> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.bodiesburied.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Guilty Pleas in Navy-Marine Corps Property Damage Cases: How Often, and What Came Next - URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-article-109-plea-2017-2025/ - Published: 2026-10-30T08:05:10.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-30T08:05:10.000Z - Description: In 17 Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial from 2017–2025 where the accused pleaded guilty to charges including Article 109 (property damage), the median confinement was 11 months, compared with 6 months for all Navy and Marine Corps guilty pleas in those years. - Author: Jocelyn C. Stewart - Tags: Understanding Trends, Article 109, Navy-Marine Corps [Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/) › [By Offense](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/by-offense/) › [Article 109](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/article-109-courts-martial/) › Guilty Pleas in Navy-Marine Corps Proper **Short answer:** In 17 Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial from 2017–2025 where the accused pleaded guilty to charges including Article 109 (property damage), the median confinement was 11 months, compared with 6 months for all Navy and Marine Corps guilty pleas in those years. 14 of 17 convicted enlisted members received a punitive discharge, compared with 60% service-wide. Based on 17 cases · 2017–2025 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026 ## Assault Was Charged in 9 of 17 Cases Article 109 was the only charge in 1 of the 17 cases. Article 128 (assault) appeared alongside it in 9 cases. Article 134 (general article) appeared in 4. Article 114 (dueling before 2019; endangerment since), Article 81 (conspiracy), and Article 128b (domestic violence, numbered since 2019) each appeared in 3\. The sentences below cover every charge in each case, so they reflect these companion charges as well. ## Confinement Was Longer Than Service-Wide Confinement was part of 94% of the 17 convictions. The median confinement was 11 months, compared with 6 months for all Navy and Marine Corps guilty pleas in those years. Among the sentences with confinement, a quarter were 1.2 years or longer. These are adjudged sentences, as announced at trial and before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. ## Punitive Discharges 14 of 17 convicted enlisted members received a punitive discharge: 12 bad-conduct discharges and 2 dishonorable discharges. For all Navy and Marine Corps guilty pleas in those years, the share was 60%. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation. ## Almost All Junior Enlisted Junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) made up 94% of the accused, NCOs 6%, and officers 0%. Across all Navy and Marine Corps guilty pleas in those years, junior enlisted members were 65%. 6 of the 17 cases were general courts-martial (35%), about the same as the 37% service-wide. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge. ## Cases from 2017 to 2025 The trials ran from May 2017 to September 2025\. The records show 1 in 2017, 2 in 2018, 0 in 2019, 3 in 2020, 6 in 2021, 1 in 2022, 3 in 2023, 0 in 2024, and 1 in 2025\. Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit the plea, so guilty pleas from those years may be undercounted. ## Old Rules and New Rules This group includes trials before and after January 1, 2019, when the Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect. That law set fixed panel sizes, brought in written plea agreements, and created judge-alone special courts-martial capped at six months with no punitive discharge. Cases with offenses from before 2019 kept the old rules. Late 2023 added more changes, each keyed to the offense date: special trial counsel began deciding on December 28, 2023, whether to prosecute covered offenses such as sexual assault, domestic violence, and murder, and judge sentencing within new parameters began for findings based only on offenses after December 27, 2023. ## Limits The records do not describe the evidence or the plea terms, and they do not include misconduct handled by nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation. Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: [UCMJ change timeline](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/ucmj-change-timeline/). ### How We Counted Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial tried 2017–2025: where the accused pleaded guilty to charges including Article 109 (property damage) (17 cases), compared with all Navy and Marine Corps guilty pleas in those years. Source: public court-martial records (Article 140a, UCMJ) in [Military Trial Results](https://www.bodiesburied.com/military-trial-results/), data updated October 24, 2026\. Definitions, sources, and known gaps: [how this data was built](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/how-the-military-trial-results-data-was-built/). Errors: content@bodiesburied.com. ## Related Analysis - [Article 109 (Property Other Than Military; Waste, Spoilage, Destruction): Court-Martial Data and Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/article-109-courts-martial/) (hub) - [Sentences](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/sentences/) (hub) - [Fewer or More? Property Damage Charges at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial, 2017–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-article-109-trend-2017-2025/) - [What Sentence Follows a Navy-Marine Corps Property Damage Conviction?](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-article-109-sent-2017-2025/) - [When Army Accused Plead Guilty to Property Damage](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-109-plea-2021-2025/) (another service) - [Pleading Guilty to Article 109 in the Air Force: What Sentences Followed?](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-article-109-plea-2016-2025/) (another service) - [Guilty Pleas in Navy-Marine Corps AWOL Cases: How Often, and What Came Next](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-article-86-plea-2017-2025/) - [Search every case in Military Trial Results](https://www.bodiesburied.com/military-trial-results/) (members) **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](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/?ref=bodiesburied.com). This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.