were tried from April 2016 to September 2025. Yearly totals were 25 in 2016, 19 in 2017, 14 in 2018, 16 in 2019, 8 in 2020, 4 in 2021, 6 in 2022, 6 in 2023, 15 in 2024, and 8 in 2025.

Minot AFB, North Dakota had the most cases, with 8. Malmstrom AFB, Montana; JB McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey; JB Langley-Eustis, Virginia; and Osan AB, South Korea had 5 each. Together these account for 23% of the 121 cases. Larger installations try more cases of every kind.

What the Trial Records Do Not Show

Air Force records rarely list the charges in a full acquittal, so this page reports no acquittal rate for larceny. The records also omit the evidence and the plea terms. They cover only courts-martial, not nonjudicial punishment or administrative separations. The Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. The records give trial dates, not offense dates, so they cannot sort cases by which rules applied.

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.

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.