Posted on 01/17/2024 6:44:32 PM PST by Red Badger
An American woman who pleaded guilty to helping kill her own mother and stuffing the body in a suitcase during a luxury vacation in Bali is scheduled to be sentenced in a hearing underway Wednesday in Chicago.
Federal prosecutors have recommended a 28-year prison sentence for Heather Mack, which is considerably more time behind bars than defense lawyers are expected to request when she is sentenced for conspiring to kill Sheila von Wiese-Mack in 2014.
The government also wants the 28-year-old Mack to get five years of supervised release, a $250,000 fine and restitution of $262,708. In a filing last week, prosecutors said the recommended sentence “is warranted and sufficient, but not greater than necessary to serve a just and appropriate punishment for Mack’s heinous crime.”
The sentencing hearing began Wednesday morning with testimony from Bill Wiese, Wiese-Mack’s brother and Mack’s uncle. He asked Judge Matthew Kennelly to impose the maximum sentence possible, saying Mack has ne ver shown remorse.
“If it were up to me, Heather would spend the rest of her life behind bars,” Wiese said. Mack, who wore an orange jumpsuit, orange slip-on shoes and glasses, remained mostly impassive as her uncle spoke, occasionally looking at attendees and giving small smiles to some.
Mack pleaded guilty last June to one count of conspiring to kill von Wiese-Mack with her then-boyfriend to gain access to a $1.5 million trust fund. Prosecutors have said Mack, then 18 and pregnant, covered her mother’s mouth while Tommy Schaefer bludgeoned Wiese-Mack with a fruit bowl in a hotel room.
Prosecutors have said Mack and Schaefer had planned the killing for months, and that video evidence showed Mack and Schaefer trying to get the small suitcase containing Wiese-Mack’s body into an Indonesian taxicab.
Mack, who lived with her mother in suburban Chicago’s Oak Park, served seven years of her 10-year Indonesian sentence for her 2015 conviction of being an accessory to Wiese-Mack’s murder. She was deported in 2021 and U.S. agents arrested her on her arrival at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
Mack’s then-6-year-old daughter was with her when she was arrested. The girl was placed with a relative after a custody fight.
Mack’s lawyers are seeking a 15-year prison term, but with credit for her seven years in the Indonesian prison. She will automatically get credit for the more than two years she has spent in custody in Chicago.
“For the taxpayers to incur the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars to incarcerate Ms. Mack for an extended period of time within the BOP is particularly unnecessary,” attorney Michael Leonard said in a recent court filing, referring to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
The plea agreement calls for a sentence of no more than 28 years and for two other charges against Mack to be dropped. Schaefer was convicted of murder and he is serving an 18-year sentence in Indonesia. He is charged in the same U.S. indictment. His mother, Kia Walker, was in the courtroom Wednesday for Mack’s sentencing.
Carrion Luggage UPDATE!......................
Do I understand correctly that she is being prosecuted in the US for a crime she committed in another country, for which she was tried, found guilty, and imprisoned?
How’s that work?
Are indonesians retarded for just giving her a 10-year sentence for this murder? Or are women just less valued in Muslim societies?
Would you prefer to do 20 years in a U.S. prison or ten years in an Indonesian prison?
The conspiracy and fraud took place in the U.S. and the feds will tag you for that.
In Indonesia, I’d expect that both her and her boyfriend would have just been executed.
You have, in effect, incurred two debts with one act.
Sometimes the place of death will subordinate their claim on you to the place of citizenship but if you show up in their area later they will want a piece of you.
People don't tend to like murder.
Works pretty good, I’d say...................
It’s an American crime to murder an American wherever.
England can prosecute you for killing an Englishman etc.
It’s between 2 Americans. Why would Indonesia care? Should we care if Africans kill each other in Chicago?
26 year sentence per NBC news.
Yeah. We would and you know it so why are you saying stupid things again DEMOCRAT SHILL?
“When you kill a citizen of one place in a second place both places can take a whack at you. “
Does that mean that if I kill one of those folks who entered the US without benefit of proper procedure (shall we say), the deceased’s home country can “take a whack” at me?
“It’s an American crime to murder an American wherever.”
Can you direct me to the pertinent statute? (That’s a request for information, not an expression of doubt.)
*“It’s an American crime to murder an American wherever.”*
It’s expensive to bring them here and feed them while awaiting trial. Do you think Mexico wants it’s gang bangers back?
Harmless teddy bear-you’re not so harmless.
“Do you think Mexico wants it’s gang bangers back?”
No. But I can see someone in power in the US quietly encouraging another country to request extradition of a US Citizen who “murdered” (killed in self defense) someone from that country who illegally entered the US. They might do so to discourage self defense.
However if you are a citizen of the country where the murder took place they will usually say "no" to extradition. That ends the matter as long as you stay inside the borders of that country. However travel abroad and you once more become fair game.
It never ceases to amaze me how people think they’re going to get away from the forensics safari by doing stupid, obvious things.
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