What Sentence Follows a Navy-Marine Corps Property Damage Conviction?

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Based on 41 cases · 2017–2025 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Longer Confinement in Property Damage Convictions

This post covers only convictions: Navy and Marine Corps cases from 2017–2025 that ended in a guilty finding on at least one charge and included Article 109. Article 109 covers wasting, spoiling, destroying, or damaging property. The comparison group is every Navy and Marine Corps conviction in the same years.

Of 41 convictions, 36 included confinement. The median confinement was 11 months, longer than the 6 months for all convictions. A quarter of the confinement sentences were 2.1 years or longer. These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and they cover every charge in the case.

Property Damage Was Almost Never the Only Charge

In 39 of the 41 cases, at least one other article was charged. Article 128 (assault) appeared in 18, Article 121 (larceny) in 11, Article 92 (orders violation) in 10, Article 134 (general article) in 6, and Article 81 (conspiracy) in 5.

A property damage charge filed with an assault or theft charge is sentenced together with it. The records do not divide a sentence among charges. The longer confinement here describes these cases as a whole, not property damage alone.

Sentence Bands

Sentences longer than one year were more common than for all Navy and Marine Corps convictions: 12 of 41 (29%), compared with 25%. The largest difference was in the band from 6 months to 1 year. That band held 32% of these convictions, compared with 22%. Sentences under 6 months were less common: 27%, compared with 35%.

Fewer convictions included no confinement: 12% here, compared with 18% across the services. At the high end, 10% were 5 years or more, compared with 7%.

Results by Court Level

There were 16 general and 25 special courts-martial. The general court-martial share, 39%, was about the same as the 41% for all Navy and Marine Corps convictions. A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge.

At general courts-martial, 94% of convictions included confinement, with a median of 2.2 years. At special courts-martial, 84% did, with a median of 6 months.

More Cases Were Contested

Only 25 of the 41 records list a plea. Of those, 17 accused pleaded guilty and 8 contested at least one charge with a not-guilty or mixed plea. The contested share was 32%, higher than the 24% for all Navy and Marine Corps convictions.

Every case here ended in a conviction. For that reason, these records cannot show how often contested property damage cases ended in a full acquittal.

Punitive Discharges for a Junior Group

All of the convicted members were enlisted: 34 junior enlisted members and 7 NCOs, with no officers. The group is more junior than all Navy and Marine Corps convictions in those years.

Of the 41 convicted enlisted members, 26 received a punitive discharge: 20 bad-conduct and 6 dishonorable. Across all Navy and Marine Corps convictions, the share was 62%, about the same. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.

Where and When

Camp Pendleton, California had the most cases (8). Next were Camp Lejeune, North Carolina (6), Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay (5), and Okinawa, Japan and Yokosuka, Japan (3 each). Together these 5 installations account for 61% of the total. Larger installations try more cases of every kind.

The cases were tried from April 2017 through September 2025: 7 in 2017, 8 in 2018, 0 in 2019, 9 in 2020, 7 in 2021, 3 in 2022, 4 in 2023, 1 in 2024, and 2 in 2025.

Rules and Record Limits

The Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. It created judge-alone special courts-martial capped at six months with no punitive discharge and introduced written plea agreements. Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel decide whether to prosecute covered offenses. New sentencing parameters apply when every guilty finding is for an offense after December 27, 2023. These rules depend on offense dates, which the records do not give.

Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit the plea and forum, so the plea counts use only records that list one. Cases resolved by nonjudicial punishment, administrative separation, or no action are not in the records. The records do not describe 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.