27 Conspiracy Courts-Martial at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, 2019–2023: What the Records Show

Trends › By Installation › Camp Lejeune, North Carolina › Article 81, 2019–2023

Based on 27 cases · 2019–2023 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Confinement in Every Case, with Shorter Terms

Of 27 convictions, 27 carried confinement. In Navy and Marine Corps Article 81 cases overall, 6% of convictions carried no confinement. The terms here were shorter. The median confinement was 6 months, compared with 10 months in the rest of the service. A quarter of the sentences were 1.2 years or longer.

Most sentences were in the lower ranges. Terms under 6 months made up 37% of convictions, compared with 28% service-wide. Terms of 6 months to 1 year also made up 37%, compared with 33%. Sentences of more than one year came in 7 of 27 convictions (26%), compared with 33% service-wide. These are adjudged sentences, as imposed at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each sentence covers every charge in the case.

Punitive Discharges Were More Common

Shorter confinement did not mean fewer punitive discharges. Among 26 convicted enlisted members, 24 received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge (92%). That is higher than the 83% in all Navy and Marine Corps Article 81 cases in 2019–2023. Only 1 of those discharges was dishonorable.

The group included 1 convicted officer or warrant officer, and that officer was dismissed. A dismissal is the officer equivalent of a punitive discharge. An enlisted member who received no punitive discharge could still be separated administratively later, and those separations are not in these records.

What Other Charges Came with Conspiracy?

Only 1 of the 27 cases charged Article 81 alone. Across the Navy and Marine Corps, 2 of 133 Article 81 cases charged it alone. Article 121 (larceny) was the most common companion charge, in 11 cases. Article 112a (drug) appeared in 10, Article 92 (orders violation) in 9, Article 131b (obstruction) in 7, and Article 134 (general article) in 5.

A sentence covers every charge in the case, so these companion offenses are part of each confinement and discharge result. The records identify the underlying conduct only by article number. They show larceny, drug, and obstruction charges, but not the facts behind them.

Pleas: Recorded in Only 10 Cases

Only 10 of the 27 records list a plea. Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit it. Of those 10, 4 accused pleaded guilty and 6 contested the case. A contested case is one where the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge.

The contested share was 60%, compared with 24% in Navy and Marine Corps-wide Article 81 cases. This share rests on only 10 records, so one case can change it by a large amount. It describes the cases with a recorded plea, not necessarily all 27. All 27 cases ended in a conviction on at least one charge.

General and Special Courts-Martial

11 of the 27 cases were general courts-martial (41%), and 16 were special courts-martial. A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including a dishonorable discharge. Only a general court-martial can adjudge more than one year of confinement. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year.

At both levels, 100% of convictions carried confinement. The median confinement was 1.3 years at general courts-martial and 6 months at special courts-martial. Special courts-martial made up 16 of the 27 cases, and the overall median of 6 months is the same as the special court-martial median.

Rank of the Accused

20 accused were junior enlisted (E-1 to E-4), 6 were NCOs (E-5 to E-9), and 1 was an officer or warrant officer. That group is more senior than in all Navy and Marine Corps Article 81 cases in 2019–2023, where 79% were junior enlisted. Junior enlisted members were still most of the accused here.

Cases by Year

The records run from February 2019 to November 2023. The yearly counts were 12 in 2019, 5 in 2020, 7 in 2021, 1 in 2022, and 2 in 2023. Conspiracy was charged in 10% of the 283 courts-martial at Camp Lejeune over the period. The years are trial years, not offense years. The counts after 2021 are small, so a single case makes up a large part of each of those years.

What the Records Do Not Show

The records do not describe the evidence or any plea terms. They leave out conspiracies handled through nonjudicial punishment, administrative separation, or no action. They also cannot show why sentences here differ from those in the rest of the service.

Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.

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.