Navy-Marine Corps Property Damage Cases Against Junior Enlisted (E-1 to E-4): Outcomes and Sentences

Trends › By Offense › Article 109 › Junior Enlisted (E-1 to E-4)

Based on 37 cases · 2017–2025 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Property Damage Was Almost Never the Only Charge

Article 109 was the only charge in 2 of the 37 cases, compared with 2 of 45 across all Navy and Marine Corps Article 109 cases. In almost every case here, the property charge was 1 charge among several.

Article 128 (assault) appeared in 16 cases, Article 121 (larceny) in 10, Article 92 (orders violation) in 7, Article 134 (general article) in 5, and Article 81 (conspiracy) in 4. A sentence covers every charge in the case, so the results below include these other offenses as well as the property damage.

Punitive Discharges Were More Common

For enlisted members, a punitive discharge is a bad-conduct discharge or a dishonorable discharge. Of 34 convicted junior enlisted members, 25 received one (74%). Of those 25, 6 were dishonorable discharges. Across all Navy and Marine Corps Article 109 cases, the share was 63%.

A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation. Those separations are not in these records.

How Much Confinement?

Confinement was part of 88% of the 34 convictions. The median confinement was 11 months, the same as the 11 months median across all Navy and Marine Corps Article 109 cases. A quarter of the confinement sentences were 2.2 years or longer.

Sentences longer than one year were 10 of 34 convictions (29%), the same 29% as across the wider group. The sentence bands were similar to the comparison group. In both, 12% of convictions included no confinement. These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal.

Sentences by Court Level

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. General courts-martial were 43% of these cases (16 of 37), and special courts-martial heard 21.

At general courts-martial, 93% of convictions included confinement, with a median of 2.5 years. At special courts-martial, 85% did, with a median of 6 months.

Pleas Where the Records Show Them

Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often leave out the plea. Only 24 of 37 records list one here. Of those, 16 were guilty pleas and 8 were not-guilty or mixed pleas, meaning the accused pleaded not guilty to at least one charge. The contested share was 33%, compared with 41% across all Navy and Marine Corps Article 109 cases.

With so few recorded pleas, a small number of cases can change this percentage. The records also do not show whether any plea came with an agreement.

Rank of the Accused

Every accused here was a junior enlisted member. Across all Navy and Marine Corps Article 109 cases, junior enlisted members were 82% of the accused.

There were no NCOs or officers in this group. For that reason, no officer dismissals appear, and every punitive discharge counted here is a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge.

Cases by Year and Installation

The 37 cases were tried from April 2017 to September 2025. There were 7 in 2017, 7 in 2018, 0 in 2019, 5 in 2020, 7 in 2021, 4 in 2022, 4 in 2023, 0 in 2024, and 3 in 2025.

Camp Pendleton, California had 7 cases. Camp Lejeune, North Carolina had 5, Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay had 4, and Okinawa, Japan and Yokosuka, Japan had 3 each. These 5 installations account for 59% of the 37 cases. Larger installations try more cases of every kind, so a high count alone does not mean a base has a problem with this offense.

Rule Changes in These Years

The Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. It set fixed panel sizes, created judge-alone special courts-martial capped at six months with no punitive discharge, and introduced written plea agreements. Cases with offenses from before 2019 kept the old rules. Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel decide whether to prosecute covered offenses such as sexual assault. Judges sentence within new parameters when every guilty finding is for an offense after December 27, 2023.

The records give trial dates, not offense dates, so they cannot sort cases by which rules applied. They also do not include nonjudicial punishment, administrative separations, the evidence, or plea terms.

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.