San Diego, California in 2024: 58 Courts-Martial, Year in Review

Trends › By Installation › San Diego, California › 2024

Based on 58 cases · 2024 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Median Confinement Was Longer

Of 51 convictions, 75% included confinement. The median confinement was 8 months, compared with a 5-month median for the Navy and Marine Corps as a whole. A quarter of confinement sentences were 1.5 years or longer. These are adjudged sentences, the sentence announced at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal.

The largest difference was in the longest sentences. Sentences of 5 years or more were 12% of convictions here, compared with 7% service-wide. Confinement of 6 months to 1 year was 20%, compared with 15%. Overall, 12 of 51 convictions (24%) were longer than one year, about the same as the 22% elsewhere. 25% of convictions had no confinement, the same as the service.

The General Article Was the Most Common Charge

All 58 records list the charges. Article 134, the general article, was charged in 15 cases (26%), compared with 22% in the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps. Orders violations under Article 92 and drug cases under Article 112a were next, with 10 cases each. Both were close to the service figures.

Article 120b (rape and sexual assault of a child) was charged in 10% of cases, compared with 5%. Willfully disobeying a superior officer under Article 90 was 7%, compared with 4%. Domestic violence under Article 128b was less common, at 7% compared with 13%. Assault under Article 128 was 14%, compared with 16%.

How Contested Cases Ended

Pleas are recorded in 57 of the 58 cases: 37 guilty pleas and 20 contested cases. A contested case has a not-guilty or mixed plea to at least one charge. The contested share of 35% was about the same as the 34% for the whole Navy and Marine Corps docket.

Of the 20 contested cases that reached a verdict, 7 ended in a full acquittal, meaning not guilty of every charge. 2 ended in a partial acquittal, where the accused was acquitted of some charges and convicted of others. The 35% full-acquittal rate was higher than the 27% service-wide.

Convictions and Guilty Pleas by Charge

Every Article 92 case ended in a conviction on that article (10 of 10), with a median confinement of 4 months. Article 134 cases ended in a conviction on that article in 14 of 15 (93%), with a median of 11 months. Drug cases did in 8 of 10 (80%), with a median of 10 months. Assault cases did in 6 of 8, with a median of 6 months. The rows overlap, since one case can include convictions and acquittals on different articles.

Guilty plea rates were also different. Drug cases ended in a guilty plea 80% of the time (8 of 10), the highest among the top charges. Article 92 cases ended in a guilty plea 60% of the time (6 of 10). The records do not say why any accused pleaded guilty.

Special and General Courts-Martial Had Different Results

General courts-martial tried 22 of the 58 cases (38%), the same share as the whole Navy and Marine Corps docket. At general courts-martial, 95% of convictions included confinement, with a median of 1.5 years. At special courts-martial, which are capped at one year, 61% of convictions included confinement, with a median of 48 days.

By rank, 30 of the accused were junior enlisted (E-1 to E-4) and 27 were NCOs (E-5 to E-9). That mix is more senior than the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps, where 58% were junior enlisted.

Punitive Discharges After Conviction

Of 50 convicted enlisted members, 27 received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge (54%). Of those, 14 were dishonorable discharges. Navy and Marine Corps-wide, the rate was 58%. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out an administrative separation later.

More Cases Than 2023

The number of cases went from 31 to 58. The contested share was about the same: 37% and then 35%. Full acquittals went from 5 of 11 to 7 of 20. Median confinement went from 6 months to 8 months. The share of general courts-martial went from 65% to 38%. Enlisted punitive discharges went from 62% to 54%. These are small groups, so the changes show direction, not precise size.

Camp Pendleton, California tried 50 cases, 24% were contested, and its median confinement was 4 months. Camp Lejeune, North Carolina tried 44 cases, 21% were contested, its median confinement was 1 year, and its enlisted punitive discharge rate was 70%.

New Rules and What the Records Cannot Show

Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel, not commanders, 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 under new sentencing parameters. Both rules depend on the offense date, which the records do not give. The 2024 cases therefore mix old-rule and new-rule cases. The records cannot show whether the rules changed any figure here.

The records also do not include nonjudicial punishment, administrative separations, 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.