MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — A Martinsburg man convicted in a plot to desert the U.S. Coast Guard by faking his own death was sentenced last week in U.S. District Court to five years of probation.
Larry Shelby was also ordered to pay nearly $51,000 in restitution at his sentencing hearing in Martinsburg on Wednesday.
Shelby pleaded guilty in August to one count of aiding and abetting a hoax causing the Coast Guard to render unnecessary aid.
Shelby’s wife, Karen Shelby, who pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement, was sentenced to serve 10 months in prison.
Following the prison sentence, she is to be placed on three years of supervised release and must pay $30,000 in restitution.
According to The Herald Mail, the U.S. Coast Guard spent more than $100,000 looking for Larry Shelby after prosecutors say Karen Shelby told authorities that her husband was missing and that she was unaware of his location or whether he was alive.
Prosecutors claimed that the couple conspired to fabricate Larry Shelby’s death by abandoning his vehicle, writing suicide notes, concealing his identity and isolating him in a remote cabin in West Virginia.
At the time, Shelby was a noncommissioned officer.