NOBLESVILLE, Ind., Oct. 7 (UPI) -- A man previously sentenced in federal court has been sentenced to 10 years in Indiana state prison for trying to fake his death in a plane crash in Florida.
Marcus Schrenker, 39, a McCordsville, Ind., investment adviser, was ordered to serve the state prison sentence consecutively with a 51-month federal prison term he was sentenced to in August 2009 for staging the Jan. 11, 2009, plane crash, The Indianapolis Star reported Thursday.
He was also ordered to pay restitution to victims. Schrenker was fined more than $900,000 in federal court as restitution for the plane and the fake distress call to the U.S. Coast Guard.
Schrenker pleaded guilty in September to five state felony security fraud charges as part of a plea deal under which prosecutors agreed to drop two other felony charges.
He had been involved in a case of alleged fraud when he took off alone in a Piper PA46 from Anderson, Ind., bound for Destin, Fla. He was flying over Alabama when he told air traffic controllers his windshield had imploded, he was hurt and did not think he would make it.
Schrenker said he jumped from the plane near Childersburg, Ala. Two F-15 fighter jets, scrambled to find him, reported spotting the plane still in the air but apparently with no one aboard.
Federal officers, aided by documents in the plane, later arrested Schrenker at a campground site.
