How Camp Pendleton, California Handled Assault Cases (Article 128), 2017–2018

Trends › By Installation › Camp Pendleton, California › Article 128, 2017–2018

Based on 43 cases · 2017–2018 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Longer Confinement Than Service-Wide

Of the 43 cases, 40 ended in a conviction on at least one charge, and 37 of those sentences included confinement (92%). The median confinement was 1 year, longer than the 10 months median for all Navy and Marine Corps Article 128 cases in 2017–2018.

Some sentences were very long. A quarter of the confinement sentences were 4 years or longer, and 1 was a life sentence. Every figure here is an adjudged sentence, the sentence announced at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. It covers every charge in the case, not only the assault charge.

More Sentences Longer Than One Year

Confinement longer than one year came in 18 of 40 convictions (45%), more often than the 37% across Navy and Marine Corps assault cases in the same years. Terms of 5 years or more made up 20% of convictions, compared with 16%. Terms of more than 1 year and under 5 years made up 25%, compared with 21%.

Short sentences were less common. Sentences under 6 months were 25% of convictions here and 31% elsewhere. Only 3 convictions carried no confinement, 8% compared with 9%.

General and Special Courts-Martial

General courts-martial heard 20 of the 43 cases, or 47%. The other 23 were special courts-martial. Sentences were very different by court level. The median confinement was 4 years at general courts-martial and 5 months at special courts-martial.

This difference follows from the rules. 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 can impose a bad-conduct discharge but not a dishonorable discharge. Only general courts-martial can impose the longest terms in the table.

Sexual Assault Was Often Charged in the Same Case

Article 128 was the only charge in 18 of the 43 cases. Most of the other cases also charged other articles. Article 120 (sexual assault) was the most common, in 13 cases. Article 92 (orders violation) appeared in 9, Article 107 (false official statement) in 3, Article 120c (indecent recording and exposure) in 3, and Article 115 (malingering) in 2.

When an assault charge appears with a sexual assault or domestic violence charge, the assault charge can describe part of the same incident. The sentence covers the whole case, and the records do not divide it by charge. The confinement figures above therefore do not measure the penalty for assault alone.

Punitive Discharges

Among 39 convicted enlisted members, 26 received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge (67%). That is about the same as the 66% for all Navy and Marine Corps Article 128 cases in 2017–2018. Of those 26, 14 were dishonorable, the most severe discharge. Only a general court-martial can impose a dishonorable discharge.

A sentence without a punitive discharge does not mean the member stayed in the service. An administrative separation is still possible after a court-martial.

Rank of the Accused

Junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) were 82% of the accused, and NCOs (E-5 to E-9) were 18%. No officers were charged in this group. In Navy and Marine Corps assault cases elsewhere, junior enlisted members were 65%, so the Camp Pendleton group was more junior.

Cases by Year

The cases were tried between January 2017 and December 2018: 18 in 2017 and 25 in 2018. Article 128 was charged in 29% of the 149 courts-martial at Camp Pendleton, California in those years.

Before the 2019 Rules

Every trial here took place before the Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. That law set fixed panel sizes. It created judge-alone special courts-martial capped at six months with no punitive discharge. It also brought in written plea agreements. None of those changes applied to the cases on this page.

What the Records Do Not Show

Navy and Marine Corps records from before December 2020 often omit the plea. This page therefore does not report how many of these assault cases were contested, meaning cases where the accused pleaded not guilty to at least one charge. The records list trial dates, not offense dates. They do not describe the evidence or the plea terms. Assaults handled by nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation do not appear in them.

For what the offense covers and how it is defended, see Article 128 on the law firm's website. Dates and sources for the law changes: UCMJ change timeline.

Compare: federal court. Aggravated Assault: Federal Sentences vs. Article 128 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.