Two Tyndall Airmen sentenced in courts martial for cocaine use

  • Published
  • By Capt. Ezra Glanzer
  • Base Legal Office
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  Two Airmen assigned here pled guilty to violating Article 112a of the Uniform Code of Military Justice before a military judge and admitted to using cocaine in June, although their cases were unrelated.

Senior Airman William Coe, 325th Maintenance Squadron, was convicted of one specification of wrongful use of cocaine Oct. 17 in a special court-martial held here. Nov. 7, Staff Sgt. Jason Borrero, 325th Contracting Squadron, was convicted in a court martial of the same offense.

"Although these sentences look a lot different, military judges look at more than just the charges against Airmen," said Capt. Rosemary Gilliam, Base Legal Office assistant staff judge advocate. "They consider all the evidence in making a sentencing determination, as opposed to using a 'cookie cutter' approach. These Airmen's convictions show that the random urinalysis program makes it difficult to get away with illegal drug use in the Air Force."

After testing positive in a random urinalysis test, Airman Coe admitted to snorting one line of cocaine with a girl he had met in Panama City. After reviewing documentary evidence and hearing arguments from both the government and the defense counsel, the judge returned a sentence of one month confinement, reduction to E-1, forfeiture of $849 per month for one month, a fine of $250, and to serve three months additional confinement if the fine is not paid, and a reprimand.

The former Staff Sergeant also tested positive in a random urinalysis test and admitted buying three and one-half grams of cocaine from a dealer in Panama City, then snorting it.

After reviewing documentary evidence, hearing from a witness and hearing arguments from the government and defense counsel, the military judge in Sergeant Borrero's case returned a sentence of two months confinement, a bad-conduct discharge, forfeiture of two-thirds pay for two months and reduction to E-3.

This year, there have been 344 convictions in the Air Force for drug use, to include 89 convictions in Air Education and Training Command and seven convictions at Tyndall.
These numbers illustrate the effectiveness of the Air Force urinalysis program and the fact that wrongful drug use will not be tolerated in the military. Airman Coe and Sergeant Borrero were the sixth and seventh individuals at Tyndall to be convicted and sentenced to jail based on a positive urinalysis test this year.