120 Courts-Martial in Joint Base San Antonio, 2016–2025
The records hold 120 courts-martial tried at Joint Base San Antonio from 2016–2025: 79 Air Force cases and 41 Army cases.
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Trends › By Installation › Joint Base San Antonio
Short answer: The records hold 120 courts-martial tried at Joint Base San Antonio from 2016–2025: 79 Air Force cases and 41 Army cases. 22 of 33 contested cases that reached a verdict ended in a full acquittal (67%), compared with 40% across all courts-martial in those years, and convictions brought a median confinement of 4 months, against 6 months.
A High Full-Acquittal Rate
A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge, either with a not-guilty plea or a mixed plea. At Joint Base San Antonio, 33 contested cases reached a verdict. 22 of them ended with the accused acquitted of all charges, a 67% full-acquittal rate. Across all courts-martial in those years, the rate was 40%.
5 more contested cases split the charges, with a not-guilty finding on at least one charge or specification and a guilty finding on another. Because the group has only 33 decided contested cases, a few verdicts can move the rate by several points.
Pleas at Joint Base San Antonio
82 of the 120 records list the plea. 49 accused pleaded guilty and 33 contested at least one charge. The contested share, 40%, is higher than the 34% across all courts-martial in those years.
The plea varied by charge. Cases charging Article 112a (drug offenses) ended in a guilty plea 83% of the time (10 of 12), the most among the top charges. Cases charging Article 120 (rape and sexual assault) ended in a guilty plea 20% of the time (2 of 10). The records do not say why an accused pleaded guilty or contested the charges.
Services and Installations
The Air Force accounts for 79 cases and the Army for 41. The records hold no Navy or Marine Corps courts-martial at Joint Base San Antonio.
JBSA - Lackland, Texas, had the most cases (54). The records list Fort Sam Houston under separate names: 41 cases as Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston and 16 as JBSA - Ft Sam Houston, Texas. JBSA - Randolph, Texas, had 9.
The data runs from October 2016 through November 2025. The yearly count was 2 in 2016, 7 in 2017, 19 in 2018, 6 in 2019, 7 in 2020, 16 in 2021, 9 in 2022, 16 in 2023, 22 in 2024, and 16 in 2025.
| Service | Cases |
|---|---|
| Army | 41 |
| Air Force | 79 |
| Navy-Marine Corps | 0 |
Many Convictions Without Confinement
87 cases ended in a conviction on at least one charge, and confinement was part of 70% of them. 26 convictions carried no confinement (30%), compared with 16% across all courts-martial in those years.
Half of the confinement terms were 4 months or less, against a median of 6 months across all courts-martial. A quarter were 1.5 years or longer. 18 of 87 convictions brought more than one year of confinement (21%), compared with 25%, and 7 brought 5 years or more (8%).
These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and each covers every charge in the case.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, all courts-martial in those years |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 26 | 30% | 16% |
| Under 6 months | 34 | 39% | 40% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 9 | 10% | 19% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 11 | 13% | 18% |
| 5 years or more | 7 | 8% | 7% |
What Was Charged
The charge lists cover 99 of the 120 cases. A case with three articles appears in three rows. Article 128 (assault) was the most common charge, in 28 cases (28%), against 25% across all courts-martial in those years. Article 134 (the general article) was charged in 23 cases (23%), against 20%.
Article 120 was charged in 19 cases (19%), compared with 15% across all courts-martial. Article 112a appeared in 20 cases (20%), against 24%, and Article 92 (failure to obey an order or regulation) in 18 (18%), against 16%.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, all courts-martial in those years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 128 Assault | 28 | 28% | 25% |
| Art. 134 General article | 23 | 23% | 20% |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 20 | 20% | 24% |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 19 | 19% | 15% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 18 | 18% | 16% |
| Art. 128b Domestic violence, numbered since 2019 | 10 | 10% | 8% |
| Art. 121 Larceny | 10 | 10% | 8% |
| Art. 120b Rape and sexual assault of a child | 8 | 8% | 8% |
Charge-by-Charge Results
Article 112a ended in a conviction on that article in 19 of 20 cases (95%), the highest rate among the top charges, with a median confinement of 3 months. Article 120 had the lowest rate: 14 of 19 cases (74%). Its convictions brought the longest median, 2 years.
Article 134 ended in a conviction in 21 of 23 cases (91%), with a median of 6 months, and Article 128 in 24 of 28 (86%), with a median of 7 months. One case can include a conviction on one article and an acquittal on another.
| Article | Cases charging it | Convicted of it (share) | Median confinement when convicted of it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 128 Assault | 28 | 24 (86%) | 7 months |
| Art. 134 General article | 23 | 21 (91%) | 6 months |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 20 | 19 (95%) | 3 months |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 19 | 14 (74%) | 2 years |
Discharges, Court Level, and Rank
A punitive discharge followed 64% of enlisted convictions: 32 bad-conduct discharges and 18 dishonorable discharges. Across all courts-martial in those years, the share was 63%. 9 convicted officers or warrant officers appear in the records, and 3 were dismissed.
73 of the 119 cases with a court level listed were general courts-martial (61%), compared with 54% across all courts-martial. 74% of their convictions brought confinement, with a median of 1.2 years. At the 46 special courts-martial, 67% did, with a median of 3 months. The level is not listed for 1 case.
Junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) made up 47% of the accused, NCOs 43%, and officers 10%. Across all courts-martial in those years, junior enlisted members were 60%.
Limits of the Records
The Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019, and since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel have decided whether to prosecute covered offenses. Both depend on offense dates, which the records do not give. The records also do not show the evidence, plea terms, nonjudicial punishment, or administrative separations.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Courts-martial at installations in Joint Base San Antonio with trial dates in 2016–2025 (120 cases), all services. Navy and Marine Corps plea and forum records are incomplete before 2021.
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.
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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.