Federal prosecutors are calling for a 28-year prison sentence for former Oak Park resident Heather Mack, who pleaded guilty for conspiring to kill her mother and stuffing the woman into a suitcase, according to the Associated Press.
“[The recommend sentence] is warranted and sufficient, but not greater than necessary to serve a just and appropriate punishment for Mack’s heinous crime,” prosecutors said in a filing.
Mack was convicted as an accessory to Sheila von Wiese-Mack’s murder along with her former boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer. Mack’s defense lawyers are seeking a minimum sentence of only 15 years in prison.
According to the Associated Press, the government is negotiating five years of supervised release for Mack, a $250,000 fine and restitution of $262,708. The murder, which prosecutors said was planned for months, was intended for Mack and Schaefer to gain access to the proceeds of von Wiese-Mack’s $1.5 million estate, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Prosecutors stated in a filing that the murder was Mack’s idea. Schaefer said Mack offered him $50,000 to find someone to murder her mother, according to the filing.
Mack lived with her mother in Oak Park, where police said they were called to their house 86 times in 10 years prior to the murder. She served seven years of a 10-year prison sentence in Indonesia, which her lawyers argue should count toward her new sentence.
She would also get credit for more than two years spent in custody in Chicago, according to the Associated Press. The plea agreement, which calls for a sentence of no more than 28 years, would also drop two other charges against Mack, according to the Associated Press.
Her daughter, Stella, born in 2015, was placed in custody of a relative after Mack was arrested in the United States in 2021 following deportation. Schaefer, convicted of murder, is still serving his 18-year sentence in Indonesia.
Mack is set to be sentenced during a hearing underway Wednesday in Chicago, according to AP.
This story has been updated to include the date of Mack’s sentencing.