Marcus Schrenker to plead guilty in Fla. plane crash

PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) - Attorneys say an Indiana money manager will plead guilty to charges of crashing an airplane near a Florida Panhandle neighborhood in a botched attempt to fake his own death.

Marcus Schrenker has a change of plea hearing in federal court in Pensacola on Friday and the public defender’s office says he’ll plead guilty.

His trial on charges of intentionally crashing the plane and placing false distress calls had been scheduled for Monday.

Prosecutors say Schrenker fled Indiana in the single-engine plane in January to escape financial ruin and a crumbling marriage. He parachuted out over Alabama, leaving it on autopilot until it ran out of fuel and crashed. No one was hurt.

He rode a motorcycle he had stashed nearby to a campground where federal marshals found him.