Schrenker Headed To Prison

An Indiana money manager who crashed his airplane in the Florida panhandle is headed to federal prison.

Marcus Schrenker, 38, was sentenced Wednesday to 51 months for lying to air traffic controllers and intentionally crashing his plane in a botched attempt to fake his own death.

According to an investigator who testified during Wednesday's sentencing hearing, Schrenker made a false distress call January 11 claiming he was experiencing moderate to severe turbulence, then put the plane on auto-pilot and parachuted out near Birmingham.

The airplane, a single-engine Piper Malibu registered in his wife's name, crashed 130 yards from an East Milton neighborhood.

"This case is so unusual and bizarre," Schrenker's attorney told Judge Roger Vinson, while arguing over what sentencing guidelines should be applied.

Schrenker made a tearful plea telling the judge he suffers from bipolar disorder and "snapped."

A mental health counselor who treated Schrenker in Indiana testified Schrenker's wife recently filed for divorce, he was facing a fraud investigation involving his company and he buried his step-father just days before the crash.

"Every inch of my skin was on fire," said Schrenker, as he described how he was feeling when he last visited the counselor. "I was melting down."

Schrenker, in a rambling and emotional speech, talked about his three children and his estranged wife, though he never mentioned the mistress who investigators say he arranged to meet in Key West in the weeks after the crash.

In addition to the prison time, Vinson ordered Schrenker to pay $956,387 in restitution and participate in drug and mental health counseling.