Article 120 Cases at Mayport, Florida, 2013–2017: 21 Courts-Martial

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Based on 21 cases · 2013–2017 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Almost Every Conviction Included a Punitive Discharge

Mayport's Article 120 cases ended in 15 convictions, all of enlisted members. Of those 15, 14 included a punitive discharge: 10 dishonorable discharges and 4 bad-conduct discharges. That share, 93%, was higher than the 81% across the Navy and Marine Corps as a whole.

A dishonorable discharge is the most severe discharge a court-martial can give an enlisted member. Only a general court-martial can impose it. An administrative separation may follow any sentence, but those actions are not in these records.

6 of 12 Contested Cases Ended in Full Acquittal

A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. Of 12 contested cases that reached a verdict here, 6 ended in a full acquittal (50%). That is lower than the 54% across Navy and Marine Corps Article 120 cases overall.

Another 2 contested cases (17%) ended in a partial acquittal: not guilty of at least one charge or specification, and guilty of another. With 12 cases, 1 verdict going the other way would change the rate noticeably.

More Guilty Pleas Than the Service as a Whole

Of the 21 accused, 9 pleaded guilty and 12 contested the charges. The contested share was 57%, lower than the 68% for Article 120 cases in the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps. A larger share of cases at Mayport ended in a guilty plea.

The records do not show plea terms. They cannot show what, if anything, an accused received in return for pleading guilty. Every case here has a plea on record, which is not always true of older Navy and Marine Corps data. The contested share is based on all 21 cases.

Confinement Measured in Years

Confinement was part of 14 of the 15 convictions. The median confinement was 2.5 years, a little shorter than the 2.7 years across Navy and Marine Corps-wide Article 120 cases. A quarter of the confinement sentences were 5 years or longer.

These are adjudged sentences, set at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each sentence covers every charge in the case. A sentence in a case that also included an assault or attempt charge covers the whole case, not the Article 120 charge alone.

Almost All General Courts-Martial

General courts-martial tried 20 of the 21 cases (95%), compared with 86% across the Navy and Marine Corps. 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 cannot impose a dishonorable discharge.

The accused were 9 junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4), 10 NCOs (E-5 to E-9), and 2 officers or warrant officers. That group was more senior than the Navy and Marine Corps as a whole, where 48% of the accused were junior enlisted. All 15 convictions were of enlisted members, so no officer dismissals appear in these cases.

Assault Was the Most Common Additional Charge

Article 120 was the only charge in 6 of the 21 cases. Across all Navy and Marine Corps Article 120 cases, 50 of 349 charged it alone. At Mayport, Article 128 (assault) appeared in 12 cases. Article 80 (attempt), Article 120c (indecent recording and exposure), and Article 86 (AWOL) each appeared in 2. Article 114 (dueling) appeared in 1.

Cases by Year

The cases were tried between September 2013 and September 2017: 4 in 2013, 6 in 2014, 3 in 2015, 5 in 2016, and 3 in 2017. They were 24% of the 88 courts-martial at Mayport, Florida in those years.

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

Article 120 was rewritten in 2012 and amended again for offenses on or after January 1, 2019. Each case is charged under the version in force when the offense happened.

What the Records Do Not Show

Trial records list the charges, pleas, findings, and sentences. They do not include the evidence, the terms of any plea agreement, or allegations handled without a court-martial. Navy and Marine Corps records from before December 2020 often omit the plea and forum, and counts that depend on them use only the records that list them.

For what the offense covers and how it is defended, see Article 120 on the law firm's website. Dates and sources for the law changes: UCMJ change timeline.

Compare: federal court. Sexual Abuse of an Adult: Federal Cases vs. Article 120 Courts-Martial

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.