Fewer or More? Property Damage Charges at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial, 2017–2025

Trends › By Offense › Article 109 › Navy-Marine Corps

Based on 45 cases · 2017–2025 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Property Damage Was Rarely the Only Charge

In 43 of the 45 cases, at least one other article was charged with Article 109. Assault under Article 128 was the most common additional charge, in 21 cases. Article 121 (larceny) appeared in 11, Article 92 (orders violation) in 10, Article 134 (the general article) in 6, and Article 81 (conspiracy) in 5.

Each sentence covers every charge in the case. A long sentence here may include an assault or larceny conviction as well as the property damage.

Longer Confinement Than the Service as a Whole

Of 41 convictions, 36 included confinement. The median confinement was 11 months, longer than the 6 months in the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps. A quarter of the confinement sentences were 2.1 years or longer.

Most of the difference was in the middle band. Sentences of 6 months to 1 year were 32% of convictions, compared with 22% across both services. Sentences under 6 months were 27%, compared with 35%. Sentences longer than one year were 12 of 41 convictions (29%), compared with 25% overall. That includes 4 sentences of 5 years or more.

These are adjudged sentences, set at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal.

General and Special Courts-Martial

Only a general court-martial can adjudge more than one year of confinement or a dishonorable discharge. A special court-martial is capped at one year. Here, 18 cases were general courts-martial and 27 were special courts-martial. The general court-martial share was 40%, compared with 43% across both services.

General courts-martial had a median confinement of 2.2 years, and 54% of their cases were contested. Special courts-martial had a median of 6 months, and 31% were contested.

Pleas and Verdicts

Only 29 of the 45 records list a plea, because Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often leave it out. Of those, 12 were contested, meaning a not-guilty plea to at least one charge, and 17 were guilty pleas. The contested share was 41%, compared with 32% service-wide.

Of the 12 contested cases with a verdict, 4 ended in a full acquittal (33%) and 4 in a partial acquittal (33%). A partial acquittal means not guilty of at least one charge or specification but guilty of another. The full acquittal rate is about the same as the 31% across the Navy and Marine Corps.

Punitive Discharges About the Same as Overall

A punitive discharge followed 63% of enlisted convictions: 20 bad-conduct and 6 dishonorable discharges. That is about the same as the 62% across both services. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.

Few Cases in Recent Years

The cases were tried from April 2017 to September 2025: 8 in 2017, 8 in 2018, 1 in 2019, 9 in 2020, 7 in 2021, 4 in 2022, 4 in 2023, 1 in 2024, and 3 in 2025. They are 1% of the 3,740 Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial in those years.

Convictions that included Article 109 were highest in 2020, at 9, a 3% share of convictions with offenses listed. In 2017–2019, the offense was part of 15 of 1,243 convictions (1%). In 2023–2025, it was part of 7 of 940 (1%), about the same share. With yearly counts this small, the numbers can change a great deal from one year to the next.

Rank and Installations

Every accused was enlisted: 37 junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) and 8 NCOs (E-5 to E-9). The group is more junior than the Navy and Marine Corps overall, where 63% were junior enlisted.

Camp Pendleton, California had 8 cases. Camp Lejeune, North Carolina had 6, Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay had 5, and Okinawa, Japan, and Yokosuka, Japan had 3 each. Those 5 installations account for 56% of the 45 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.

Law Changes and Missing Information

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, set fixed panel sizes, and introduced written plea agreements. Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel decide whether to prosecute covered offenses such as sexual assault, domestic violence, and murder. When every guilty finding is for an offense after December 27, 2023, the military judge sets the sentence within new parameters. Each rule depends on the offense date, which these records do not give.

Cases closed through nonjudicial punishment, administrative separation, or no action are not included. The records do not describe the evidence or the 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.