30 AWOL Courts-Martial at San Diego, California, 2013–2017: What the Records Show

Trends › By Installation › San Diego, California › Article 86, 2013–2017

Based on 30 cases · 2013–2017 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Drug Charges Were Common in AWOL Cases

Most of these cases charged more than absence without leave. Only 4 of the 30 charged Article 86 alone. Across all Navy and Marine Corps Article 86 cases, 21 of 119 charged it alone.

The most common other charge was Article 112a (drug), in 21 of the San Diego cases. Article 87 (missing movement), Article 92 (orders violation), and Article 121 (larceny) were charged in 4 each, and Article 107 (false official statement) in 3. A sentence covers every charge in a case. The confinement and discharge figures below therefore cover all the charges, not the absence alone.

Almost Every Case Was a Guilty Plea

Of the 30 accused, 29 pleaded guilty. 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. Only 1 case here was contested.

The 3% contested share was about the same as the 5% across all Navy and Marine Corps Article 86 cases from 2013 through 2017. Navy and Marine Corps records from before December 2020 often omit the plea, so these counts use only records that list one. With 1 contested case, the group is too small to give an acquittal rate.

Most Confinement Was Short

All 30 cases ended in a conviction on at least one charge, and 29 of those sentences included confinement (97%). The median confinement was 4 months, the same as the 4 months median in the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps. A quarter of the San Diego confinement sentences were 6 months or longer.

These are adjudged sentences, set at trial. They come before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, so the time actually served can be different.

Sentence Lengths

Most sentences were under 6 months: 19 convictions, or 63%, compared with 66% service-wide. Another 9 convictions (30%) carried 6 months to 1 year, a larger share than the 22% across Navy and Marine Corps Article 86 cases.

Long sentences were uncommon. Only 1 of 30 convictions here was longer than one year (3%), compared with 8% across the service. No sentence was 5 years or longer. Only a general court-martial can impose more than one year of confinement. A special court-martial is capped at one year.

Bad-Conduct Discharges Only

For an enlisted member, a punitive discharge is a bad-conduct discharge or a dishonorable discharge. At San Diego, 59% of enlisted convictions included one, the same as the 59% in the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps.

All 17 of those discharges were bad-conduct discharges, and 0 were dishonorable. Only a general court-martial can impose a dishonorable discharge. The 1 convicted officer or warrant officer in the group was not dismissed. Dismissal is the officer equivalent of a punitive discharge.

A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out separation. The command can still seek an administrative separation, which these court-martial records do not include.

Who Was Charged?

Most of the accused were junior enlisted members: 24 of the 30. There were 5 NCOs and 1 officer. That rank mix is similar to Navy and Marine Corps-wide Article 86 cases in the same years.

Cases by Year

The records show these 30 cases tried between January 2013 and July 2017. There were 5 in 2013, 10 in 2014, 9 in 2015, 4 in 2016, and 2 in 2017. The most cases were in 2014 and 2015. Article 86 cases were 12% of the 249 courts-martial at San Diego, California in that period.

All of these trials came before the Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. That law set fixed panel sizes, created judge-alone special courts-martial capped at six months with no punitive discharge, and introduced written plea agreements. None of those changes applied to these cases.

What the Records Cannot Show

The data covers charges, pleas, findings, and sentences. It does not show how long an absence lasted, the evidence, or the terms of any plea agreement. It also does not include absences handled through nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation without a court-martial.

For what the offense covers and how it is defended, see Article 86 on the law firm's website. Dates and sources for the law changes: 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.