An Illinois woman who plotted to murder her mother in Bali in 2014 has been sentenced to 26 years in federal prison—with no credit for the seven years she served in an Indonesian prison. Heather Mack, 28, was arrested as soon as she returned to the US in 2021 and has been in custody since then. US District Judge Matthew Kennelly described the murder of Sheila von Wiese-Mack as a "brutal and premeditated crime" when he handed down the sentence, CBS News reports. Mack and then-boyfriend Tommy Schaefer were found guilty of murder by an Indonesian court in 2015. After Schaefer beat Mack's mother to death, they stuffed the woman's body into a small suitcase.
Mack pleaded guilty last year to one count of conspiracy to kill a US national. At Wednesday's sentencing hearing, prosecutors said the murder was "vicious and brutal." They said Mack and Schaefer plotted to kill the 62-year-old so they could access more than $1 million from her estate. Schaefer will face arrest when he is deported to the US after finishing his 18-year sentence in Indonesia. Prosecutors had sought a 28-year sentence for Mack, the AP reports. Her lawyers argued that 15 years would be more appropriate, with credit for time served in Indonesia.
At Wednesday's hearing, Bill Weise, Mack's uncle, urged the judge to give her the maximum sentence. "If it were up to me, Heather would spend the rest of her life behind bars," he said. Mack's 8-year-old daughter Stella was born while she was in prison. Mack's cousin Lisa Hellman is the girl's court-appointed legal guardian. Mack's lawyers argued Wednesday that a long sentence would further damage her relationship with her daughter. Hellman said a therapist told Stella what happened to her grandmother and she no longer wants to speak to her mother, CBS reports. (More Heather Mack stories.)
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