Heather Mack, a former Oak Park resident who plead guilty to conspiring to kill her mother, is asking for a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison.
Mack was convicted as an accessory to Sheila von Wiese-Mack’s murder in 2014 in Bali, Indonesia, according to ABC7Chicago, after helping her boyfriend kill and stuff the woman into a suitcase.
The former Oak Parker’s lawyers are asking U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly for a sentence of eight years in prison, counting the seven years she already spent in Indonesia as part of the minimum 15-year sentence, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
That sentence, if granted, would mean Mack stays in prison until 2028. It’s unclear, however, if Kennelly will give Mack credit for the years she spent in Indonesian prison, according to Chicago Sun-Times. Her former boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, who contributed to the murder, was held in the same prison.
Prosecutors are expected to make a sentencing recommendation Wednesday.
The murder is thought to have been orchestrated by Mack and Schaefer so that they and Schaefer’s cousin could acquire the proceeds of von Wiese-Mack’s $1.5 million estate, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Michael Leonard, Mack’s lawyer, said Mack witnessed her father as an aggressor of domestic violence and eventually died in front of her, according to the newspaper. After his death, Mack wanted to return home from their trip in Greece, but her mother refused, Leonard said in the article.
Oak Park police were called to the Mack house 86 times in 10 years prior to the murder, according to the article. The mother accused Mack of biting and punching her. Schaefer also abused Mack, Leonard claims.
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 von Wiese-Mack’s murder, Leonard wrote in a memo.
Schaefer and Mack were sentenced to 18 years and 10 years respectively in Indonesia for the murder, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. During the 2015 trial, Mack gave birth to their daughter, Stella.
Since November 2021, Mack has been held in the Metropolitan Correctional Center, Chicago, according to ABC7Chicago.