Pensacola News Journal Sep 19, 2007
Published - September, 19, 2007

Ex-airman enters guilty plea
21-year-old and mother charged with stealing military equipment, ordering hit


Kris Wernowsky
kwernowsky@pnj.com

A former Air Force sergeant pleaded guilty Tuesday to 21 counts of selling stolen military equipment overseas and attempting to hire an undercover agent to kill a potential government witness.

Leonard Allen Schenk, 26, told Senior U.S. District Judge Lacey Collier that he sold stolen goods not only from Hurlburt Field near Mary Esther, where he worked as a life-support technician, but also from Eglin Air Force Base.

Before entering his guilty plea, Schenk said he was assisted by two other members of the military, whom he did not name.

"You participated with them in that?" Collier asked Schenk.

"Yes sir," Schenk replied.

To date, only Schenk and his mother, Jerri Stringer, 41, of Picayune, Miss., have been charged in connection with selling the stolen equipment, which included military night-vision goggles, aviation helmets and GPS computers.

As part of what Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Preisser called a standard plea agreement, Schenk could have his sentence reduced if he cooperates with federal investigators in other cases.

Schenk faces up to 10 years in prison on each of 10 counts of conspiracy to commit theft of government property and theft of government property, eight counts of unlawfully exporting a controlled munition and a single count of using interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder for hire.

He also faces up to 20 years in prison for solicitation to commit murder and 20 years for tampering with a witness by attempting to kill the witness.

Schenk was assigned to the 20th Special Operations Squadron at Hurlburt Field, where he repaired the same equipment he was accused of stealing.

He and his mother allegedly used eBay and PayPal accounts and a local bank account to sell the equipment to overseas buyers and to collect money from them.

Stringer's trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 1.

Sucks to be this sorry earth sack right now! After the trial is over and he is found guilty (doubt that there will be any other verdict)I hope he is given the max.

I hope they get all the creeps that were putting good peoples lives at risk. I think they should hang the guy for trying to hire someone to kill a witness.

Anybody selling a "Buff" to the Russkies?