Date: 1/24/2009
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — An Indiana financial adviser accused of trying to fake his death in a plane crash said he’s been under psychiatric care and claims not to recall the events of the day he bailed out, a newspaper reported Friday.
Marcus Schrenker called The New York Post from the Escambia County Jail on Wednesday night and Thursday night and told the newspaper that he has no memory of the events of Jan. 11. Authorities say he flew his small plane from Indiana that day, put it on autopilot and jumped out over Alabama after calling emergency officials to say the plane was having mechanical problems.
“I have no memory of any of it — not going to the airport, being in the air, nothing,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. “It’s just crazy. I’ve never even jumped out of a plane before. I sit here and stare and the walls and wonder what happened and say, ‘How did I get here?’.”
Schrenker told the newspaper his last memory is of attending his stepfather’s funeral on Dec. 9 and said he had been receiving psychiatric care and taking medication for a year.
Also on Friday, federal prosecutors in Florida asked a judge to consider additional mental evaluations of Schrenker. The move comes a day after a first evaluation was ordered to determine whether he’s fit to stand trial.
Two days after his plane crashed, Schrenker was arrested at a remote Panhandle campground where he was drifting in and out of consciousness after slashing his wrist and losing blood.
Federal authorities in Florida have charged him with intentionally crashing the plane in an apparent scheme to fake his own death and escape financial ruin. He also charged with placing false distress calls. In Indiana, he faces a host of charges related to his financial dealings.
An administrative law judge permanently revoked Schrenker’s Indiana insurance license on Friday. Although Schrenker voluntarily surrendered his Indiana licenses last summer, authorities also sought to permanently take them away.
Attempts by The Associated Press to reach Schrenker at the jail and through the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office were not successful. The federal public defender’s office also did not return a telephone call.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.