How San Diego, California Handled Assault Cases (Article 128), 2019–2023

Trends › By Installation › San Diego, California › Article 128, 2019–2023

Based on 47 cases · 2019–2023 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Full Acquittals Were More Common Than in the Rest of the Service

A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge, with a full not-guilty plea or a mixed plea. Of the 19 contested assault cases at San Diego that reached a verdict, 12 ended in a full acquittal. That rate is 63%.

Across all Navy and Marine Corps Article 128 cases in the same years, the full-acquittal rate was 49%. Another 2 San Diego cases (11%) ended in a partial acquittal: the accused was found not guilty of at least one charge or specification but guilty of another. There were only 19 contested cases, so a few verdicts can change these percentages.

How Often Were Cases Contested?

There were 28 guilty pleas and 19 contested cases. The contested share was 40%, the same as the 40% in all Navy and Marine Corps Article 128 cases from 2019 through 2023.

Older records do not always list the plea. Navy and Marine Corps records from before December 2020 often omit it, and the counts here use only the records that list one.

Most Cases Charged Other Articles Too

Only 17 of the 47 cases charged Article 128 with no other article. Service-wide, 194 of 574 Article 128 cases charged assault alone.

The most common other charge was Article 120 (sexual assault), in 20 cases. Article 80 (attempt) was charged in 5, Article 86 (AWOL) in 4, Article 131b (obstruction) in 3, and Article 92 (orders violation) in 3. When assault is charged with sexual assault or domestic violence, the assault charge can describe part of the same incident. The sentence then covers the whole case, not only the assault.

Confinement After a Conviction

The 47 cases produced 35 convictions, and 77% of them included confinement. The median confinement was 6 months, the same as the 6 months median in the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps. A quarter of the San Diego confinement sentences were 1.9 years or longer.

All of these figures are adjudged sentences. They are the sentences announced at trial, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each covers every charge in the case, not only the assault.

Sentences Longer Than One Year

Sentences longer than one year were about as common as service-wide: 8 of 35 convictions, or 23%, compared with 24% Navy and Marine Corps-wide. The table shows every sentence length, from no confinement to 5 years or more.

The 2 court levels had different results. Only a general court-martial can impose more than one year of confinement. A special court-martial is capped at one year. San Diego had 29 general courts-martial in this group, and 78% of their convictions included confinement, with a median of 1.7 years. The 18 special courts-martial included confinement in 76% of convictions, with a median of 5 months.

Punitive Discharges Were Less Common Than the Service Rate

For an enlisted member, a punitive discharge is a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge. For an officer, it is a dismissal. Of 33 convicted enlisted members, 18 received a punitive discharge: 10 bad-conduct discharges and 8 dishonorable discharges. Across Navy and Marine Corps Article 128 cases, the rate was 61%.

1 convicted officer or warrant officer appears in the group, and that sentence did not include a dismissal. A sentence without a punitive discharge can still be followed by an administrative separation, which these records do not track.

Rank and Court Level

Most of the accused were junior enlisted: 31 junior enlisted members, 14 NCOs, and 1 officer. The group is more junior than in Article 128 cases across the Navy and Marine Corps in the same years.

General courts-martial, which can impose long confinement and a dishonorable discharge, were 62% of the cases (29 of 47). Special courts-martial were the rest.

Cases by Year

Cases were tried from January 2019 through December 2023. By year, there were 12 in 2019, 8 in 2020, 10 in 2021, 5 in 2022, and 12 in 2023. Assault cases were 27% of the 173 courts-martial at San Diego in those years.

These counts are by trial date. The records do not show when the conduct in any case took place, so a case tried in one year may concern conduct from an earlier year.

What the Records Cannot Show

The records list trial dates, not the dates of the alleged conduct. They do not show the evidence or the terms of any plea agreement. They also do not include assaults handled through nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation instead of a court-martial.

For what the offense covers and how it is defended, see Article 128 on the law firm's website. Dates and sources for the law changes: UCMJ change timeline.

Compare: federal court. Aggravated Assault: Federal Sentences vs. Article 128 Courts-Martial, 2016–2025

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.