Inside 142 Courts-Martial at Camp Pendleton, California, 2024–2026

Trends › By Installation › Camp Pendleton, California › 2024–2026

Based on 142 cases · 2024–2026 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Shorter Terms, and Most Convictions Included Confinement

Of the 142 cases, 127 ended in a conviction on at least one charge, and 109 of those sentences included confinement (86%). The median confinement was 4 months, shorter than the 6 months across the Navy and Marine Corps. A quarter of terms were 1 year or longer.

Short terms were more common here, not sentences without confinement. Terms under 6 months made up 49% of convictions, compared with 35% service-wide. Convictions with no confinement made up 14%, compared with 30%. Sentences longer than one year were part of 25 of 127 convictions (20%), the same 20% as the rest of the service.

Few Full Acquittals

A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. Of 34 contested cases that reached a verdict, 5 ended in a full acquittal. That 15% rate was lower than the 26% in the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps. Another 6 ended in a partial acquittal: an acquittal on at least one charge and a conviction on another.

Pleas are listed for 126 of the 142 records: 92 guilty pleas and 34 contested cases. The contested share was 27%, compared with 36% across the service.

Assault and Domestic Violence Charges

All 142 records list their charges, and each article is counted once per case. Article 128 (assault) was charged in 20% of cases, compared with 15% service-wide. Article 128b (domestic violence) was charged in 16%, compared with 12%. Article 113 (drunken or reckless operation of vehicle) was charged in 7%, compared with 3%.

Article 134 (general article) was less common than elsewhere: 16% compared with 21%. Article 92 (failure to obey order or regulation) was the most common charge, in 29 cases, about the same as the service share.

Outcomes for the Most Common Charges

28 of 29 cases charging Article 92 ended in a conviction on that article (97%), with a median confinement of 3 months. 26 of 28 assault cases ended in a conviction on that article (93%), with a median of 4 months. 21 of 23 Article 128b cases ended in a conviction on that article (91%), the lowest rate of the most common charges, with a median of 5 months.

Article 134 had the longest sentences. 22 of 23 cases ended in a conviction on it (96%), and the median confinement was 2.4 years. The rows overlap because one case can include a conviction on one article and an acquittal on another, and the sentence covers the whole case.

Punitive Discharges After Conviction

For enlisted members, a punitive discharge is a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge. 60% of convicted enlisted members received one: 50 bad-conduct discharges and 22 dishonorable discharges. The rate in the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps was 52%.

The 1 convicted officer or warrant officer was dismissed. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.

Court Level, Pleas, and Rank

Camp Pendleton held 42 general and 93 special courts-martial, and 7 cases have no court level listed. The general court-martial share of 31% compares with 38% service-wide. The median confinement was 2 years in general courts-martial and 3 months in special courts-martial, which cap confinement at one year. 22% of general courts-martial and 29% of special courts-martial were contested.

The accused were 93 junior enlisted members, 32 NCOs, and 2 officers. This group was more junior than the Navy and Marine Corps as a whole.

Compared With San Diego and Camp Lejeune

San Diego, California tried 126 cases in these years, and Camp Lejeune, North Carolina tried 119. At San Diego, 12 of 44 contested cases that reached a verdict ended in a full acquittal, and 37% of cases were contested. At Camp Lejeune, 8 of 31 ended in a full acquittal, and 28% of cases were contested.

The median confinement was 5 months at San Diego and 6 months at Camp Lejeune. Their punitive discharge rates were 47% and 59%, compared with 60% at Camp Pendleton.

Change From 2019–2023

Camp Pendleton tried 50 cases in 2024, 55 in 2025, and 37 in 2026, a partial year. Together they are 14% of the 1,013 Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial in the period. The earlier period averaged about 58 cases a year, compared with about 52 a year since, counting full years.

Full acquittals went from 0 of 31 to 5 of 34. The contested share went from 21% to 27%. The median confinement went from 6 months to 4 months. Punitive discharges went from 67% to 60%. In small groups a few cases can change these figures, and the records cannot show why they changed.

New Rules and What the Records Leave Out

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 under new sentencing parameters. Both rules depend on offense dates, which the records do not include, so these trials include cases under both the old and new rules. The records also do not include the evidence, plea terms, or anything resolved by nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation.

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.