Marcus Schrenker Bailed Out Of A Plane Over Alabama To Fake His Own Death

The former Indiana money manager who bailed out of a plane which later crashed in Florida has agreed to plead guilty to fraud charges in his home state.

Marcus Schrenker reportedly will plead guilty to five of the 11 charges filed against him for bilking family and friends out of more than $1 million. His attorney told The Indianapolis Star Schrenker will plead guilty in an effort to put the episode behind him.

Schrenker faces 10 years in prison and over $600,000 in restitution to his victims, according to the Associated Press. A judge in Hamilton County Superior Court in Indiana must still accept the plea agreement. That hearing is set for September 15th.

Still to be decided is whether the sentence will run concurrently with a four-year prison term imposed on Schrenker for setting the autopilot on his airplane and abandoning it over Alabama, allowing it to crash in the Florida panhandle in an attempt to fake his own death. While Schrenker's attorneys say the fraud conviction should not add 10 years on to the previous term, Jeff Wehmueller, administrative chief deputy prosecutor in Hamilton County, said Thursday that there is a "solid legal argument" for the sentences to be imposed consecutively.

FMI: www.in.gov/judiciary/hamilton/