Competency report due for accused money manager

INDIANAPOLIS | An Indiana money manager accused of trying to fake his death in a plane crash has undergone a mental evaluation to determine whether he is competent to stand trial and is now in a Tallahassee correctional facility.

A report on Marcus Schrenker's competency was expected to be sent to a federal judge by Thursday. Schrenker is a 1989 graduate of Merrillville High School.

Tallahassee Federal Detention Center spokeswoman Edith Barefoot said Schrenker was moved to that facility Tuesday, more than a month after he was sent to Miami for an assessment of his competency to stand trial in a Florida federal court.

Schrenker, 38, was arrested at a Tallahassee, Fla., campground on Jan. 13, two days after authorities say he put his plane on autopilot and jumped out over Alabama to flee personal and financial problems. The plane crashed about 200 miles away in Florida, where he faces federal charges stemming from the crash.

He is accused of bilking investors of hundreds of thousands of dollars and faces felony charges tied to his financial dealings in Indiana. He also is named in more than a half-dozen lawsuits and has lost millions of dollars in legal judgments.

Schrenker has claimed he was under psychiatric care and on medication for more than a year before the plane crash. He said he had been mentally incompetent due to stress and a prescription drug problem. He has denied trying to fake his own death or evade authorities.

Indiana authorities have succeeded in placing the assets of Schrenker and his estranged wife, Michelle, who filed for divorce Dec. 30, in a court-controlled receivership.

Schrenker's trial on the Florida charges is scheduled for April 13, but defense attorneys this week requested it be delayed until after May 4.