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# What Sentence Follows an Army Property Damage Conviction?
- URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-109-sent-2021-2025/
- Published: 2026-10-28T06:33:42.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-30T08:05:08.000Z
- Description: This page covers only the 32 Army courts-martial from 2021–2025 that ended in a conviction under Article 109, damaging or destroying non-military property. Every one also charged at least one other article, most often domestic violence.
- Author: Jocelyn C. Stewart
- Tags: Understanding Trends, Article 109, Army

[Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/) › [By Offense](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/by-offense/) › [Article 109](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/article-109-courts-martial/) › What Sentence Follows a Army property da

**Short answer:** This page covers only the 32 Army courts-martial from 2021–2025 that ended in a conviction under Article 109, damaging or destroying non-military property. Every one also charged at least one other article, most often domestic violence. The median confinement was 6 months, the same as for all Army convictions. Of convicted enlisted members, 75% received a punitive discharge, compared with 73%.

Based on 32 cases · 2021–2025 · Army records · data updated October 24, 2026

## Property Damage Was Never Charged Alone

All 32 cases charged at least one other article. Article 128b domestic violence appeared in 18 cases, Article 128 assault in 16, Article 92 orders violations in 8, and Article 115 communicating threats and Article 90 disobeying an officer in 6 each.

A court-martial sentence covers all the findings in the case. The sentence therefore includes the domestic violence, assault, or other convictions as well as the property damage. The records do not split a sentence by charge.

## Sentences Were Close to the Army Overall

Of 32 convictions, 28 included confinement. The median confinement was 6 months, the same as for all Army convictions in those years. A quarter of the confinement sentences were 1.7 years or longer.

No confinement was part of 12% of convictions, compared with 17% Army-wide. Terms under 6 months were part of 44%, compared with 39%. Sentences longer than one year were slightly more common: 10 of 32 convictions (31%), compared with 28%. Of those, 2 (6%) were 5 years or more, compared with 8%.

These are adjudged sentences, announced at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal.

| Adjudged confinement            | Convictions | Share here | Share, all Army convictions in those years |
| ------------------------------- | ----------- | ---------- | ------------------------------------------ |
| No confinement                  | 4           | 12%        | 17%                                        |
| Under 6 months                  | 14          | 44%        | 39%                                        |
| 6 months to 1 year              | 4           | 12%        | 16%                                        |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 8           | 25%        | 20%                                        |
| 5 years or more                 | 2           | 6%         | 8%                                         |

## General and Special Courts-Martial

The 19 general courts-martial had a median confinement of 1 year. The 12 special courts-martial had a median of 2 months. The court level is not listed for 1 case.

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 and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge. The general court-martial share of 61% was lower than the 72% across all Army convictions.

## Did a Discharge Follow?

For enlisted members, a punitive discharge is a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge. Of 32 convicted enlisted members, 24 received one (75%), about the same as the 73% across all Army convictions. Of those 24, 5 were dishonorable discharges.

A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation, which these records do not show.

## Mostly Guilty Pleas

A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. Here, 26 accused pleaded guilty and 6 cases were contested. The contested share was 19%, compared with 21% across all Army convictions. Contested cases were more common at general courts-martial (26%) than at special courts-martial (8%).

Of the 26 guilty pleas, 24 are recorded with a plea agreement and 2 have no entry. Army records show whether an agreement existed, not what it said. Members decided 9% of the cases with the forum listed, all 3 with enlisted panels. A military judge alone decided the other 29\. Most judge-alone cases are guilty pleas.

## Who Was Convicted

The convicted were 23 junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) and 9 NCOs (E-5 to E-9), with 0 officers or warrant officers. That mix is more junior than all Army convictions, where 57% were junior enlisted.

No post had more than 4 cases. Vilseck (Europe) had the most with 4\. Fort Riley, Fort Campbell, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and Fort Bragg had 3 each. Together they accounted for 50% of the total. Larger installations try more cases of every kind.

## Fewer Cases in Later Years

These convictions came in trials from January 2021 through December 2025: 12 in 2021, 8 in 2022, 6 in 2023, 3 in 2024, and 3 in 2025\. The records cannot show why the number went down. 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.

## Rule Changes and Record Limits

Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel, not commanders, decide whether to prosecute covered offenses such as sexual assault, domestic violence, and murder. When every guilty finding is for an offense after December 27, 2023, the military judge sets the sentence within new sentencing parameters. Both depend on the offense date, which the records do not give. Trials from 2024 on therefore include cases under the old rules and the new rules.

Only courts-martial that ended in a conviction appear here. The records do not describe the property involved, the evidence, or the plea terms. They do not include conduct handled by nonjudicial punishment, administrative separation, or no action.

Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: [UCMJ change timeline](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/ucmj-change-timeline/).

### How We Counted

Army courts-martial tried 2021–2025: ending in a conviction under Article 109 (property damage) (32 cases), compared with all Army convictions in those years.

Source: public court-martial records (Article 140a, UCMJ) in [Military Trial Results](https://www.bodiesburied.com/military-trial-results/), data updated October 24, 2026\. Definitions, sources, and known gaps: [how this data was built](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/how-the-military-trial-results-data-was-built/). Errors: content@bodiesburied.com.

## Related Analysis

- [Article 109 (Property Other Than Military; Waste, Spoilage, Destruction): Court-Martial Data and Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/article-109-courts-martial/) (hub)
- [Sentences](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/sentences/) (hub)
- [How Has Article 109 Changed in Army Courts-Martial Since 2021?](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-109-trend-2021-2025/)
- [Fighting an Army Property Damage Charge: How Contested Cases Ended](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-109-acq-2021-2025/)
- [When Army Accused Plead Guilty to Property Damage](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-109-plea-2021-2025/)
- [How Much Confinement for an Article 109 Conviction in the Air Force?](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-article-109-sent-2016-2025/) (another service)
- [What Sentence Follows a Navy-Marine Corps Property Damage Conviction?](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-article-109-sent-2017-2025/) (another service)
- [Search every case in Military Trial Results](https://www.bodiesburied.com/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](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/?ref=bodiesburied.com). This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.