Lawyers for Heather Mack have asked a federal judge in Chicago to impose the minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and grant her credit for nearly 10 years already spent behind bars for her role in the headline-making murder of her mother, whose bludgeoned body was found stuffed in a suitcase in the Bali resort where they’d been vacationing a decade ago.
With good-time credit, the sentence requested by Mack’s defense team would likely mean she would spend only about three more years in prison for Sheila von Wiese Mack’s gruesome 2014 slaying, which sparked international media attention and led police on a trail that began in suburban Chicago.
In asking for leniency, Mack’s attorneys, Michael Leonard and Jeffrey Steinback, wrote in their 37-page filing that she suffered abuse at the hands of her mother and father at a young age, and later was physically abused and mentally manipulated by her boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, who was convicted of beating von Weise Mack to death with a heavy fruit bowl stand.
Mack’s attorneys acknowledged, however, that the abuse between Mack and her mother often went both ways, as documented in dozens of incidents, some involving police intervention, over the years leading up to the slaying.
“Ms. Mack painfully regrets the way that she treated her own mother, and of course regrets and is extraordinarily remorseful for her own pivotal role in Ms. von Weise’s murder,” the defense filing stated.
They wrote that Mack intends to make her remorse “clear” to U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly in her own words at her Jan. 17 sentencing.
Mack’s attorneys also wrote that incarcerating Mack for a lengthy period of time would not only needlessly cost taxpayers millions of dollars, but also keep her from developing a strong bond with her young daughter, Stella, who was born while Mack was serving time in Indonesia and now being raised by a relative.
“A limited sentence of incarceration for Ms. Mack will go a long way toward ensuring that Stella is not collaterally damaged,” the attorneys wrote, adding that imposing conditions such as house arrest instead of prison would allow mother and daughter “to live and grow together.”
Mack, 28, pleaded guilty last year to one count of conspiracy to kill a U.S. citizen on foreign soil.
While Mack is eligible for a life sentence, the written plea agreement includes a provision saying that Mack could not withdraw her plea if Kennelly agrees to sentence her to 28 years in prison or less. Kennelly is not obligated to go along with that; if he goes above a 28-year sentence, Mack could withdraw her guilty plea.
Prosecutors are slated to file their own sentencing request later this week.
One of the key disputes will be whether Mack should get credit for the time served in Indonesia. Prosecutors have disagreed, arguing that 28 years is appropriate regardless of the foreign conviction.
Mack was convicted in 2015 of helping Schaefer with the murder and served about seven years in prison, only to be arrested by the FBI when she landed at O’Hare International Airport in 2021 on a federal indictment that had been filed under seal while she was overseas.
Also charged with the same counts was Schaefer, who is still in prison in Bali.
Mack’s plea agreement does not include any requirement for her to cooperate and testify against Schaefer.
The allegations in von Wiese-Mack’s slaying are well known by now. Authorities alleged Mack conspired with Schaefer to kill her mother in order to gain access to a $1.5 million trust fund set up after her father’s death. Mack was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Indonesia for the crime but released early for good behavior.
In pleading guilty, Mack admitted to a gruesome set of facts outlined in a lengthy plea agreement. Mack flew Schaefer to Bali using her mother’s credit card, and they texted each other repeatedly about their plan, right up until Mack and her mother were alone in their hotel room.
“i need your help,” Mack texted Schaefer, according to the plea agreement. “you could just put your hand over her and i could grab her body.”
“must knock her out,” Schaefer replied. “I’m finding something right now … I’ll do it.”
Not long afterward, Schaefer entered the hotel room and beat von Wiese-Mack to death with the metal handle of a fruit bowl. An autopsy determined she suffered multiple facial and skull fractures and also had defensive injuries, the plea stated.
Together, Schaefer and Mack put the body in a suitcase, put the suitcase in the trunk of a taxi at the hotel. They tried to get away in the taxi, but the driver wouldn’t accept their fare; instead, they left the cab and abandoned the suitcase inside.
Mack has been held without bond at the Metropolitan Correctional Center since she was arrested by the FBI in November 2021 as she left a Delta Air Lines flight at O’Hare’s Terminal 5.
Schaefer, who admitted to fatally beating von Wiese-Mack, was sentenced to 18 years.
Federal prosecutors in Chicago had previously charged Schaefer’s cousin, Robert Bibbs, with helping in the murder plot. The FBI learned of Bibbs’ involvement after analyzing text messages found on Schaefer’s phone.
Bibbs, 33, is serving a nine-year prison sentence in Michigan for coaching the defendants on how to carry out the murder in return for a share of the anticipated multimillion-dollar estate. He is eligible for parole in 2025.
Mack’s daughter, now 7, has been placed with a relative in the U.S. after a lengthy and bitter custody battle in Cook County Circuit Court.