Guilty Pleas in Army Military Property Cases: How Often, and What Came Next
From 2021–2025, Army records show 26 courts-martial in which the accused pleaded guilty and the charges included Article 108 (military property). The median adjudged confinement was 6 months, slightly longer than the 5 months for all Army guilty pleas.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 5 min read
Trends › By Offense › Article 108 › Guilty Pleas in Army Military Property C
Short answer: From 2021–2025, Army records show 26 courts-martial in which the accused pleaded guilty and the charges included Article 108 (military property). The median adjudged confinement was 6 months, slightly longer than the 5 months for all Army guilty pleas. Of convicted enlisted members, 64% received a punitive discharge, lower than the 75% across Army guilty pleas.
A Small Group of Cases
Article 108 covers selling, losing, damaging, destroying, or wrongfully disposing of military property. Only 26 Army guilty pleas in these five years included it. Each case therefore changes the percentages noticeably.
Confinement was part of 92% of the 26 convictions. The median confinement was 6 months, compared with a 5-month median across all Army guilty pleas in those years. A quarter of terms were 10 months or longer. These are adjudged sentences, set at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal.
More Terms of 6 Months to 1 Year
Terms of 6 months to 1 year were part of 10 convictions (38%), compared with 18% across Army guilty pleas. Terms under 6 months were 46%, close to the 44% for all Army guilty pleas.
Long terms were less common. Only 2 of 26 convictions (8%) included more than one year, compared with 24% for all Army guilty pleas, and 0 included 5 years or more. Another 2 convictions (8%) included no confinement, compared with 14%.
Only a general court-martial can adjudge more than one year of confinement; a special court-martial is capped at one year.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, all Army guilty pleas in those years |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 2 | 8% | 14% |
| Under 6 months | 12 | 46% | 44% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 10 | 38% | 18% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 2 | 8% | 17% |
| 5 years or more | 0 | 0% | 6% |
Article 108 Was Usually Charged With Other Articles
Article 108 was the only charge in 5 of the 26 cases. Larceny under Article 121 was the article most often charged with it, in 9 cases. Article 128 (assault) appeared in 6, Article 92 (orders violation) and Article 81 (conspiracy) in 5 each, and Article 131b (obstruction) in 3.
A sentence covers every charge in a case, so the confinement and discharge numbers describe these combined cases as a whole. The records do not break a sentence down by charge.
Fewer Punitive Discharges Than Other Army Guilty Pleas
Among enlisted members, 16 of 25 convictions included a punitive discharge: 15 bad-conduct discharges and 1 dishonorable discharge. That rate of 64% is lower than the 75% across all Army guilty pleas in those years.
The records list 1 convicted officer or warrant officer, and 0 were dismissed. A dismissal is the officer equivalent of a punitive discharge. A sentence without one does not rule out a later administrative separation.
More NCOs Than Junior Enlisted
Of the accused, 13 were NCOs (E-5 to E-9), 12 were junior enlisted (E-1 to E-4), and 1 was an officer or warrant officer. Across all Army guilty pleas in those years, junior enlisted members made up 60%. This group was more senior.
General courts-martial, the level that can impose long confinement and a dishonorable discharge, heard 17 of 26 cases (65%). Special courts-martial heard the rest.
Plea Agreements and the Decision-Maker
For 25 of the 26 guilty pleas, Army records note a plea agreement, and 1 has no entry. The records confirm whether an agreement existed but not its terms, so any sentence limit it set is not visible here.
A military judge alone decided guilt in 25 of 26 cases with the forum listed (96%). Members decided 1 case, an enlisted panel, and 0 went to an officer panel. Most guilty pleas are decided by a military judge alone.
Most Cases Were in 2021
The cases run from February 2021 to August 2025. There were 12 cases in 2021, 3 in 2022, 2 in 2023, 5 in 2024, and 4 in 2025. The services were required to begin publishing trial records under Article 140a by December 2020, and Army records in this data are sparse before 2021.
Fort Benning had the most cases (4), followed by Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Fort Campbell, and Fort Leonard Wood (3 each) and Fort Bliss (2). Those five accounted for 58% of the 26 cases. Larger installations try more cases of every kind.
Rule Changes Late in the Period
Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel, not commanders, decide whether to prosecute covered offenses such as sexual assault, domestic violence, and murder. For cases in which every guilty finding is for an offense after December 27, 2023, the military judge sets the sentence within new sentencing parameters.
Both rules depend on when the offense occurred, and the records give only trial dates. Trials from 2024 on therefore include cases under the old rules and the new rules. The data cannot show whether the changes affected outcomes.
Beyond the Trial Record
These records list charges, pleas, findings, and sentences. They do not include the evidence, the plea terms, or any property loss handled through nonjudicial punishment or administrative action.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Army courts-martial tried 2021–2025: where the accused pleaded guilty to charges including Article 108 (military property) (26 cases), compared with all Army 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 108 (Military Property; Loss, Damage, Destruction): Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- Sentences (hub)
- Fewer or More? Military Property Charges at Army Courts-Martial, 2021–2025
- How Much Confinement for an Article 108 Conviction in the Army?
- Guilty Pleas in Navy-Marine Corps Military Property Cases: How Often, and What Came Next (another service)
- Guilty Pleas in Army Child Endangerment Cases: How Often, and What Came Next
- Guilty Pleas in Army Communicating Threats Cases: How Often, and What Came Next
- Guilty Pleas in Army Conspiracy Cases: How Often, and What Came Next
- Search every case in Military Trial Results (members)
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.