A Chicago-area woman who conspired to kill her mother so she and her boyfriend could steal more than $1 million should be imprisoned for decades, authorities say.
This week, federal prosecutors asked a court to sentence Heather Mack to 28 years behind bars for the role she played in the murder of her mom, 62-year-old Sheila Von Wiese-Mack, at a luxury resort in Bali a decade ago, the Associated Press reports.
Mack, now 28, pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to kill a United States national in connection with the slaying. As part of the plea agreement, Mack confessed to plotting the 2014 murder with her then-boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer.
Mack used her mother’s credit card to book a flight for Schaefer to Bali, where he brutally beat Wiese-Mack with a fruit bowl. Schaefer and Mack then hid the victim’s body in a suitcase and attempted to discard it in a taxi before fleeing.
“The murder of Von Wiese at the hands of the defendant and Schaefer was vicious,” prosecutors wrote in the sentencing memorandum, according to CBS News.
“The evidence indicates Von Wiese struggled to stay alive, meaning that in the last moments of her life she realized that her daughter, and only child, was responsible for her death. Von Wiese had been worried that Mack would one day kill her, and it is hard to fathom the physical and emotional pain Von Wiese endured in the final moments of her life.”
Mack’s lawyers want the judge to sentence her to 15 years, the legal minimum, and with credit for 7 years already spent in an Indonesian prison. Defense attorneys argued a longer sentence “would clearly be a waste of public resources” and would harm Mack’s relationship with her young daughter, who she birthed while behind bars in Indonesia, according to CBS News.
Attorneys for Mack also argued that their client was abused by her parents and Schaefer, but acknowledged that Mack also contributed to the toxicity.
In 2014, Mack began dating Schaefer, who was unemployed and striving to become a rapper. Mack later became pregnant and dropped out of school. That’s when von Wiese-Mack booked a trip to Bali to persuade her daughter to terminate the pregnancy.
A sentencing hearing is set for January 17.
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[Feature Photo: Heather Mack of Chicago, Ill., carries her baby daughter inside a cell at the Denpasar District Court before her verdict at her trial in Bali, Indonesia, Tuesday, April 21, 2015. The Denpasar District Court sentenced Tommy Schaefer to 18 years in prison and Mack to 10 years for intentionally killing Sheila von Wiese-Mack while vacationing last August. The body was found in a suitcase inside the trunk of a taxi at the St. Regis Bali Resort. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)]
