Pilot spent time in Porter County Jail

Federal authorities charged a former Merrillville resident with faking a distress call from the air and intentionally wrecking his plane, while details of his capture and local criminal history came to light Wednesday.

Marcus Schrenker, 38, remains in the hospital after being picked up this week in Quincy, Fla., after bailing out of his small plane and allowing it to crash in an alleged attempt to fake his death to avoid legal and personal problems, said Scott Wilson, senior inspector with the U.S. Marshal Service in the northern district of Florida.

The investment manager was barely conscious and muttered the word "die" when federal agents found him bleeding from a slashed wrist, an investigator said Wednesday.

MORE: Read more about former Merrillville resident Marcus Schrenker

Wilson said he expects Schrenker to be taken into federal custody upon his release from the hospital, but he still was awaiting confirmation on who would get first crack at the case. An Indiana judge ordered Schrenker arrested Tuesday on financial fraud charges for allegedly giving financial advice and making business deals with an expired state license.

His arrest in Florida though was not his first. He spent a short time in the Porter County jail 17 years ago after pleading guilty in a jewelry theft case.

Schrenker, however, succeeded in having the conviction set aside in 2000 on a legal technicality and prosecutors opted not to refile the charge, according court records.

Schrenker was 19 and living along County Line Road in Portage when he was charged on Aug. 21, 1990, with a felony count of receiving stolen property, according to court records.

The charge was filed a month after June Luebcke told police someone had stolen a diamond tennis bracelet, a diamond "V" ring and a cluster diamond ring from her home. The total value of the jewelry exceeded $4,500.

After contacting local coin and jewelry stores, police learned Schrenker sold the jewelry for $518 to BJ's Coins on U.S. 6 in Portage, according to the criminal file.

Schrenker reportedly confessed to selling the jewelry, but said he received the items from a 14-year-old Merrillville boy and did not initially realize they had been stolen. The boy confessed to stealing the jewelry, according to the file, but said Schrenker and another male were with him at the time of the theft.

Schrenker, who was initially represented by defense attorney Larry Rogers and later by attorney Gary Germann, pleaded guilty on Jan. 30, 1992, to a reduced misdemeanor charge of conversion, according to the court docket.

He was sentenced to 16 days in jail, 14 days of community service and a year of probation.

Adult Probation Officer Bob Hanaway, who handled Schrenker's case, said the young man completed his probation satisfactorily in 1993.

"When I saw it in the paper, I knew exactly who it was," Hanaway said.

The case stuck out in his mind because Schrenker's father had been superintendent of the Merrillville schools.

Crown Point resident Nancy Phillips, who graduated with Schrenker in 1989 from Merrillville High School, struggled Wednesday to reconcile the person she knew with the man once targeted in a multistate manhunt.

"I can't say too much bad about him," Phillips said. "For the most part, he kept out of trouble."

Phillips described Schrenker as "brilliant," someone who would "always think outside the box -- which in this case, didn't work out so well for him."

"He would be the kind of guy who we would've voted most likely to succeed. I wonder what went on in his world over the last 15, 20 years, that would make him go from that guy most likely to succeed, to someone who ends up running from the law."

Times staff writers Joyce Russell and Christine Kraly and the Associated Press contributed to this report.