Fort Leonard Wood, 2021–2023: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 27 Cases
Article 81 (conspiracy) was charged in 22% of Fort Leonard Wood's 27 courts-martial from 2021 to 2023, compared with 4% in the rest of the Army. Only 22% of cases were contested, compared with 34% Army-wide. 83% of enlisted convictions included a punitive discharge, compared with 73%.
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Trends › By Installation › Fort Leonard Wood › 2021–2023
Short answer: Article 81 (conspiracy) was charged in 22% of Fort Leonard Wood's 27 courts-martial from 2021 to 2023, compared with 4% in the rest of the Army. Only 22% of cases were contested, compared with 34% Army-wide. 83% of enlisted convictions included a punitive discharge, compared with 73%.
Conspiracy and Drugs on the Charge Sheets
All 27 cases have a charge list. One case can appear under several articles. Article 81 (conspiracy) was charged in 6 cases (22%), compared with 4% in all Army cases. Article 112a (drug) was charged in 5 cases (19%), compared with 11%.
Article 119b (child endangerment) was charged in 3 cases (11%), compared with 2% Army-wide. Other charges were less common than elsewhere. Article 128 (assault) and Article 120 (sexual assault) were each charged in 19% of cases, compared with 31% and 25%. Article 134 (general article) was charged in 11%, compared with 22%.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, the whole Army docket |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 81 Conspiracy | 6 | 22% | 4% |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 5 | 19% | 25% |
| Art. 128 Assault | 5 | 19% | 31% |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 5 | 19% | 11% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 4 | 15% | 15% |
| Art. 134 General article | 3 | 11% | 22% |
| Art. 119b Child endangerment | 3 | 11% | 2% |
| Art. 121 Larceny | 3 | 11% | 7% |
Most Cases Ended in a Guilty Plea
A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge, either fully or through a mixed plea. Fort Leonard Wood had 21 guilty pleas and 6 contested cases. The contested share was 22%, compared with 34% across the Army. 2 of the 6 contested cases ended in a full acquittal, meaning not guilty on every charge.
Of the 21 guilty pleas, 17 are recorded with a plea agreement and 4 have no entry. Army records say whether an agreement existed, not its terms.
Punitive Discharges Higher Than the Army Rate
A punitive discharge for an enlisted soldier is a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge. At Fort Leonard Wood, 83% of enlisted convictions included one: 15 bad-conduct and 4 dishonorable discharges. The rate for the Army as a whole was 73%.
There were 2 convicted officers or warrant officers, and both were dismissed, the officer form of a punitive discharge. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation outside the court-martial.
Sentence Lengths
72% of the 25 convictions included confinement. The median was 6 months, the same as the median across the Army. A quarter of those sentences were 11 months or longer.
No conviction included more than 1 year but under 5 years, compared with 19% Army-wide. 3 convictions (12%) included 5 years or more, compared with 8%. Convictions without confinement were more common: 28% compared with 17%. In all, 3 of 25 convictions (12%) included more than one year, compared with 27% in all Army cases. These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. They cover every charge in the case.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, all Army cases in those years |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 7 | 28% | 17% |
| Under 6 months | 8 | 32% | 39% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 7 | 28% | 17% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 0 | 0% | 19% |
| 5 years or more | 3 | 12% | 8% |
Who Faced Trial?
The accused included 13 junior enlisted soldiers (E-1 to E-4), 11 NCOs (E-5 to E-9), and 3 officers or warrant officers. Across all Army cases in those years, 57% of the accused were junior enlisted.
General courts-martial, the level that can impose long confinement and a dishonorable discharge, made up 65% of the 26 cases with a court level listed (17 of 26). The court level is not listed for 1 case. Special courts-martial, capped at one year of confinement, handled the rest.
Few Cases Before Members
The accused usually chooses whether a military judge alone or a panel of members decides guilt. Members heard 11% of cases with the forum listed. All 3 were enlisted panels. A judge alone heard the other 24.
Most judge-alone cases are guilty pleas, so this split mostly follows the low contested share.
Compared With Kaiserslautern and Elmendorf-Richardson
Kaiserslautern (Europe) tried 25 Army cases in these years and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson 30. Kaiserslautern had a higher contested share, 48%. 7 of its 12 contested cases that reached a verdict ended in a full acquittal. Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson had a 20% contested share, and 2 of 6 contested cases ended in a full acquittal, the same count as Fort Leonard Wood.
Median confinement was 3 months at Kaiserslautern and 5 months at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, compared with 6 months here. Punitive discharge shares were 67% and 65%, both lower than 83% at Fort Leonard Wood.
| Installation | Cases | Contested | Full acquittals (decided contested) | Median confinement | Punitive discharge (enlisted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fort Leonard Wood | 27 | 22% | 2 of 6 | 6 months | 83% |
| Kaiserslautern (Europe) | 25 | 48% | 7 of 12 | 3 months | 67% |
| Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson | 30 | 20% | 2 of 6 | 5 months | 65% |
Caseload Over Time
The cases are from April 2021 through September 2023: 7 in 2021, 12 in 2022, and 8 in 2023. Together they are 2% of the 1,498 Army courts-martial in those years. The services were required to begin publishing trial records under Article 140a by December 2020. This data has few Army records before 2021.
What the Data Leaves Out
Only cases that reached a courtroom appear here. Matters resolved through nonjudicial punishment, administrative separation, or no action are missing, as are the evidence and the terms of any plea agreement. The records also give trial dates rather than offense dates.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Every court-martial in the data tried at Fort Leonard Wood with a trial date in 2021–2023 (27 cases), compared with all 1,498 Army trials in those years. Dates are trial dates.
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.
Related Analysis
- Fort Leonard Wood: Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- Army Courts-Martial: Data and Trends (hub)
- By Installation (hub)
- Fort Leonard Wood Courts-Martial, 2024–2026: What 38 Cases Show (another period)
- Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston Courts-Martial, 2021–2023: What 22 Cases Show (same years, similar size)
- What Was Tried at Fort Sill, 2021–2023? 37 Courts-Martial (same years, similar size)
- Camp Humphreys, 2020–2023: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 69 Cases
- Fort Bliss, 2020–2023: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 102 Cases
- Fort Bragg Courts-Martial, 2020–2023: What 143 Cases Show
- Fort Carson, 2024–2026: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 45 Cases
- Search every case in Military Trial Results (members)
Military Judges Who Presided Over Cases at Fort Leonard Wood, 2021–2023
Names and links only. Each judge's record of pleas, findings, and sentences is on their Know Your Judge page, part of the Court-Martial Characters membership.
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.