About Court Martials

When this whole process started I tried to find out everything that I could about court martials and what to expect. I found very basic information but nothing to really help me know what to expect. So let me see if I can detail a bit of what it was like. Hopefully this will help someone who was in our same situation.
First, M plead guilty and had a plea deal with prosecution, so we did not have a full trial with witness', we had a judge only. His was a Summary Court Martial with a military judge presiding.
Because it was a guilty plea the judge had to determine that M knew he was guilty and that he was actually guilty.
The judge had M read from the Statement of Fact, after he read each section silently he would look us at the judge and the judge would confirm that he understood what he read and that he admitted to it. ( The lawyers said that he would have to read this outloud which is why they did not want us in the room to hear it. This judge obviously saw us sitting in the room and decided that was not necessary.) The judge gave definitions and asked M if he agreed with them and understood them and had M state how he had broken the law.
This was a very long process. After it was finished the judge accepted the guilty plea and we went into the sentencing phase.
The prosecution wanted a Statement of Intent read into the court records. Our lawyers objected as it was already in evidence and it did not need to be read out loud. The prosecution won that battle. The Statement of Intent was from the investigator and contained evidence that our lawyers had gotten removed from the Statement of Fact as images and videos that M had never looked at but were downloaded when he synced up with Dropbox. This was read into the transcript, I believe the prosecutor wanted us, the family, to hear it whether all of it was true or not.
I admit it was horrifying. That people look at that stuff is terrible. However because M was adamant that he did not look at or have any interest in the most damning of the images we are a bit reassured. A bit.
Our character witness' were next. Most were done by phone call. He had two witness' from the military, a Staff Sergeant and a Master Sergeant. After our lawyers questioned the witness' the prosecution did and she was vicious, bringing up evidence from the Statement of Intent which were not really fact. Our lawyers objected and overruled until she kept going at it and the judge said that's enough. The next witness was one of M's Boy Scout leaders and then my husband, his Dad. The did not cross examine my husband, the lawyers said it was bad form to cross family members.
Our lawyers submitted character letters and photos and commendations after the witness'. Then M had a statement that he had written asking for forgiveness and expressing regret and apologizing to anyone he may have hurt.
Then it was time for final statements. The prosecution went first, she said a few things that were objected to, then our guy went. This went back and forth a couple of times.
And then it was over. The judge called for deliberations and we were at rest.
It was already 3 o'clock at this point but they wanted to finish it all that day so they decided to call a recess instead of starting again in the morning.
This waiting...it was really really hard.
We went to get food but no one could really eat. We went back and waited in a conference room until they called us back into the courtroom. It was 3 hours later.
The sentencing was very short, probably 15 minutes. The judge had everyone stand and pronounced a sentence of 4 years, a reduction in rank to E1, the Registry and dishonorable discharge. The plea deal was for 3 years so it was reduced to that. And then it was over.
Our lawyers immediately grabbed us all together in the conference room so that we could have time together and so that M could sign final papers. (The prosecution had told us we would not have time together afterwards) This was when the lawyers told us about time off for good behavior and for counseling etc. So in reality he could potentially only be confined for 2 years.
This time after was so important for us. Hubby had to go back to M's apartment to get civilian clothes for the state prison since they had not told him to bring any and they did not want him going to state prison as military. So we had longer than we thought. We had time to talk, he had time to call his older brother who could not be there. And we had a chance to hug and cry and breath.
We were told that he would be shackled and taken away. Fortunately they did not shackle him when they took him away. It may be because he was security forces and everyone knew him. But I am grateful.
Then we all went back to M's apartment and finished off his alcohol.